Attachment-Theory Of Maternal Deprivation Flashcards
Bowlby (1951,1953) proposed prolonged emotional deprivation = long term consequences in terms of emotional development
Value of maternal care:
What did Bowlby believe was just as important as food and physical care to ensure continuing normal mental health?
Critical period:
Two If’s in regard to separation to cause emotional instability in children?
How long did he feel the risk was up until?
Having a permeant mother substitute
Cp:
1-If separation happens before the age of 2 and half years
2-if there’s no mother-substitute available
Continuing risk up until the age of 5
What is Long term consequence of deprivation?
Emotional maladjustment or even mental health problems such as depression
Key study: 44 juvenile thieves (bowlby-1944)
Analyses the case histories of a number of his patients in the Child guidance clinic in London where he worked
All children attending = emotionally maladjusted
How many children studied… How many had been caught stealing?
What were the non-thieves used as?
What did Bowlby say the thieves showed signs of being?
88 children studied… 44 were caught stealing
A control group
Affection less psychopaths (no sense of affection, shame or sense of responsibility)
44 thieves study findings:
What had the children diagnosed as affection less thieves experienced self on in their lives?
Out of the 44 thieves how many were deemed affectionless?
What percentage of the affection less thieves had experience frequent early separation?
Percentage of the other thieves that had experience frequent separation?
Percentage of control ppts that had experience frequent early separation
What would the early separations consist of?
What does the findings suggest
They had experienced frequent early separations from their mothers
12
86%
17%
4%
Continual or repeated stays in foster homes or hospitals (scarcely visited by families)
Lack of continuous care may well cause emotional maladjustment or even mental disorder.
Evaluation/
Physical and emotional separation-
Psychological separation is just as negative as physical separation
What did Yarrow et al. (1985) discover about attachment of children with severely depressed and non-depressed mothers
What does this show
Severely depressed mothers- 55% of their children (mean age 32 months) were insecurely attached
Non depressed mothers- 29% of their children were insecurely attached
Psychological separation = can lead to deprivation
Evaluation-
Support for long term effects-
Antonia bifulco et al. (1992) studied women who had experience separation from their mothers due to either maternal death or temporary separation for more than a year
What percentage was later found to develop/experience depression or anxiety disorder
What was the likeliness of a person developing such order without experiencing separation?
Before what age did separation cause greater
mental health problems?
What did this support?
25%
15%
Before he age of 6
Bowlbys notion of critical period
Evaluation-
Real world application
Bowlby’s study/theory impacted post-war thinking about childrearing and hospital care were visiting was discouraged or forbidden.
What did Rovertson (1952) discover when filming a 2 year old girl during an 8 day period in hospital?
What did Bowlby and Rovertson work later go on to do?
Frequent showed signs of distress and showed an urge to go home
Led to major social change in the method of care in hospitals.
