Based on your understanding of Harlow’s experiments, describe this mother’s parenting style. Be sure to include a description of Harlow’s wire mother and cloth mother in your response.
How does attachment affect exploration? Be sure to include findings from both Harlow and Ainsworth in your response.
The article itself provided little evidence of what led the woman to conclude that she was a wire mother rather than a cloth one, but based upon the experiment, it is not hard to infer. The wire mother sated every need that the baby monkeys needed biologically; food, heat, and a mother presence. However, its composition distanced it from the child, and did not provide the comforting feeling of security that the cloth did. Any child prefers the setting of a warm, plush crib to the hard wood of a floor, and the same applies for the infant chimps. Psychologically, these cloth mothers gave the babies what the wire mothers could not; a comfort and companionship similar to that of a real, living body.
Humans are no different. The woman, if to be compared to the wire mother, could give her child a place to sleep, good food to eat, and the other necessities it would need to last through infancy, but she would not have bonded enough with the child for it to associate her with security, warmth, and protection. While she is still biologically its mother, she, for whatever reason, is not giving it the psychological connection that it desires, regardless of age or health.
Attachment's effect on exploration is crucial. In Harlow's experiments, the monkeys became anxious when in a strange environment without their cloth mothers. Ainsworth found with humans that children were anxious when left in the presence of a physical stranger without their actual mother. Attachment is formed from a sense of comfort and also from a sense of survival. The mother or other caregiver provides security, food, water, and other necessities from an early age, and any creature will grow to trust what gives them what they need. They associate this caregiver with survival, and when introduced with something unfamiliar, turn to said caregiver to make sure that they can explore without coming into harm's way. When the mother or caregiver is taken away while they are presented with something foreign, they tend to react badly, as they have no one to fall back on for comfort or safety. The bond, and its strength, determines their ability to explore with and without their caregiver.