Psychology Atlas

How The Mind Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme

Switch Atlas

Psychologist

Harry Harlow

Also Known As Born Harry Frederick Israel; changed his surname to Harlow after his 1930 PhD, reportedly at Lewis Terman's prompting out of concern over antisemitic bias against a Jewish-sounding surname.
Developmental Psychology

Harry Harlow (1905-1981) was an American comparative and experimental psychologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison whose rhesus monkey experiments on maternal separation and social isolation, beginning in the 1950s, demonstrated that contact comfort rather than mere feeding was central to infant attachment, directly challenging behaviorist orthodoxy. His later, more severe isolation work became one of the most ethically criticized bodies of research in 20th-century psychology.

Facts
Birth Date
1905-10-31 1
Birth Year
1905 1
Death Date
1981-12-06 1
Death Year
1981 1
Birthplace
Fairfield, Iowa, U.S. 1
Death Place
Tucson, Arizona, U.S. 1
Nationality / Culture
American 1
Defining Contribution
Demonstrated through rhesus monkey experiments that contact comfort, not feeding, is central to infant attachment. 1
Notable Work
The Nature of Love, address to the American Psychological Association (1958) 1
Connections

In Branch

Comparative Psychology, Branches of Psychology
Source Wikipedia: Harry Harlow
Developmental Psychology, Branches of Psychology

Studies Conducted

Harlow's Rhesus Monkey Experiments, Studies and Experiments
Source Wikipedia: Harry Harlow
In the Other Atlases

Nationality

United States

Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.

Sources
1. Wikipedia: Harry Harlow
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section
    Harry Frederick Harlow (October 31, 1905 - December 6, 1981) was an American psychologist best known for his work on the effect of isolation in monkeys as funded by the Ecology Fund [HEF], the CIA, and Project MK-Ultra as a part of his studies on psychological torture techniques during the Cold War. His findings on maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys manifested the importance of caregiving and companionship to social and cognitive development.
  • Infobox: death_place
    Tucson, Arizona, U.S.
  • Monkey studies section
    Harlow first reported the results of these experiments in "The Nature of Love", the title of his address to the sixty-sixth Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association in Washington, D.C., August 31, 1958.
  • biography section
    After receiving a PhD in 1930, he changed his name from Israel to Harlow.
  • In Branch: Comparative Psychology, Biography section (Wisconsin General Test Apparatus)
    He worked with the primates at Henry Vilas Zoo, where he developed the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus (WGTA) to study learning, cognition, and memory.
Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.