Research by Harry Harlow and Mary Ainsworth on Understanding Attachment - Literature review Example

Understanding Attachment Understanding Attachment Attachment is a term used to refer to the process through which relationships are created at an early age between those who give care and who are cared for (ADLER-TAPIA, 2012, p.39). Those who give care are in most cases mothers and those who obtain care are infants and the process through which a mother cares for an infant defines the kind of attachment a child follows and seeks and care giving even results in development of the infant. This means that attachment is a term used to refer to the sharing of care between the caregiver and the infant and the infant and the care giver. Two researchers who have made tremendous amount of contribution in the field of attachment and care giving are Mary Ainsworth and Harry Harlow. They have developed series of theories and have contributed heavily to help others understand the psychological ideology of attachment. Several similarities and differences between the works of these two psychologists have figured out and this paper will concentrate on the comparison between the works on the concept of attachment provided by these two psychologists. Body In the introductory paragraph it was specified that there are several similarities between the work on attachment done by Harlow and Ainsworth. The main similarity between their works is that both the psychologists proposed that attachment that is experienced by both individuals and animals are not only dependant on impression as this was believed by the psychologist Lorenz (RATHUS, 2011, p.215). Another similarity between the proposed theories of attachment of Harlow and Ainsworth is that attachment is not only a method or a route of sustain close contact between the child and the mother. These two works of psychology clearly explain and reject the previous hypothesis that attachment that takes place between human beings and animals is not simply dependant on impression and contact is not only the single reason that results in higher amount of attachment. The main difference between the works of Ainsworth and Harlow is the kind of study that these both psychologists conducted in order to devise their theory. For instance: Harlow conducted his work while focusing on the behaviors that were exhibited by rhesus monkeys in the context of providing comfort and food from a substitute mother for the rhesus monkey (WEITEN, 2011, p.342). On the other hand Ainsworth’s work focused on the attachment between human beings and it focused on how infants behaved when they were presented to a Strange Situation Protocol environment. Strange Situation Protocol (SSP) experiment is referred to an experiment that was conducted for twenty minutes and in this experiment both the infant and his/her mother are presented with a stranger individual and then the child is left alone in the care of a stranger and then the child is completely left alone without the supervision of the mother and the stranger and finally all three of the subjects are re-united (KUEHNLE, 2012, p.9). The experiment of SSP conducted by Ainsworth helped in figuring out that children feel comfortable under the presence of their mother and they participate more in exploring a situation or an environment if their mother is present and their exploratory behavior relaxes and slows down if they are under the presence of a stranger. This experiment conducted by Ainsworth reflected upon the behaviors that individuals exhibit in case of reunion and when they are separated from their loved ones and this experiment focused on the two important elements of attachment, including: separating and reuniting. These elements are not carefully studied in the work of Harlow. In comparison to Harlow’s work, Ainsworth’s work had a higher degree of complexity and Ainsworth’s work was an expansion of the works conducted by Harlow and Bowlby. Another great point added by Ainsworth to the limited amount of information of attachment is that a figure of attachments is seen as a kind of security support by the infant and this support is utilized by the infant to conduct an exploration of the things around them and the world around them in order to create more attachments. It can be deduced that the fundamental difference between the two theorists of attachment is that the work done by Ainsworth focuses upon human beings, while Harlow’s work depends on the study of animals such as monkeys. Another difference between the works of both the researchers is the method they used to create their own theories of attachment. A comparison of the works conducted by both the psychologists show that both the works were quite experimental and the methodology used by both of them is even quite similar but the means through which the methodology was enacted was quite different. Furthermore, both the works conducted have completed provided support to the theories with the assistance of evidence that was empirical in nature and it can be deduced that both of the works are quite similar to each other as both score quite high on construct validity. The main problem that can be witnessed in the work conducted by Harlow is the issue of extrapolation; this means that it is quite difficult to assess Harlow’s work in human’s context as his work was based on animals. Ainsworth work lacks the issue of extrapolation as the work conducted by her was simply based in human beings including mother, stranger and the infant as stated in her SSP experiment. The fact that Ainsworth’s work is dependant on humans and was conducted on humans increases the usability of the work and can be applied to a huge population. A major similarity that can be noted in the work of Harlow and Ainsworth is that their research clearly state that attachment can have very significant impact on individuals as their life goes on and they continue to live. Both researchers have reflected upon the importance that attachment has and impacted an individual’s behavior, psychological health and personality. This counts for another similarity between the works of the two psychologists as their theories and research have shown that attachment is of great importance for the development of the future behaviors of an individual. The works proposed by Harlow and Ainsworth believe that the connection between an infant and his/her mother is of utmost important and is fundamental for attachment. They even argued through their research that physical contact that is intimate in nature is of great importance in the attachment that is created between a mother and an infant. The main focus of the works proposed by Ainsworth and Harlow is the affection and the bond that is created between two individuals, the mother and the infant, this point increases the similarity in the content of both the researchers. The work on the concept of attachment conducted by Harlow can be seen as an inspiration for psychologists whop further worked on the psychological concept of attachment, such as Ainsworth and Bowlby (KAPLAN, 2007, p.138). Harlow’s work focused upon the importance of feeding and comfort factor in the context of rhesus monkeys and has been the research that stimulated other researchers to conduct further research on the subject of attachment. It can clearly be stated that Harlow’s work was of great importance, even more important than the work of Ainsworth as his work promoted others to conduct further research in the relevant field. Similarly, the work of Ainsworth ahs even attracted others to further study the field and clarify the misconceptions regarding the concept of attachment and the research methodology employed by Ainsworth has shown the way top other researchers so they can conduct further study. Ainsworth’s work has been so crucial that it had led to the creation of several policies regarding children education and welfare on the basis of the theory. A major difference between these two theories of attachment is the origin of the theory, Harlow’s theory became the basis of Ainsworth’s research and Harlow’s theory was independent and was not an expansion of any other theory. Ainsworth’s theory is much more complex the Harlow’s theory as it took into consideration various kinds of attachments such as secure attachment. Harlow’s theory depended not on kinds of attachments; it rather focused on the difference in one form of attachment while focusing on food and comfort. Harlow’s research showed that there were different patterns of attachments, in which different individuals were involved. For example: the affection of a mother for a child, from one peer to another and patterns of heterosexuality. Ainsworth’s study even paid emphasis to these patterns of attachment but did not recognize them as separate kinds of attachment. Thus, it can be deduced that these theories are similar in context but vary in accordance to context. Another difference was the background of these theories, Harlow’s work was based on behaviorist theorists and Ainsworth’s work was based on psychoanalytical theories and principles provided by Freud. This paper clearly emphasize on the differences between the theories of attachment produced by the study of Ainsworth and Harlow. Ainsworth work focused on human beings and Harlow’s work focused on animals, Ainsworth work was of higher complexity as it took into consideration the different forms of attachments. References ADLER-TAPIA, R. (2012). Child psychotherapy integrating developmental theory into clinical practice. New York, Springer Publishing Company. http://public.eblib.com/EBLPublic/PublicView.do?ptiID=967987. KAPLAN, H. I., SADOCK, B. J., & SADOCK, V. A. (2007). Kaplan and Sadocks synopsis of psychiatry behavioral sciences, clinical psychiatry. Baltimore [etc], Wolters Kluwer Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. KUEHNLE, K., & DROZD, L. (2012). Parenting plan evaluations: applied research for the family court. New York, N.Y., Oxford University Press. RATHUS, S. A. (2011). Childhood and adolescence: voyages in development. Belmont, Calif, Wadsworth. WEITEN, W. (2011). Psychology: themes and variations. Australia, Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Read More