Bowbly's theory of maternal deprivation Flashcards
what is maternal deprivation?
A continued presence of nurture from the mother is essential for emotional and intellectual development. “Mothers’ love in infancy is important for mental health, as vitamins and proteins are for physical health.”
what does bowblys theory say about deprivation?
Deprived of some element of care. Extended separations can lead to deprivation which causes harm.
how does the critical period link to deprivation
The first 30 months / 2.5 years of life was known as the critical period.
If the child is separated from a mother or mother substitute for an extended period of time, and so deprived of emotional care then damage is inevitable and irreversible
what are the effects of deprivation on intelligence?
- This is highlighted by Golfarb who found that children who remained in orphanages after WW2 developed lower IQ than those that were adopted and had better emotional care.
- Affectionless psychopath: No guilt/emotion/remorse for their actions
Less likely to have functional relationships
Criminality
describe the procedure of Bowblys 44 thieves study
44 criminal teenagers (accused of stealing)
2. Interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy (lack of guilt, empathy for victims and affection)
3. Families interviewed in order to establish any prolonged separation from mothers
4. ‘Thieves’ compared to a control group of individuals who were emotionally disturbed but non-criminals (to see how often maternal deprivation occured in non-criminals
what are the findings of bowblys 44 thieves study
14/44 could be described as affectionless psychopaths
12/14 experienced separation during the first 2 years of life
Only 5/30 remaining thieves experienced separation
2/44 of the control group experienced separation
Evaluation: weakness
sources of evidence
- Bowlby drew on a number of sources of evidence for maternal deprivation including studies of children orphaned during the second world war. This is a weakness as all of these are flawed as sources of evidence.
War orphans were traumatised and often had poor after care and hence, these factors may have been the causes of later developmental difficulties rather than separation.
Similarly, children growing up from birth in poor quality institutions were deprived of many aspects of care, not just maternal care.
= low internal validity
Evaluation: weakness
counter evidence against his findings
Hilda Lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people. In her sample, a history of prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming relationships.
This suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation.
Evaluation: strength
research support from animal studies
Levy et al. showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development, but not any other aspects of development.
This is an alternative piece of support, therefore giving Bowlby’s study an increased validity.
Evaluation: weakness
critical period is sensitive
Bowlby used the term critical period because he believed that prolonged separation inevitably caused damage if it took place within that period
e.g Koluchova reported the case of twin boys from Czech who were isolated from age 18 months until they were 7 years old.
Subsequently they were looked after by two loving adults and appeared to recover fully. Some cases of very severe deprivation have had good outcomes provided the child has some social interaction and good aftercare.
