ATTACHMENT ( MATERNAL DEPRIVATION ) Flashcards
define Deprivation
deprivation occurs when the attachment bond is formed but is broken later on in life .
Outline bowlby’s deprivation hypothesis
Bowlby’s hypothesis argued that if an infant is unable to develop a warm , intimate and continuous relationship with his/her mother ( or mother substitute ) before 2.5 years ( critical period ) then the child would find it difficult forming relationships with other people and be a risk of behavioural / emotional disorders .
Outline the procedures and findings of Bowlby’s 44 thieves experiment
AIM : Examining the maternal deprivation hypothesis and to see if early childhood separations were associated with behavioural disorders . Bowlby coined a particular disorder affectionless psychopathy - to describe individuals with no sense of shame or guilt
METHOD : 88 children between 5-16 years who were referred to a guidance clinic took part . 44 childreen were thieves , 16 identified as affectionless psychopaths . 44 others had not committed crimes ( control group ) .Bowlby interviewed the children and their families to create a record of early life experiences .
FINDINGS : 86% of the affectionless psychopaths experienced prolonged attachment separation
- Just 17% of the other thieves had experienced such separations
- Only 4% of the control group had experienced frequent early separations
CONCLUSIONS : These findings suggest that there is a link between early separations and later social maladjustment . Mental deprivation appears to lead to affectionless psychopathy and antisocial behaviour .
EVALUATE Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation ( 2 PEEL)
POINT : Bowlby’s theory had real world application . Bowlby’s study and theory had an enormous , positive impact on post-war thinking about children rearing and also on how children were looked after in hospitals
EXPLANAION / EVIDENCE : Before bowlby’s research children were separated from parents when they spent time in hospital. Visiting was discouraged or even forbidden . One of Bowlby’s colleagues , James filmed a two year old girl called Laura during the 8 day period she was in hospital . She is seen to be frequently distressed and begs to go home.
LINK : Bowlby and Robertson’s work led to a major social change in the way that children were cared for in the hospital therefore this is seen as a strength and supports Bowlby’s hypothesis .
POINT : Research shows that not all children are affected by emotional disruption in the same way
EXPLANATION/EVIDENCE : Barret reviewed various studies on separation and concluded that securely attached children become especially distressed . Bowlby’s study of 60 children under 4 being treated for Tuberculosis , while in the hospital the children were only visited once and probably experienced prolonged early disruption of attachment . When assessed in adolescence , some children in the TB group were more maladjusted ( 63%) than the normal children however there were no significant differences between them and their normal peers in terms of intellectual development .
LINK : Bowlby suggests that those children who coped better may have been more securely attached and thus more resilient , supporting the idea that individual differences may be an important factor when examining the effects of deprivation
Outline the procedure and findings of research into institutionalisation
PROCEDURE : Rutter and Barke led a study of Romanian orphans . The study is called ERA standing for English and Romanian adoptees . The study included 165 romanian children who spent their early lives in Romanian institutions and suffered effects of institutionalisation. 111 were adopted before the age of 2 years and 54 by the age of 4 years .The adoptees were tested at regular intervals ( ages 4,6,11 and 15) to assess their physical , cognitive and social development . Information was gathered in interviews with parents and teachers , comparing their progress to a control group of 52 british children adopted in the UK before the age of six months .
FINDINGS : At the time of adoption the Romanian orphans lagged behind their British counterparts on all measures physical , cognitive and social development additionally they were smaller , weighed less and were classified as mentally retarded . However by the age of 4 some of the children had caught up with their british counterparts , this was true for almost all of the Romanian children adopted before the age of six months . Later follow ups confirmed that significant deficits in minority of individuals who had experienced institutional care beyond the age of six months because many orphans showed disinhibited attachments and had problems with peer relationships .
This suggests that long term consequences may be less severe than was once thought if children have the opportunity to form attachments ( continuing failure of attachments ) then the consequences are likely to be severe .
Outline the effects of Instituationalisation
Physical underdevelopment - Children in institutional care are usually physically small ; research has shown that lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment is the cause of what has been called deprivation dwarfism
Disinhibited attachment - a form of insecure attachment where children do not discriminate between people they choose as attachment figures.Such children will treat near-strangers with inappropriate familiarity ( over friendliness ) and may be attention seeking .
Poor parenting - Quinton et al who compared a group of 50 women who had been reared in institutions ( children’s homes) with a control group of 50 women reared at home . In their 20s it was found that ex-instituational women were experiencing extreme difficulties acting as parents .
How well does the evidence from research really explain the effects of institutionalisation
POINT : The research into institutionalisation can be applied to improving the lives of children placed in such care
EVIDENCE/EXPLANATION : The early research by Bowlby and Robertson changed the way that children were looked after in hospital .This research spread points specifically to the importance of early adoption. In the past mothers who were going to give a baby up for adoption were encouraged to nurse the baby for a significant period of time . By the time they were adopted the sensitive period for attachment may have passed , making it difficult to form secure attachments with a new mother .
LINK : The result has been that most babies are now adopted within the first week of birth and research shows that adoptive mothers and children are just as securely attached as non- adoptive families reducing effects of institutionalisation
POINT : ( Deprivation is only one factor ) A limitation of this research is that inevitably there were confounding variables
EXPLANATION/EVIDENCE : The Romanian orphans were faced with much more than emotional deprivation. The physical conditions were appalling , and this impacted their health . The lack of cognitive stimulation would also affect their development . It is also the case that , for many institutionalised children , poor care in infancy is followed by poor subsequent care , such as living in poverty , parental disharmony and so on.
LINK : This means that it is likely that the effects of institutional care go beyond emotional deprivation
POINT : ( The effects may just be due to slower development ) It may be that the effects of institutionalisation do disappear over time if children have good- quality emotional care .
EXPLANATION : One of the findings from the Romanian study was that the last assessment , at age 11 , a lower number of children had disinhibited attachment . Therefore ex-institutional children may simply need more time than normal to learn how to cope with relationships. This further supported by Le Mare and Audet’s finding that physical underdevelopment had improved by age 11 , thus suggesting that development does continue in these children
LINK : This is a criticism of the research , which implies that the effects are permanent , whereas this may not be true .
