Compare and contrast how skinner and Harlow have used non-human animals in behavioural research - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages Watson disagreed with the theory that psychology should only be based on things that can be observed; he believed that behaviour also plays a very important role
Harry Harlow an American psychologist explored whether infants were close to their mothers because of the fact that they provide them with food, or more attached to someone who provides them with a soft touch. Normally the mother would provide her children with both food and caring for them, however in this study two different groups were formed, and one group of proxy monkeys provided them with food and the other group which was made of sponge and had a bulb attached to them which would provide the baby monkeys with the sense of warmth. Due to the conflict of ethics this sort of experiment could not be carried out on humans thus Harlow carried out this experiment on monkeys.
The problem of using monkeys instead of animals is that one can never be too certain about the extent to which the results shown by the monkeys can be applied to humans. Only because monkeys show a similar behaviour to humans it does not always mean humans will show the same results. (Custance D., 2012)
Burrhus Fredric Skinner portrayed immense interest in looking into the natural environment and in working out mechanical tools. Skinner’s academic career was influenced by many things. The influence diverged from the problem of consequences of behaviour. Skinner was committed to the theme of behaviourism and wanted to form a psychological study based on data that could be observed. Skinner carried out his experiments on rats that would be running in mazes. (Toates F., 2012)
Firstly both the psychologists carried out research on non human animals. Skinner conducted his research on rats that would be running in mazes. Crossing black alleys the rat would find food in the end. This was based on the idea of consequence of ...Download file to see next pagesRead More