Bereavement Reactions, Consequences, and Care (1984) / Chapter Skim
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7 Monkeys' Responses to Seperation and Loss
7 Monkeys' Responses to Seperation and Loss
Pages 179-198
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From page 179... ...
Indeed, efforts by his friends to initiate play with him result in brief distracted encounters, quickly terminated by the repeated crying and searching of the motherless infant. Over the next few hours the infant overtly calms somewhat, but any of a variety of stimuli sets off the whole train of emotional responses once again.
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From page 180... ...
In both human and nonhuman primates, when a strong emotional bond has been established between two individuals, loss of one has important psychological and emotional consequences for the other. Although researchers have been able to learn much about the factors that influence the course and intensity of bereavement in people, the constraints imposed by a number of ethical and practical matters leave current understanding of the role of many factors relatively uncertain.
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From page 181... ...
The rhesus and pigtail macaques, for example, appear most susceptible to the severest forms of depressive reaction in response to loss of the mother. One final element in consideration of the potential genetic source of variations in some aspects of the response to separation or loss is the role of individual genetic, or at least prenatal, influences.
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From page 182... ...
Numerous laboratory observations of animals requiring support during separations attest to the potentially devastating combination of limited physical coping capacity and the trauma of the sudden loss of an important attachment figure.6 Despair/Depression Phase Infants begin to vary considerably in their pattern of response within 24 to 36 hours following the loss of the mother or rearing partner. The most extreme responses have been observed in several laboratory settings {as well as in the field; e.g., van Lawick-Goodall~4)
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From page 183... ...
Its eyes are generally open now and oral contacts with its own body diminish. Finally, following a gradual return of interest in the physical environment, social play responsiveness and then social initiations reappear at increasing levels.
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From page 184... ...
Nonetheless, both Maine and Bow~by: have suggested that the apparent detachment behavior at reunion reflects an effort to cope with the conflict between attachment to and anger at the lost parent. In laboratory studies of nonhuman primates, at a reunion following the enforced separation of the mother-infant pair, the mother almost always retrieves her infant immediately.
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From page 185... ...
Well after these infants had shown relative recovery in the absence of the mother, they showed a virtually complete return of the depressive pattern each time the mother was brought back to the pen. Even nine weeks following Toss, one infant that generally looked quite normal, playing socially and actively exploring and playing with its environment, had dramatic reactions to the resumed mother.
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From page 186... ...
PRESEPARATION INFLUENCES The Nature of the Attachment Bond For a strong emotional relationship to be established between an infant and its mother. that relationship must he specific and unambigu oust Indeed, it is a precondition for any consideration of attachment that a particular set of responses be directed selectively toward a specific partner.
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From page 187... ...
Although some evidence regarding this issue has been provided by efforts to account for variations in response among members of single treatment groups,~04~ most of the relevant information derives from comparative studies. One striking illustration may be seen in detailed comparisons of the bonnet and pigtail macaques.34 37 The pigtails, studied in the laboratory in social units of unrelated individuals, form rather hostile groups in which animals rarely sit or sleep close together.
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From page 188... ...
Indeed the records showed that the foraging mothers generally were engaged in active foraging when their infants were out of contact. The requirement that the mother share time between the infant's care and other survival needs, coupled with the decreased friendliness of the social group, may well have left the infants less secure in their attachment to their mothers and less able to learn the skill and approaches necessary to cope with the requirements of the surrounding environment.26 In recent research in which bonnet mothers and infants lived in environments where the work requirements {of foraging changed repeatedly over time, the social group became increasingly aggressive.
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From page 189... ...
Mother Surrogates Although it has been clear since the early work of Hariow that monkeys can form very strong emotional attachments to artificial mother surrogates that embody certain specific stimulus characteristics, new evidence makes clear that these attachments differ from those formed toward biological mothers. Although a surrogate may offer emotional support during rearing, the loss of this object does not impair the functioning of a young infant to the same degree that loss of a biological mother does.
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From page 190... ...
It does appear clear, however, that nonhuman primates show some evidence of emotional disturbance after the Toss of a close partner at virtually all ages tested. For example, monkeys raised in so-called "nuclear families" have been shown to be markedly disturbed following separation from their family units at three, four, and even five years of age, which is well after puberty.2i Similarly, three-year-old, peer-reared rhesus monkeys have shown very marked depressive behavior after repeated separations from their lifetime partners.23 Finally, there are suggestions of depression in adult female pigtails after the loss of a close associate,27 and transient emotional changes do occur in mothers after loss of their infants, although in general these responses are often rather limited.
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From page 191... ...
Similarly, there is an indication In rhesus monkeys that infants left with familiar peers are less emotionally disturbed folTowing separation than those left with unfamiliar peers.45 Physical Environment Current data make it clear that when separation is confounded with the transfer to a novel environment, the pattern of response is altered. Unfamiliar environments appear to increase and prolong initial protest reactions of the infant and either delay or ameliorate subsequent despair behaviors 9 Similarly, when surrogate-reared squirrel monkeys are separated from the surrogate, only when they are simultaneously placed into a novel environment do they show marked emotional distress {reflected particularly in their hormonal stress responses.
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From page 192... ...
It is clear from the data on nonhuman primates that the more familiar a subject is with the setting confronted following a loss and the more supportive the individuals within it are, the less severe the sustained emotional response will be and the more rapid the recovery. Furthermore, individuals confronted with a readily accomplishable and rewarding task may show fewer behavioral difficulties after a loss.
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From page 193... ...
This view also stresses the importance of prior experience with the attachment figure and the prior environment, which are seen as affecting the capacity of the subject to cope with or strategically adapt to suddenly altered conditions. These environmental features, as well as the contingent, interactive qualities of past experience, may reveal the factors controlling the severity and extent of a bereavement and the types of intervention that can ameliorate the potentially disastrous effects of the loss.
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From page 194... ...
Langur monkey mother loss: profile analysis with multivariate analysis of variance for separation subjects and controls. Folia Primatologica 40:181-196, 1983.
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From page 195... ...
Psychological correlates of maternal separation in surrogate-reared infants: a study in altered attachment bonds. Developmental Psychobiology 11:427-435, 1978.
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From page 196... ...
Social development in rhesus monkeys: consideration of individual differences. In: The Behavior of Human Infants tOliverio, A., and Zappella, M., eds.
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From page 197... ...
Sociocu] tura]
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From page 198... ...
Pictured! here is the Young Tuxedo Brass Band of New OrJeans playing outside the fun era]
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