FILAMER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Graduate School
Roxas Avenue, Roxas City (5800)
Master of Arts in Teaching
Social Science 412: Understanding Human Behavior

Reporter: Jufel Anne B. Barredo & Jan April Panaligan

Professor: Dr. Vima Olivares

Harry Harlow’s
Contact Comfort Theory

Biography
 Harry Frederick Harlow was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-
separation and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated
the importance of care- giving and companionship in social and cognitive
development.
Timeline
• BORN – October 31, 1905 in Fairfield
• DIED- December 6, 1981 in Tucson
• staff at the University of Wisconsin (Madison). EDUCATION- Stanford
college (BA and Phd) and Reed college
• AWARDS – National medal of science for biological science (1967)
• WORKED- psychology

Harlow’s Contact Comfort Theory

 American psychologist Harry Harlow conducted a number of experiments to

investigate the factors influencing the development of attachment by infant rhesus
monkeys to their mothers (1958).
 The role of breastfeeding in infant-mother attachment.
WHAT WAS THE AIM?
 To find out whether provision of food or contact is more important in the formation
of infant-mother attachment.
PARTICIPANTS & PROCEDURE
 8 infant rhesus monkeys separated from mothers at birth.
 Monkeys individually reared in cages, each of which contained two surrogate
mothers.
PROCEDURE
 Surrogate mothers made of wire mesh, and roughly the same size and shape as real
monkey mothers. One surrogate mother covered in terry-towelling cloth, and other
left uncovered.
  A feeding bottle was attached to one of the surrogates in the same area where a
breast would be for a real mother.
 Half of the animals were in cages with feeding bottle on the wire surrogate and the
other half were in cages with the feeding bottle on the cloth surrogate.
HARLOW’S HYPOTHESIS
 If an infant’s attachment to its mother was based primarily on feeding, the infant
monkeys should have preferred and become attached to whichever surrogate mother
had the bottle.
RESULTS 
 Regardless of which surrogate provided the nourishment, the infant monkeys spent
more time with the cloth surrogate than the wire surrogate.
 By the age of about three weeks, all of the monkeys were spending around 15 hours a
day in contact with the cloth surrogate. No animal spent more than 1-2 hours in any
24- hour period on the wire surrogate.
 To test whether the monkeys had preference for the cloth surrogate, Harlow created a
stressful condition. Various frightening objects were placed repeatedly in the
monkey’s cages.
 Harlow found that the majority of infant monkeys sought first contact with the cloth
surrogate, regardless of whether or not it had the feed bottle.
CONCLUSION 
 Harlow concluded that ‘contact comfort’ (provided by the softness of the cloth
covering) was more important than feeding in the formation of an infant rhesus
monkey’s attachment to its mother.
RELEVANCE OF HARRY HARLOW’S THEORY
 His theory hinged on the universal need for contact. Harlow's famous wire/cloth
"mother" monkey studies demonstrated that the need for affection created a stronger
bond between mother and infant than did physical needs (food).
 His theory hinged on the universal need for contact. Harlow's famous wire/cloth
"mother" monkey studies demonstrated that the need for affection created a stronger
bond between mother and infant than did physical needs (food).
 Harlow's work instead demonstrated the absolute importance of developing safe,
secure, and supportive emotional bonds with caregivers during early childhood.
  Infants depend on their caregivers for more than just their physical needs – meeting
emotional needs is crucial for attachment. 
 Maternal Deprivation- Monkeys that did not receive affection early in life often
experienced psychological problems later on (such as misdirected aggression or
abusive mothers).
REFERENCES
 https://www.slideshare.net/janifu1/psychology-harlows-experiments-on-attachment-
in-monkeys-by-janice-fung
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow