Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T00:53:44.188Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Some factors influencing the effects of temporary mother-infant separation: some experiments with rhesus monkeys

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

R. A. Hinde  and
Lynda McGinnis
R. A. Hinde*
Affiliation:
MRC Unit on the Development and Integration of Behaviour, Cambridge
Lynda McGinnis
Affiliation:
MRC Unit on the Development and Integration of Behaviour, Cambridge
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr R. A. Hinde, MRC Unit on the Development and Integration of Behaviour, Madingley, Cambridge CB3 8AA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Synopsis

Some experiments, reported in detail elsewhere, on the effects of mother–infant separation in rhesus monkeys are here reviewed and compared. They involved 4 groups – one in which mothers were removed for 13 days leaving the infant in the social group; one in which infants were removed; one in which mothers and infants were removed and separated; and one in which mothers and infants were removed but not separated. The nature of the separation experience had a profound effect on the infant's response: infants left in a familiar environment while their mothers were removed showed marked but brief ‘protest’ and then profound ‘despair’, whilst infants removed to a strange cage showed more prolonged ‘protest’. A major factor determining the effects of the separation experience in the weeks following reunion is the degree to which the mother–infant relationship has been disturbed by it. The multiplicity of factors affecting the outcome of a separation experience are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 7 , Issue 2 , May 1977 , pp. 197 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1977

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Bowlby, J. (1960). Separation anxiety. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 41, 89–113.Google ScholarPubMed
Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss, vol. 1, Attachment. The Hogarth Press: London.Google Scholar
Bowlby, J. (1973). Attachment and Loss, vol. 2, Separation Anxiety and Anger. The Hogarth Press: London.Google Scholar
Brandt, E. M., Baysinger, C. & Mitchell, G. (1972). Separation from rearing environment in mother-reared and isolation-reared rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). International Journal of Psychobiology 2, 193–204.Google Scholar
Castell, R. & Wilson, C. (1971). Influence of spatial environment on development of mother-infant interaction in pigtail monkeys. Behaviour, 39, 202–211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chappell, P. F. & Meier, G. W. (1975). Modification of the response to separation in the infant rhesus macaque through manipulation of the environment. Biological Psychiatry 10, 643–657.Google ScholarPubMed
Douglas, J. W. B. (1975). Early hospital admissions and later disturbances of behaviour and learning. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 17, 456–480.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Douglas, J. W. B. & Blomfield, J. M. (1958). Children under Five. Allen and Unwin: London.Google Scholar
Fagin, C. M. R. N. (1966). The effects of maternal attendance during hospitalization on the post-hospital behavior of young children: a comparative study. F. A. Davis (cited in Rutter, 1972).Google Scholar
Gewirtz, J. L. (1961). A learning analysis of the effects of normal stimulation, privation and deprivation on the acquisition of social motivation and attachment. In Determinants of Infant Behaviour, vol. 1 (ed. Foss, B. M.), pp. 213–290. Methuen: London.Google Scholar
Hinde, R. A. (1973). On the design of check-sheets. Primates 14(4), 393–406.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinde, R. A. (1976). The use of differences and similarities in comparative psychopathology. In Animal Models in Human Psychobiology (ed. Serban, G. & Kling, A.), pp. 187–202. Plenum Press: New York and London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinde, R. A. & Atkinson, S. (1970). Assessing the roles of social partners in maintaining mutual proximity, as exemplified by mother/infant relations in rhesus monkeys. Animal Behaviour 18, 169–176.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinde, R. A. & Davies, L. (1972 a). Removing infant rhesus from mother for 13 days compared with removing mother from infant. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 13, 227–237.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hinde, R. A. & Davies, L. (1972 b). Changes in mother-infant relationship after separation in rhesus monkeys. Nature 239, 41–42.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hinde, R. A. & Rowell, T. E. (1962). Communication by postures and facial expressions in the rhesus monkey (Macaca mulatta). Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 138(1), 1–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinde, R. A. & Spencer-Booth, Y. (1967). The effect of social companions on mother-infant relations in rhesus monkeys. In Primate Ethology (ed. Morris, D.), pp. 267–286. Weidenfeld and Nicolson: London.Google Scholar
Hinde, R. A. & Spencer-Booth, Y. (1971). Effects of brief separation from mother on rhesus monkeys. Science 173, 111–118.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hinde, R. A. & Stevenson-Hinde, J. (1976). Towards understanding relationships: dynamic stability. In Growing Points in Ethology (ed. Bateson, P. P. G. & Hinde, R. A.), pp. 451–479. Cambridge University Press: London.Google Scholar
Hinde, R. A. & White, L. (1974). The dynamics of a relationship–rhesus monkey ventro-ventral contact. Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology, 86. 8–23.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hofer, M. A. (1972). Physiological and behavioural processes in early maternal deprivation. Physiology Emotion and Psychosomatic Illness, Ciba Foundation Symposium 8 (ed. Porter, R. & Knight, J.), pp. 175–186. Elsevier: Amsterdam.Google Scholar
Howells, J. G. (1970). Fallacies in Child Care. 1. That ‘Separation’ is synonymous with ‘Deprivation’. Acta Paedopsychiatricia 37, 3–14.Google ScholarPubMed
Kaplan, J. (1970). The effects of separation and reunion on the behavior of mother and infant squirrel monkeys. Developmental Psychobiology 3 (1), 43–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaplan, J. (1972). Differences in the mother-infant relations of squirrel monkeys housed in social and restricted environments. Developmental Psychobiology 5, 43–52.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaufman, I. C. (1974). Mother/infant relations in monkeys and humans: a reply to Professor Hinde. In Ethology and Psychiatry (ed. White, N. F.), pp. 47–68. University of Toronto Press: Toronto and Buffalo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaufman, I. C. & Rosenblum, L. A. (1967). The reaction to separation in infant monkeys: anaclitic depression and conservation-withdrawal. Psychosomatic Medicine 29, 648–675.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kaufman, I. C. & Rosenblum, L. A. (1969). Effects of separation from mother on the emotional behavior of infant monkeys. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 159, 681–695.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lehrman, D. S. (1974). Can Psychiatrists use Ethology? In Ethology and Psychiatry (ed. White, N. F.), pp. 187–196. University of Toronto Press: Toronto and Buffalo.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McGinnis, L. M. (1975). Analysis of the factors involved in mother-infant separations in rhesus monkeys. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Mead, M. (1962). A cultural anthropologist's approach to maternal deprivation. In Deprivation of Maternal Care: A Reassessment of its Effects. World Health Organization: Geneva.Google Scholar
Preston, D. G., Baker, R. P. & Seay, B. M. (1970). Mother-infant separation in Patas monkeys. Developmental Psychology 3, 298–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rheingold, H. L. (1969). The effects of a strange environment on the behavior of infants. In Determinants of Infant Behavior, vol. 4 (ed. Foss, B. M.), pp. 137–166. Methuen: London.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. (1953). Some responses of young children to loss of maternal care. Nursing Times 49, 382–386.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. (1965). Mother-infant interaction from birth to twelve months: two case studies. In Determinants of Infant Behavior, vol. 3 (ed. Foss, B. M.), pp. 111–127. Methuen: London.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. (1970). Young Children in Hospital (2nd edn). Tavistock: London.Google Scholar
Robertson, J. & Robertson, J. (1971). Young children in brief separation: a fresh look. Psychoanalytic Study of the Child 26, 264–315.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenblum, L. A. (1971). Infant attachment in monkeys. In The Origins of Human Social Relations (ed. Schaffer, H. R.), pp. 85–108. Academic Press: London and New York.Google Scholar
Rosenblum, L. A. (1974). Sex differences, environmental complexity, and mother-infant relations. Archives of Sexual Behaviour 3 (2), 117–128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rosenblum, L. A. & Kaufman, I. C. (1968). Variations in infant development and response to maternal loss in monkeys. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 38, 418–426.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M. (1971). Parent-child separation: psychological effects on the children. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 12, 233–260.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rutter, M. (1972). Maternal Deprivation Reassessed. Penguin Books: Harmondsworth.Google Scholar
Sackett, G. P. (1968). Abnormal behavior in laboratory-reared rhesus monkeys. In Abnormal Behavior in Animals (ed. Fox, M. W.), pp. 293–331. Saunders: Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Schlottmann, R. S. & Seay, B. (1972). Mother-infant separation in the Java monkey (Macaca irus). Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 29, 334–340.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siegel, S. (1956). Nonparametric Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences. McGraw-Hill: New York.Google Scholar
Spencer-Booth, Y. & Hinde, R. A. (1971 a). Effects of brief separations from mothers during infancy on behaviour of rhesus monkeys 6–24 months later. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 12, 157–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Spencer-Booth, Y. & Hinde, R. A. (1971 b). The effects of 13 days maternal separation on 30–32-week-old rhesus monkeys compared with those of shorter and interrupted separations. Animal Behaviour 19, 595–605.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spitz, R. A. (1950). Anxiety in infancy: a study of its manifestations in the first year of life. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis 31, 138–143.Google Scholar
Suomi, S.J. (1974). Factors affecting responses to social separation in rhesus monkeys. In Animal Models in Human Psychobiology (ed. Serban, G. & Kling, A.), pp. 9–26. Plenum Press: New York and London.Google Scholar
Suomi, S. J., Harlow, H. F. & Domek, C. J. (1970). Effect of repetitive infant-infant separation of young monkeys. Journal of Abnormal Psychology 76, 161–172.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Suomi, S. J., Collins, M. L. & Harlow, H. F. (1973). Effects of permanent separation from mother on infant monkeys. Developmental Psychology 9, 376–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vernon, D. T. A., Foley, J. M., Sipowicz, R. R. & Schulman, J. L. (1965). The Psychological Responses of Children to Hospitalization and Illness. C. C. Thomas: Springfield, Illinois.Google Scholar
White, L. E. & Hinde, R. A. (1975). Some factors affecting mother-infant relations in rhesus monkeys. Animal Behaviour 23, 527–542.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Young, L. D., Suomi, S. J., Harlow, H. F. & McKinney, W. T. (1973). Early stress and later response to separation. American Journal of Psychiatry 130, 400–405.Google ScholarPubMed