Attachment: Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation Flashcards
What are the 3 components of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
Value of maternal care, critical period, long – term consequences.
What does Bowlby’s theory focus on?
Focuses on how the effects of early experiences may interfere with the usual process of attachment formation.
What does Bowlby propose through his theory?
Bowlby proposed that separation from the mother or mother – substitute has serious effects on psychological development. Bowlby believed that a mother must have a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with the infant famously stated that mother – love is as important to mental health as vitamins to physical health.
Bowlby believed that a young child who’s denied such care due to frequent and/ or prolonged separations may become emotionally disturbed this only applies to the critical period in development —> separation will only have this effect if this happens before that age of 2 ½ and there’s a continuing risk up until the age of 5 years a mother – substitute can prevent this from happening. Bowlby suggests that the long – term consequences of deprivation are emotional maladjustment + mental health problems e.g. depression.
What is the key study that complements Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
44 juvenile thieves Bowlby (1944)
What was the aim of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study?
To investigate the link between affectionless psychopathy + maternal deprivation
What was the procedure of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study?
Analysed the case histories of a no. of his patients in the Child Guidance Clinic in London to determine whether ppts has been deprived – all children attending the clinic were emotionally unstable. Studied 88 children —> half had been caught for stealing (44 thieves), the other half were the control group. Bowlby suggested that some (14) of the “thieves” were affectionless psychopaths (lacked normal signs of affection, shame or sense of responsibility) these characteristics enabled them to be “thieves” as they could steal from others with no remorse.
What were the findings of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study?
14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths of these 14, 12 had experienced separation from their others for the first 2 years of their lives. In contrast. Only 5 of the remaining 30 ‘thieves’ had experienced separations. Only 2/44 of the control group had experienced long-term separation.
What was the conclusion of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study?
Prolonged early separation/ depravation caused affectionless psychopathy
What are the 4 AO3 points for Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study/ Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation ?
+Impactful research and theory
-Theory could be furthered with more detail
-Researcher bias
Theory of physical separation can be extended
(+AO3) Why could Bowlby’s research and theory be regarded as impactful?
The norm was to provide children in hospitals with basic needs e.g. food, bed etc. No emotional care – footage showed distressed babies due to deprivation. By emphasising the importance of emotional care ait was introduced in hospitals. Therefore, Bowlby’s theory resulted a major social change for the better.
(-AO3) How could the theory be furthered with more detail?
Important distinction between deprivation + privation. Attachment formed + broken its deprivation but if attachment is never formed its privation. Privation results in much more serious consequences. Therefore, a lack of clarity/ detail by Bowlby may reduce validity.
(-AO3) How could researcher bias effect Bowlby’s research?
Bowlby conducted the interviews himself + he was aware of what he wanted to find to support his hypothesis + theory so may have used lading questions. Not objective, lack of internal validity.
(AO3) How can the Theory of physical separation can be extended?
Emotional separation, severely depressed mothers struggle to provide emotional care leads to weak attachments resulting in an emotional separation causing maternal deprivation.
