Bowlby

Question 1

Applying the approach to the study

Answer 1

Psychodynamic psychologists believed that the need for food was attached to the oral stage and created a link to the mother as a source of enjoyment.
Attachment and any break in that attachment is problematic and has long term consequences for the child.

Question 2

Methodology

Answer 2

A series of case studies.
There was a control group but the study wasn’t an experiment.
The final analysis looked at an association between the two groups of participants (thieves and control group) and experiences of separation.
Opportunity sampling.

Question 3

Focus on the study: the thieves

Answer 3

The focus of this study was on 44 children who attended a child guidance clinic in London.
These children were described as ‘thieves’ because stealing was one of their ‘symptoms’.
Only a few had actually been charged in Court partly because many of them were too young to be charged.
31 boys.
13 girls.
Aged between 5 and 17.

Question 4

Focus on the study: the thieves - grades

Answer 4

They were graded in terms of the seriousness of their stealing.
Grade IV thieves (22 of the children) had been stealing for a long time, some for more than three years. Grade I thieves (4 of the children) had committed only one theft.

Question 5

Focus on the study: the thieves - IQ

Answer 5

The ‘thieves’ were mainly of average intelligence. About 50% had an IQ score in the range of 85 - 114.
(100 was the mean IQ)
A further 15 of the ‘thieves’ had a higher IQ. Two were below 85.

Question 6

Mothers

Answer 6

The mothers of the ‘thieves’ and the control group participants were also involved in the study.
The mothers were interviewed in order to assess the histories of the children.

Question 7

Control group

Answer 7

Consisted of a further 44 children who attended the clinic.
This group was similar in age, sex and IQ to the ‘thieves’.
Like the ‘thieves’ this group were emotionally disturbed but they didn’t steal.
Altogether, 88 children were involved in the study. They had all been referred to the guidance clinic for emotional problems.

Question 8

Initial examination

Answer 8

On arrival at the clinic each child was given mental tests by a psychologist to assess their intelligence.
(The Binet scale was used.)
The psychologist who conducted the test also noted the emotional attitude of the child.
At the same time a social worker interviewed the child’s mother and recorded preliminary details of the child’s early psychiatric history.
Both the psychologist and the social worker then reported to the psychiatrist (John Bowlby).
The psychiatrist then interviewed the child and the mother.
After this two - hour examination the team considered school and other reports and discussed their conclusions.

Question 9

Therapy

Answer 9

Many of the children continued to meet with the psychiatrist weekly over a period of six months or more.
The mothers talked over their problems with the social worker.
These meetings and discussions enabled a detailed case history to be recorded and also enabled the psychiatrist to diagnose the children’s emotional problems.

Question 10

Diagnosis

Answer 10

In order to determine what previous experiences might have caused the “44 thieves” to turn to stealing, it was first necessary to distinguish between different possible personality types.
Bowlby recognised that it was difficult to do this with children whose whole personalities are not yet formed.
However, his overall view was that there were six main personality types in his sample.

Question 11

Diagnosis - normal

Answer 11

Children whose characters appear fairly normal and stable.

Question 12

Diagnosis - depressed

Answer 12

Children who have been unstable and are now in a more or less depressed state of mind.

Question 13

Diagnosis - circular

Answer 13

Unstable children who show alternating depression and over - activity.

Question 14

Diagnosis - hyperthymic

Answer 14

Children who tend to be constantly over - active.

Question 15

Diagnosis - schizoid

Answer 15

Children who show marked schizoid or schizophrenic symptoms.

Question 16

Diagnosis - affectionless

Answer 16

Children characterised by a lack of normal affection, shame or sense of responsibility.

Question 17

The affectionless character

Answer 17

Having identified one group of children as affectionless, a very clear pattern emerged in relation to delinquency.
Looking at all ‘44 thieves’, Bowlby found that 14 were classified as ‘affectionless’.
Of these 14 ‘affectionless’ children, 12 had experienced 12 frequent separations from their mothers.
Such separations were very rare amongst the other types of ‘thieves.
There were 30 non - affectionless ‘thieves’.
3 of them had experienced separations.
In the control group only 2 had experienced separations.

Question 18

Other findings

Answer 18

Altogether 17 of the ‘thieves’ experienced early separation.
When considering the remaining 27 ‘thieves’, Bowlby reported that 17 had mothers who were:
“Either extremely anxious, irritable or fussy or else were rigid, domineering and oppressive… these are traits that mask unconscious hostility.“
Five of the 27 had fathers who hated them and expressed their hatred openly.
However, these experiences were also reported by the non - delinquent group.
Therefore, such early experiences might explain emotional problems but not delinquency.

Question 19

Frequent separation from mothers before the age of two - affectionless thieves

Answer 19

12
(86%)

Question 20

No separation from mothers before the age of two - affectionless thieves

Answer 20

2
(14%)

Question 21

Frequent separation from mothers before the age of two - other thieves

Answer 21

5
(17%)

Question 22

No separation from mothers before the age of two - other thieves

Answer 22

25
(83%)

Question 23

Frequent separation from mothers before the age of two - all thieves

Answer 23

17
(39%)

Question 24

No separation from mothers before the age of two - all thieves

Answer 24

27
(61%)

Question 25

Frequent separation from mothers before the age of two - control participants

Answer 25

2
(4%)

Question 26

No separation from mothers before the age of two - control participants

Answer 26

42
(96%)

Question 27

Conclusions

Answer 27

The conclusion to be drawn is that the children wouldn’t have become offenders if they hadn’t had experiences that were harmful to healthy development.
Bowlby subscribed to the psychoanalytic view that early experiences are of vital importance in later development.
The particular experience he focused on was the relationship between a mother and child, and the importance this has in emotional development.
Bowlby proposed that damage to the mother - child relationship would affect the development of the superego, leading to a reduced sense of right and wrong.
Juvenile delinquency is undoubtedly the consequence of many and complex factors, such as poverty, bad housing and lack of recreational facilities.
However, this study has placed an emphasis on psychoanalytic factors.
For example:
Early experiences.

Question 28

Implications for treatment

Answer 28

If the findings of this study are correct, the implication is that treatment should be offered to delinquents, though this process is slow and difficult.
The earlier that a diagnosis is made the better.
A preferable approach is prevention rather than treatment.
The prolonged separation of a mother and her child may on occasion be unavoidable.

Question 29

No casual findings

Answer 29

It’s suggested from this study that prolonged separation caused the emotional problems experienced by many of the ‘thieves’.
However, this variable wasn’t manipulated.
All that’s demonstrated is a relationship between these variables.
There may be other variables that caused the emotional problems.

Question 30

No causal findings - example

Answer 30

It might be that discord in the home “caused” prolonged separations between mother and child and also caused the affectionless nature of some of the children.
It could even be that the affectionless character caused the separations in some case.
This means that no casual conclusions should be drawn.

Question 31

Biased data

Answer 31

Bowlby produced a record of qualitative data on each of his participants.
This was based on extensive interviews with the children and their families.
There are over 25 pages in the report detailing the case histories of the 44 ‘thieves’.
Such data has the advantage of providing many insights into the events that preceded the children’s problems.
However, the data is limited.
It’s based on the view of one person - a very experienced psychiatrist. His perceptions may have been biased by his own beliefs.

Question 32

Sample

Answer 32

All 88 children in this study were emotionally disturbed.
Therefore, it may not be appropriate to generalise from this sample to all children.
For example:
There may be delinquents who have no emotional disturbance, and the cause of their delinquency may be more social than emotional.
Bowlby suggests that it would be useful to examine a sample of children appearing in court for stealing in order to determine whether all cases of delinquency have a similar explanation.

Question 33

Confidentiality and privacy

Answer 33

The participants in this study weren’t given confidentiality.
The report gives their first names and initial letter of their last name.
Their history also provides considerable detail of their lives.
Both make it easy for anyone to identify the individual and their families.
It isn’t clear from the report how much the children and their families were aware that this information would be published.

Question 34

Valid consent

Answer 34

It appears from the article that data was collected as a routine part of treating patients at the clinic and that the decision to use the data was retrospective.
The children and their families were seen at the clinic in the years 1936-39 whereas the report was published in 1946.
It would’ve been difficult to obtain consent five or more years later.

Question 35

Alternative evidence

Answer 35

One criticism that has been made of Bowlby’s research is that he muddled together several different experiences.
Separation alone may not cause long-lasting damage.
However, Bowlby’s conclusions has been supported by other research.
The lack of emotional care during key periods of development appears to have lasting consequences. These consequences include:
Physical underdevelopment. Intellectual retardation. Difficulties in later relationships.

Question 36

Rutter and Sonuga-Barke (2010)

Answer 36

Research has shown that there’s a sensitive period in development.
A lack of emotional care before the age of six months appears to be something that children can recover from.
For example:
The case of Romanian orphans.

Question 37

Rutter et al (2010) - Romanian orphans

Answer 37

Those who were adopted later lagged behind a control group of UK children on all measures of physical, cognitive and social development.