Ecological Validity

However, Rutter’s Romanian orphan study suggests that mothers are not special in the way Bolby believed. Infants displayed a range of attachment behaviour towards attachment figures other than their mothers and there isn’t any particular attachment behaviour that was exclusive to their mom. Schaffer and Emerson as well, found multiple attachments are the norm, in fact 39% of children had their main attachment to someone else than the main carer. These two findings undermine Bowlby’s theory.

Ecological models can answer many questions regarding hypotheses, ecosystem parts and their functions (Marewski & Schooler, 2011). My ecological model was very standard for my teenage years (McWhirter, 2017). I was the first of four children and lived in Ohio, growing up during the ‘60s and ‘70s. We were an average American family living in an average suburb. We all had bicycles and went on bike rides all the time. In the summer, we would ride to the swimming pool in our town. In the summer, we did the book clubs at our library and we always had something to do together with our friends (McWhirter, 2017).

If the mother is not available for that special attachment then the infant could attach to a mother-substitute, this attachment relationship is the prototype for all future relationships. Forming this special attachment is believed to build up an internal working model or to help them template for their future relationships. The internal working model can be changed as the infant develops new types of relationships to others, contact and attachments with a variety of people can lead to a fully developed internal working model. The internal working model is the vital part of forming

Harlow gathered 16 rhesus monkeys, placing some with a cloth covered monkey that did not produce food, and some with a wired monkey that dispensed food. With this presence, it was found that the newborns didn’t die as they had the cloth to cuddle. It was found that the monkeys would rather cuddle the cloth covered monkey rather than the wired one which produced food, just to establish a sense of contact comfort, which was much more important for the attachment of the monkeys. Harlow also followed monkeys which had been deprived of a ‘real’ mother at birth and found the wire mother reared monkeys were dysfunctional but those with the cloth covered one didn’t develop normal social

Harry Harlow 's research on monkey 's support 's Bowlby 's theory of attachment as he investigated ‘the nature of human love and affection ' (Cherry, 2016) through monkeys. This shows Harlow 's experiments demonstrated the importance of early attachments, emotional bonds and how attachment increases a healthy development. Harlow 's experiment consisted of ‘two wired surrogate mothers and an infant monkey separated from their mother hours after birth. One of the wired monkeys had a soft terrycloth around it and the other one only had food attached with to it. ' (Cherry, 2016) This was set up to find out which wired monkey the baby monkeys would be attached to more. Harlow 's study showed that ‘the

The natural experiment is seen by some as a non-experiment. It does not test an independent variable but rather analyses the variables on offer. This has the highest level of ecological validity because there are no test conditions as such.

According to the Harlow’s monkey experiment showing to us, that how the attached our relationship as the humans between an infants and parents. This experiment teach us to how healthy relationship parents needs to develop and maintains with children so in the future they do not feel insecure attachment. Based on an experiment, every human being and different types of animals always need a love, comfort, warmth from every relationship. Some people can lives without foods some weeks or several months but those people are given most importance to the human psychology behaviors like thought, feelings, attitudes and values between the children and parents. For example, new born baby already have strong biologically, psychology and physically bonds

The results of human biomedical research conducted on non-human primates is not as accurate as it would be if these tests were performed on humans themselves. One reason for results not being as accurate is that even though non-human primates share “similarities with human physiological and behavioral characteristics.”(60) with this in consideration we must remember these similarities do not mean that non-human primates are the same as humans. Even though humans and primates DNS is “85% to 95%”(CITE) similar there is still 5% to 15% that is different. This biological difference is one of the factors that adds to the ability that “we cannot derive final and conclusive results from animal and non-human primate experimentation.” (Quigley, 656) If it is scientifically proven that no concrete results can be derived from testing on non-human primates then this research is close to meaningless.

In the mid 1900s, Harry Harlow took investigated a new field of research and began studying the components between infant-mother love, especially the importance of contact comfort. Harlow was interested in manipulating the mother figure of infants to identify the root of bonds and love; but since this could easily become unethical to study with humans, he used rhesus monkeys. Based on Freud’s hypothesis, one would think that the importance of receiving milk would be the primary root of a bond between the infant and the mother, but Harlow found that contact comfort was incredibly important, even more so than receiving food (Hock, 2013).

Infant attachment is the first relationship a child experiences and is crucial to the child’s survival (BOOK). A mother’s response to her child will yield either a secure bond or insecurity with the infant. Parents who respond “more sensitively and responsively to the child’s distress” establish a secure bond faster than “parents of insecure children”. (Attachment and Emotion, page 475) The quality of the attachment has “profound implications for the child’s feelings of security and capacity to form trusting relationships” (Book). Simply stated, a positive early attachment will likely yield positive physical, socio-emotional, and cognitive development for the child. (BOOK)

Precise information is derived from these observations due to the scientific fact that infant monkeys and human infants “exhibit no fundamental differences“. Harlow’s research primarily revolved around the study of infant rhesus monkeys and their level of desire to bond with surrogate mother monkeys. Two surrogate mothers were equally available to each baby monkey. Observation of tolerance was recorded as each monkey passably chose between a welded-wire surrogate mother and a surrogate mother covered with terry cloth. Results showed that an equal number of monkeys fed from each of the surrogate mothers, however, they spent more time with the cloth mother as they would climb and cling to her. These results significantly disclose the resemblance between humans and monkeys because human infants also covet soft and cuddly toys, blankets, apparel, stuffed animals, etc.

The studies revealed that the monkeys chose to feed from the uncomfortable wire support first then went on to cling to the comfortable and warm cloth covered support, this revealed that contact comfort was more important than just being fed. These monkeys went onto becoming severely debilitated in their social relationships and also made incapable parents. Bowlby also believed that another important aspect in the development of child rearing is the importance of timing. There is a critical period of bonding between mother and baby which must take place at 6-12 hours after the birth; the contact must take place within that time otherwise attachment risks failure. This belief comes from the ethologists influence of imprinting with young animals primarily goslings.

In his drunken self-conscience the truth was released. He began to fathom the underlying details that he couldn’t pick up from his time with the monkeys earlier. Still trying to hold on to thoughts put into his mind, “He mistook each infant monkey for a beloved soul. In that way the nightmare was confusing” (Millet 314). As you can see it is still in his conception not to believe himself that what he was doing was wrong. This is a battle between his self-conscience and what he was taught to believe. Finally, actuality kicked in, “He saw each infant in the heart of its mother, precious, unique, held so close because the mother was willing to die for it.” (314). What Harlow saw was the absolute certainty of what his inner being was desperately attempting to communicate to him. It was that he was wrong. The test subjects before him were real living things just like himself.

The concept of infant-mother attachment is as important to the child as the birth itself. The effect this relationship has on a child shall affect that child for its entire life. A secure attachment to the mother or a primary caregiver is imperative for a child’s development. Ainsworth’s study shows that a mother is responsive to her infant’s behavioral cues which will develop into a strong infant-mother attachment. This will result in a child who can easily, without stress, be separated from his mother and without any anxiety. Of course the study shows a child with a weak infant-mother relationship will lead to mistrust, anxiety, and will never really be that close with the mother. Without the

By responding with care and comfort, this enables for an “attachment bond” to form between the infant and caregiver, most commonly the mother (White et al., 2013). Following on from Bowlby’s theory, Mary Ainsworth investigated the theory of attachment through observing the reactions of infants when their mothers left them alone with strangers. The investigation was named as the “Ainsworth’s strange situation assessment” (White et al., 2013). It was discovered through this investigation that infants who had secure attachments with their mothers were upset when separated and were easily soothed when the mother returns. This investigation implies that infants with secure attachment to their mothers show signs of normal social development.