Harry F. Harlow

Harry F. Harlow
Name	Harry F. Harlow
Caption	Harlow with a rhesus macaque
Birth name	Harry Frederick Harlow
Birth date	31 October 1905
Birth place	Fairfield, Iowa
Death date	6 December 1981
Death place	Tucson, Arizona
Fields	Psychology, Comparative psychology
Workplaces	University of Wisconsin–Madison
Alma mater	Stanford University (Ph.D., 1930), Reed College
Doctoral advisor	Calvin Perry Stone
Known for	Maternal deprivation, Attachment theory, Social isolation experiments
Awards	National Medal of Science (1967), Howard Crosby Warren Medal (1956)

Harry F. Harlow. Harry Frederick Harlow was an influential American psychologist best known for his pioneering and controversial experiments on maternal separation and social isolation using rhesus macaques. His work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison fundamentally challenged behaviorist doctrines, demonstrating the critical importance of affection and comfort in psychological development. Harlow's research provided an empirical foundation for attachment theory and influenced fields ranging from child psychology to animal welfare.

Early life and education

Born in Fairfield, Iowa, he was the third of four sons to Mabel Rock and Alonzo Harlow Israel. He initially pursued studies in English literature at Reed College in Portland, Oregon before transferring to Stanford University. At Stanford University, he switched his major to psychology, earning his Ph.D. in 1930 under the mentorship of Calvin Perry Stone. His early academic work was influenced by the prevailing behaviorism of the era, but he soon developed an interest in primate intelligence and learning.

Career and research

In 1930, Harlow joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he would spend his entire career. He established the Primate Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, one of the first of its kind, which became a renowned center for comparative psychology research. His early investigations focused on learning sets and problem-solving in primates, challenging notions of simple stimulus-response learning. This work earned him early recognition, including the Howard Crosby Warren Medal in 1956 from the Society of Experimental Psychologists.

Surrogate mother experiments

Harlow's most famous research involved separating infant rhesus macaques from their biological mothers and raising them with two surrogate "mothers": one made of bare wire that provided milk, and another covered in soft terrycloth that offered no nourishment. The infants overwhelmingly preferred the comforting cloth mother, spending most of their time clinging to it and only visiting the wire mother for feeding. These experiments, conducted in the 1950s and 1960s, provided dramatic evidence against drive reduction theory and established contact comfort as a primary emotional need, more fundamental than hunger.

Later work and theoretical contributions

Building on his surrogate studies, Harlow investigated the devastating effects of total social isolation on young primates, finding that even short periods caused severe and often irreversible psychological trauma. He coined the term "pit of despair" for the isolation chambers used in some experiments. His later theoretical work, often in collaboration with his wife Margaret Kuenne Harlow, emphasized the complexity of love, which he parsed into systems like maternal love, peer love, and heterosexual love. These ideas were synthesized in his 1958 American Psychological Association presidential address, "The Nature of Love."

Legacy and influence

Harlow's research had a profound impact, providing crucial experimental support for the theories of John Bowlby and the development of attachment theory in developmental psychology. His findings influenced practices in orphanages, childcare, and social work, highlighting the necessity of emotional care. Conversely, his methods sparked enduring ethical debates within the animal rights movement and led to stricter regulations governing animal experimentation. He was awarded the National Medal of Science by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967 for his contributions.

Personal life and death

Harlow married his first wife, Clara Mears, in 1932; they had two children before divorcing in 1946. He then married fellow psychologist Margaret Kuenne Harlow in 1948, with whom he had two more children and collaborated professionally until her death from cancer in 1971. Harlow himself suffered from periods of severe depression and alcoholism. He retired from the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1974 and moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he died on December 6, 1981, from Parkinson's disease.

Category:American psychologists Category:1905 births Category:1981 deaths