Attachment (theory of maternal deprivation: Bowlby's theory)

Question 1

What did Bowlby say about prolonged emotional damage/ deprivation would have?

Answer 1

Emotional damage/deprivation would have long-term effects and consequences of ones emotional development.

Question 2

Before Bowlby’s findings it was understood that -

Answer 2

a good standard of living in terms of health and physical care and food were the key aspects of good care, a lack of people at the time considered the long-term effects and importance of separation of infants and children.

Question 3

How did Bowlby counter the idea of food and physical care was enough for infants to thrive?

Answer 3

He believed infants needed a warm, loving continuous relationship with their mother, as well as food and physical care to ensure normal mental health.

Question 4

Critical period -

Answer 4

Bowlby believed and suggested that young children who were denied such care may become emotionally disturbed, separation is seen to only have an effect on the child if separation happens before the age of 2 and a half, there was also a continuing risk up to the age of 5, it’s implies that damage can be improved with the substitute of emotional care on the infants lives with a mother or substitute mother.

Question 5

Long-term consequences -

Answer 5

Bowlby suggested that long-term consequences of deprivation caused emotional maladjustment or even mental health issues such as depression. This was explored in his study.

Question 6

44 juvenile thieves - procedure -

Answer 6

• Bowlby analysed the case histories in a number of his patients in his child clinic in London.
• All children were emotionally maladjusted. - - He studied 88 of these children with half been caught steeling (experimental group)
• Other half were control group.
  -Some thieves were seen as affectionless psychopaths with no empathy at all of others for example they stole and it did not matter to them.

Question 7

44 juvenile thieves - findings -

Answer 7

• Bowlby found that individuals diagnosed as affectionless thieves had experienced frequent early separations from their mother, 86% of the affectionless thieves experienced frequent separation compared with 17% of the other thieves.
  None of the control participants experienced early separations, 39% of the thieves had though. These may of consisted of long stays in foster homes of hospitals. Children were scarcely visited by their families.
  Findings suggest that early separations do lead to affectionless psychopathy, therefore a lack of continuous care leads to emotional maladjustment.

Question 8

Physical and emotional separation - limitation

Answer 8

When talking about deprivation, it is assumed that physical separation is for the cause of emotional maladjustment but it may be linked to emotional separation and lack of emotional needs for the infant. For example a mother may be physically present for the infants but lack emotional needs of giving her child care. It was found that 55% of mothers who were severely depressed were insecurely attached to their children. This does show emotional separation can also lead to deprivation.

Question 9

Real world application - strength

Answer 9

Bowlby’s idea had an enormous positive impact on post-war thinking about how children were looked after in hospitals. Before Bowlby’s involvement it was found that children were forbidden to be seen and visited by their parents. A colleague of Bowlby filmed a two year old girl called Laura during an eight-day period of when she was in the hospital. She was frequently distressed and begs to go home. This led to major social change of children were looked after in the hospital and their look of how infants were affected by this led to a change and decrease in emotional maladjustment.