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Monkey business ..

Shanghai Expat Forum Index » Hot Topics Forums » Dating Singles, and Relationships

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carrol

PopStar

Joined: Oct 11, 2004
Posts: 1122
Location: East of Eden
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Posted: Nov 24, 2004 - 09:14 PM
Post subject: Monkey business ..

Food for thought ..
"A series of experiments with infant monkeys (Harlow & Harlow, 1969) has shown that attachment is not a simple reaction to internal drives such as hunger. In these experiments, young monkeys were separated from their mother shortly after birth. After that, they were offered two dolls which were thought of as surrogates to the mother. The first doll had a body of wire mesh. The second doll had a body of terry cloth and foam rubber. Both of these dolls could be made a source of food by attaching a milk bottle to its chest. The objective of the experiment was to see what would determine to which doll the monkey would cling: the soft contact of the cloth or the source of food. It turned out that the monkeys would cling to the soft-clothed doll, irrespective of whether it provided food or not. The monkeys were also more exploring when the soft-cloth doll was near. Apparently, the doll provided them with a sense of security. However, the passive doll was not an adequate alternative for a real mother. Infant monkeys which were raised without contact with other monkeys showed abnormal behaviour in social situations. They were either very fearful of other monkeys or responded with unprovoked aggression when they encountered other monkeys. They also showed abnormal sexual responses. Female monkeys who were raised in isolation often neglected or abused their infants. This abnormal behaviour is thought to demonstrate that a bond with the mother is necessary for further social development".

Question - does one's relationship with one's mother affect the course of one's life?

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Carrol

IamME

Rocker

Joined: May 23, 2004
Posts: 625
Location: Shanghai
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Posted: Nov 25, 2004 - 04:10 AM

Surely one's relationship with everything effects the course of one's life, particularly the parents.

Magnolia
Board Biatch

Joined: June 01, 2004
Posts: 31098

Posted: Nov 25, 2004 - 10:33 AM

I agree that relationships with parents, guardians, relatives, friends and acquaintences do affect the paths one choses in life, the type of person one becomes and the core value system that makes the individual to a large extent. Other factors such as enviornment, education, and the innate essense of the individual also come into play.

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JeffG

Raver

Joined: July 15, 2004
Posts: 410
Location: don't know ... don't care
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Posted: Nov 26, 2004 - 10:42 AM

Um ... Harlow and Harlow ... these guys come from a so called branch of science that saw that rotating chickens eyes 180 degrees was good because you could learn stuff .... NO ....um yes lets pounder their research ... NOT

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Orca

Reacher

Joined: Aug 31, 2004
Posts: 293

Status: Offline

Posted: Nov 26, 2004 - 08:02 PM

There is no definitiv reasearch or school of thought that can clearly answer your query without debate or conflict. Some questions just don't have a clear and 100% correct answer.