It is a series of experiments conducted by American psychologist Harry Harlow in the 1960s.
These experiments explored the importance of maternal love and the effects of social isolation on animals.
In his first experiment with monkeys, Harlow left the first group of babies motherless but met their physical needs.
The second group allowed the monkey cubs to grow up with their mothers and compared the cubs at the end of the experiment.
As a result of this experiment, it was observed that monkeys growing up without a mother were clearly introverted and asocial compared to the other group.
After this experiment, Harlow conducted the "Wire Mothers" experiment. In this experiment, monkey babies: Mother monkey figures are made of wire, wood and soft cloth.
Monkey mothers made of wire and wood did not look too much like monkeys. However, when the cubs come to them, food comes. However, it is very similar to the mother monkey made of soft cloth, but it does not have any food-giving mechanism.
In this experiment, the cubs went to the wire mother only for food, other than that they preferred the cloth mother.
Harlow's experiment revealed that the mother is essential not only for nutrition but also for other needs.
Harlow later conducted another experiment to see the trust relationship between mother and offspring.
In this experiment, he designed a robot that would scare baby monkeys with sounds and movements. In this experiment, the monkeys who were afraid of the robot ran towards the mother who was wearing diapers.
Developing the experiment further, Harlow this time placed the monkeys in an unfamiliar environment with the cloth mother and watched how they would behave.
Accordingly, the monkeys ran from the diaper to the mother, and with the trust they received from her, they later began to explore this unfamiliar environment.
Monkeys left in an unfamiliar environment without a mother became frightened and aggressive.
In this case, it has been observed that a mother object, even if it is fake, pushes the monkeys to behave normally.
A significant number of the subjects died during and after Harlow's experiments. Some of these monkeys, who were later released, killed their newborns, and some of their children died due to neglect and indifference.
Because of this experiment, Harlow has been the focus of much criticism.
Harlow experiments have observed that the role of mothers in child development is not only in their physical needs, but also in their extremely important contributions to both the physical and spiritual development of children.
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