8. Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation Theory Flashcards
Which of Bowlby’s Monotropic theory concepts may apply to maternal deprivation?
- Law of continuity: the more constant a child’s care, better the quality of attachment
- Critical period: lack of/lost attachment outside this results in irreversible damage
- Monotropy: there is one ‘special’ caregiver
- Internal working model: separation will affect later relationships
What type of relationship did Bowlby suggest children needed?
Warm, intimate, continuous
To whom is the relationship with?
A mother or mother subbstitute
Define maternal deprivation
Emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between child and mother/mother-substitute
Distnguish between separation and deprivation.
- Separation: short-term physical separation
- Deprivation: Child loses emotional care
What does the continuity hypothesis link to?
Prolonged separation will lead to issues in adulthood
What is the significance of the critical period?
A child may be emotionally disturbed if there is no mother/mother-substitute care before the end of the critical period of 2 years
What are the consequences of maternal deprivation to development?
- Lack of emotional development (e.g. affectionless psychopathy)
- Delayed intellectual development
What did Goldfarb (1947) find between fostered and institutionalised children?
Institutionalised children had abnormally low IQ in comparison to fostered children (delayed intellectual development)
What condition may deprived children develop?
Affectionless psychopathy: inability to experience guilt/strong emotions for others
What des affectionless psychopathy have links to?
- Lack of normal relationship development
- Links to criminality (lack remorse for others)
Why of Bowlby’s concepts does affectionless psychopathy link to?
Internal working model
Describe Bowlby’s 44 thieves research
- 44 teens who had stolen
- Interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
- Families interviewed about early deprivation
- Control group was 44 ‘emotionally damaged’ non-criminals
- 12/14 affectionless psychopaths identified had deprivation
- 2/44 of control group had separation
What did Bowlby conclude in his 44 Thieves study?
Early maternal deprivation caused permanent emotional damage and lead to affectionless psychopathy, due to lack of emotional development
How may the internal validity of evidence for the maternal deprivation theory be questioned?
- Bowlby provided evidence for his own theory (researcher bias)
- Self report techniques used (subjective & risk of social desirability bias)
- Correlational data used but Bowlby claimed causation (may be intervening variable e.g. temperament)
What real world applications did Bowlby’s monotropic theory have?
Unrestricted hospital visiting and admission hours for mothers
Why may Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory research be socially sensitive?
Suggests mothers should stay home with young children but they may have to work
What evidence is there for a ‘sensitive’ period rather than a ‘critical’ period?
Koluchova (1976) found twin boys sated from 18 months-7 years were able to recover when looked after by 2 loving adults, suggesting prolonged separation in critical period doesn’t always cause damage
Distinguish between privation & deprivation
Deprivation: disrupted/lost bond
Privation: failure to develop attachment
Why may Rutter’s identification of differences between deprivation and private be a limitation to Bowlby’s theory?
Bowlby suggested deprivation where the long term damage is more likely due to privation
Describe a strength and a limitation of using Harlow’s research to support Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation theory
+Found monkeys who experience maternal deprivation were more aggressive and neglectful, which may be applicable to humans and supports lack of emotional development
- Research questionable as may be other variables (e.g. social deprivation) and they aren’t human so may lack internal validity and generalisability
