Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Question 1

Maternal Deprivation

Answer 1

Bowlby arrived at his monotropic theory of attachment because of his earlier work on maternal deprivation.
He thought that a mother’s love was as important to mental health as vitamins and protein are for physical health.

Question 2

Separation:

Answer 2

child not in the presence of the primary attachment figure. This only becomes a problem for development if the child is deprived (lost element of care) short term disruption of an attachment bond.

Question 3

Deprivation

Answer 3

long-term disruption of an attachment bond, lose an element of care.

Question 4

Privation

Answer 4

never having formed an attachment bond.

Question 5

Critical Period

uselessness period

Answer 5

Specific time period within which an attachment must form.
Attachment delayed 12 months: useless for most children.
Attachment delayed 2.5-3 years: useless for all children.

Question 6

Effects on Development of Maternal Deprivation

Answer 6

Intellectual Development
Goldfarb (1947) IQ difference between children in orphanages (lower) vs foster homes (higher).

Emotional Development
Affectionless psychopathy: inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others.

Question 7

Bowlby’s (1944) 44 Thieves Study

Answer 7

Examined the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.

Question 8

Procedure Bowlby’s (1944) 44 Thieves Study

Answer 8

: 44 teenagers accused of stealing were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy: characterised as a lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions and lack of empathy for their victims. Their families were also interviewed to establish whether the thieves had prolonged early separations from their mothers. The sample was compared to a control group of 44 non-criminals but emotionally disturbed young people.

Question 9

Findings: Bowlby’s (1944) 44 Thieves Study

Answer 9

Findings: Bowlby found that 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of life. In contrast, only 5 of the remaining 30 had experienced separations. Only two in the control group had experienced long separations. Bowlby concluded that prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Question 10

What are the disadvantages of this study?

Attachment: Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Answer 10

• Not enough people to make a universal conclusion.
• Not standardised interviews so it’s difficult to compare them.
• Doesn’t consider all other factors – confounding variables.
• Correlation not causation.
• Social desirability bias – maybe the thieves’ parents were more likely to be truthful as a punishment.
• Bowlby carried out the study knowing what he wanted to find which could lead to conformation bias.

Question 11

Evaluation of Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis

Answer 11

 Rutter (1981) says that it’s not the separation per se that is the problem but the quality of the relationship when the mother is not separated from the child that makes the difference.
 Children were better attached to others after the death of a parent when compared to divorce.

Question 12

Failure to replicate 44 thieves study findings

Answer 12

• Lewis (1954) replicated 44 thieves’ study with 500 young people.
• Lewis (1954) in her sample a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships.
• Generalisability – in the original it only looked at thieves, not other crime types, as opposed to Lewis’ study.

Question 13

Critical Period? Or Sensitive Period?

Answer 13

Koluchova (1976)
 Stepmother locked twins in a cellar from 18 month to the age of 7, beating them on a regular basis. Girls were given therapy and adopted. As teens, their functioning was near normal. Both went on to normal lives with families.
 Case study: again, difficult to generalise because the girls may have been particularly strongly attached before the events or strong willed etc.