Harry Harlow: Lessons on explanations, ideas, and mentorship.

Harry F. Harlow died on December 6, 1981, in Tucson, Arizona. An examination of the process of his professional contributions reveals an intensely antagonistic attitude toward simplistic explanations of psychological phenomena, and a willingness to entertain experimental ideas born in a wide variety of ways. Harlow exemplified these attitudes by designing often disarmingly simple experiments which served as crucial rejoinders to firmly stated explanatory positions. It is also clear that Harlow considered his own constructions as fair game for this style of direct analysis. As a person, Harlow is pictured as a loyal, laissez faire mentor who desired affection but not academic conformity.