bowblys theory of maternal deprivation

Question 1

maternal deprivation definition

Answer 1

emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or carer

Bowlby proposed that continuous care from mother is essential for normal psychological development

prolonged separation from adult can cause serious damage to emotional and intellectual development

Question 2

what is the distinction between sepeartion and deprivation

Answer 2

seperation is just when the child is not in the presence of the primary caregiver

deprivation is the extended speartions and loses an element of care from carer

Question 3

critical period

Answer 3

time at which an attachment must form if its to form at all

Question 4

intellectual development

Answer 4

bowbly belived that id a child was deprived of maternal care for too long during critical period they would suffer delayed intellectual development
charcatrsised by an abnormally low IQ

Question 5

emotional development

Answer 5

identified affectionless sympathy as the inability to experince guilt or strong emotions for others
prevents person from forming normal relationships and is associated with criminality
affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and so lack remorse for their actions

Question 6

Bowlby’s 44 thieves study aim

Answer 6

to examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation

Question 7

bowblys thieves study procedure

Answer 7

used 44 criminal teenagers who were accused of stealing
all therived were interviewed for signs of affectionless pscyhopahty(lack of guilt for actions and lack of sympathy for victims)

families were alos interviewed to establish whether the theives had early seperations from their mothers

control group were also set up
control group consisted of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed hildren to see how often maternal deprivation cocured in children who were non theirves

Question 8

findings of Bowlby’s thieves study

Answer 8

Bowbly found that 14 out of 44 theives could be describedd as affectionless, psychopaths

of this, 12 had experinvced prolonged sepearyion from their mothers in first two years of their life

only 5 out of reamining 30 thieves had experincedd seperations

control group, only 2 out of 44 had experineced seperations

Question 9

conclusion of bowlbys 44 thieves study

Answer 9

that prolonged early seperation caused affection and less psychopathy

Question 10

strength-real world application

Answer 10

had an enormous impact on post-war thinking about psychopathology and also how children were looked after in hospitals

Question 11

strength-animal studies have demonstrated maternal deprivation

Answer 11

most psychologists are critical of the maternal deprivation theory but one line of research supports the idea that maternal deprivation can have long term effects

Question 12

weakness-deprivation versus privation

Answer 12

rutter criticised Bowbly view of deprivation because it did not make clear whether the child’s attachment bond had formed but been broken or had never formed in the first place

Question 13

weakness-counter evidence

Answer 13

which does not support Bowblys findings. For example, Lewis partially replicated 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people. In her sample, history of earuly prolonged seperation from the mother did not predict crinimianlity or difficulty forming close relationships