Attachment - Bowlby’s Theory Of Maternal Deprivation Flashcards
What is maternal deprivation?
The emotional & intellectual consequences of separation between a child & their mother/mother substitute
What is separation?
The child isnt in the presence of the primary attachment figure
What happens when a child is separated from their caregiver for a prolonged period of time?
Deprivation -> causes harms
What was Bowlby’s critical period?
30 months (2 yrs)
What are the 2 effects of maternal deprivation on a child?
Intellectual development -> mental retardation & low IQ
Emotional development -> affectionless psychopathy
Who did a study on the effects of intellectual development due to maternal deprivation?
Goldfarb -> did a longitudinal study on 30 orphans to the age of 12
Half were fostered at 4 months, the rest were kept in the orphanage
Measured their IQ at the age of 12 using & found fostered group had an IQ of 96 whereas the orphans had an IQ of 68 (in the retarded range)
What is affectionless psychopathy?
The inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others which prevents the person to develop normal relationships with others, they lack remorse & is associated with criminality
What was the aim of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
To examine the link between affectionless psychopathy & maternal deprivation
What was the procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
44 criminal teens accused of stealing were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy & their families were interviewed in order to establish early long separations from their mothers
Control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal separation/deprivation occurred in the children who weren’t thieves
What was the findings of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
14 of the 44 thieves were described as affectionless psychopaths & 12 of them had experienced prolonged maternal separation
5 of the remaining 30 experienced separations
2 of the 44 (control) experienced prolonged separations
What was the conclusion of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
Prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy
What is a strength of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
Animal studies research support -> Levy et al showed separating rats from their mothers for as little as 1 days had a permanent effect on their social development
What are some limitations on Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation?
Poor evidence -> Bowlby drew on evidence from studies e.g. Goldfarb however this is flawed as children growing up in poor quality institutions from birth were deprived of many aspects of care (Not just maternal)
Design flaws -> 44 thieves study biased as Bowlby carried out the interviews himself (he knew what he hoped to find) interviewer bias
Counter evidence -> Lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale (500 people) & in her study, found early prolonged separation from the mother didn’t predict affectionless psychopathy which is a problem as it suggests other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation
