attachment - disruption to attachment Flashcards
what is bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
if a childs monotropic attachment is disrupted during the critical period due to prolonged separation from the mother, this deprivation has negative and irreversible consequences
what is the critical period
an infants first 30 months however there is a risk of up to 5 years
what are the consequences of deprivation
- social development: delinquency
- emotional development: affectionless psychopathy
- intellectual development : low iq
- continuity hypothesis
what is delinquency
behaviour that is outside the accepted norms such as committing petty crimes
what is affectionless psychopathy
when children are unable to show caring behaviour to others or empathy for others feelings and have little guilt for their harmful actions
what is a low iq
when cognitive abilities are lower than peers
what is the continuity hypothesis
deprivation affects an infants internal working model leading to unsuccessful relationships
what are the strengths of bowblys theory of maternal deprivation
- bowlbys 44 thieves study: 44 child thieves and a control group were assessed for affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation. it was found that 14 thieves had affectionless psychopathy and 12 had maternal deprivation
- bowlbys work on attachment has led to significant positive changes to policies related to child welfare such as visiting times for mothers in hospital, the ratio of infants and carers at nursery and the length of maternity leave
what are the weaknesses of bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation
- bowlbys research is correlational; deprivation and delinquency could be linked to a third factor such as extreme poverty or contact with criminal relatives
- monotropy may exaggerate the importance of the mother as the primary caregiver ( alpha bias ), underestimating the role of the father in encouraging risk taking, developing socialisation and taking on a sensitive responsive role
why is institutionalisation thought to influence child hood development negatively
as institutions are unable to provide the same level of physical and emotional care to young children as families
what is deprivation
not receiving suitable emotional care from primary attachment due to frequent or extended absences of the primary care giver
what is privation
the total lack of care so there is no ability to form an attachment bond
what was Rutters study
conducted a longitudinal study of 165 Romanian orphans who lacked physical and emotional care from staff, many were malnourished and abused. they were then adopted into British families
what is the procedure of Rutter’s study
children were adopted whilst under 6 months, between 6 months and 2 years, and older than 2 years. each group were assessed at the ages of 4, 6, 11 and 15.
what were the main findings of Rutter’s study
- age 6: overly friendly behaviour to strangers ( disinhibited attachment ) was more common in infants adopted after 2 years old
- age 11: children adopted after 6 months showed delayed physical, emotional and intellectual development. children adopted after 24 months had an average IQ of 77. intellectual problems continued at the 15 year follow up. in a small number of cases, quasi autism tendencies were identified.
