Book Reading #23: Opening Skinner's Box

Chapter 6
Summary
This chapter is about Harry Harlow and the research he did with rhesus macaque monkeys to explore the psychology of attachment. Slater begins by telling of Harlow’s younger years and his lack of love growing up. Then Slater discusses the different studies he did.

In his early studies he took infant monkeys from their mothers and observed what they did with terry cloth towels, wire-framed monkey moms with milk and wire-framed monkey moms covered with soft cloth. What he observed was that the monkeys would interact with the soft surrogate mother and favor it over the wire-framed one that fed them. In later studies Harlow even had the surrogate mothers hit them with cold water or stab them. The babies still came back.

This research made Harlow believe that motherhood was “obsolete.” However, he then noticed that the monkeys with surrogate mothers could not interact properly with other monkeys. They would hurt themselves and others. Later in life Harlow did other research with the monkeys, creating a “rape rack” and isolation chambers.

The chapter concludes with Slater discussing animal treatment and how she feels about where the line should be drawn.

Discussion
This was one of my least favorite chapters. While some of Harlow’s findings were interesting (mainly the earlier ones before the stabbing started), I did not enjoy reading about all the terrible things he did to the monkeys and how it got worse over the years. I learned about his early studies in my psychology class, but nothing was ever said about Harlow’s later research. Slater does present an interesting point, though. I’m not exactly sure where the line should be drawn in regards to animals and their treatment. But I do feel that Harlow’s discoveries do not fully justify how he treated the monkeys, especially in his later studies after he saw what was happening to them.