Attachment - Maternal deprivation & Institutionalisation effects Flashcards
What is monotropy ?
Unique attachment bond that develops between an infant and mother. Needed for healthy psychological developments of infants.
What is maternal deprivation?
Not receiving suitable emotional care from a maternal figure.
What is the critical period for attachment?
If adequate attachment is disrupted/not formed within 30 months of birth, negative intellectual and emotional consequences due to deprivation.
What is delinquency?
Due to delayed social development behaviour is often outside acceptable norms, ie petty crime
What is affectionless psychopathy?
Due to delayed emotional development children are unable to show caring behaviour or empathy = little guilt for harmful actions
What does a Low IQ mean?
Due to delayed intellectual development, general cognitive abilities are lower than peers.
What is the continuity hypothesis?
A lack of internal working model/template for relationship leads to unsuccessful childhood , adults relationships and issues with their own parenting skills. `
What was the procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
Interviewed 44 older children accused of theft and a control group of 44 emotionally disturbed non thieves
Affectionless psychopathy assessed, and parents contacted to identify periods of separation from mothers
What were the results of Bowlby’s 44 thieves experiment?
=> Found in the 44 thieves group 14 matched the criteria for affectionless psychopathy, none of the control group.
=> 12 of the 14 affectionless psychopathy experienced prolonged separation compared to 2 of the control group
What do the results of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study suggest?
Suggests affectionless psychopathy that led to criminal/delinquent behaviour is linked to maternal deprivation.
What are the weaknesses of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
Inaccurate results - 44 thieves’ study is purely correlational, there could be a third factor such as extreme poverty, family history of poor mental health.
Contradictory research - has shown that children with severe deprivation can have good outcomes.
What are the strengths of Bowlby’s 44 thieves ?
Led to changes to child welfare policies of many institutions such as visiting times for mother in hospitals (real world application)
What can extended stays at institutions alter?
The normal functioning such as adopting rules and norms (institutionalisation)
What can institutionalisation result in?
Loss of personal identity, deindividuation, and factors identified by Bowlby: affectionless psychopathy, delinquency and low IQ.
What is deprivation?
Loss or damage to an attachment, so not receiving suitable emotional care from the primary caregiver,
What is Privation?
The total lack of an attachment bond
What event revealed the condition of the Romanian Orphans? How were they treated?
The fall of communist government in 1989 revealed conditions of 300,000 Romanian Orphans suffering from Privation. They lacked any physical and emotional care from staff, many of the children were malnourished or abused.
What was Rutter(2011) procedure?
He did a longitudinal study of 165 Romanian Orphans adopted into U.K families - adopted under 6 months, 6 to 24 months or over 24 months and compared to a group of British adoptees.
- Assessed at 4,6,11 and 15 years old
What were Rutter’s findings?
Age 11: If adopted after 6 months showed significant delayed development (intellectual)
Age 6: If adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment and was over friendly towards strangers.
Average IQ if adopted after 24 months was 77. Some cases of quasi-autism, problems understanding the meaning of context.
What does Rutter’s findings suggest?
Suggests adoption within 6 months avoids effects of privation. But recovery suggests a sensitive period not critical period.
What are the strengths of Rutter’s study?
Research resulted in changed policies around adoption and care in orphanages and other institutional settings (real world application)
What was Rutter’s aim?
To assess whether loving and nurturing care could overturn the effects of privation that the children has suffered in Romanian Orphanages
What were the weaknesses of Rutter’s study?
Only some of the children received detailed clinical investigations. So it is difficult to generalise the findings
Because the children were not studied while in the remaining orphanages, it is not possible to state which aspects of privation were most influential.
