bowlby: maternal deprivation

Question 1

main assumptions

Answer 1

• prolonged loss of emotional care from the mother figure, can have serious long‐ term consequences eg emotional maladjustment
• effects of maternal dep would be most acute during the critical period
• children need a warm, intimate and continuous rship with a mother/substitute, not just food and physical care

Question 2

study of 44 juvenile thieves

Answer 2

PROCEDURE
-all children in clinic were emotionally maladjusted
-studied 88 kids
-44 caught stealing (some labelled as Affectionless psychopaths)
-44 control group
FINDINGS
-39% all thieves experiences early separation from mother
-86% of Affectionless psychopaths experienced it
-almost non of control
- maternal deprivation during critical period caused Affectionless Psychopathy (emotional maladjustments)

Question 3

nature vs nurture

Answer 3

• Bowlbys critical period of dev demonstrates the importance of a biological mechanism
• however, this mechanism is shaped by an infant’s interactions, or lack of interactions, with their caregivers. -= s.f of considering the interaction of nature and nurture when examining maternal deprivation.

Question 4

unclear distinction between privation and deprivation

Answer 4

RUTTER

• privation: child not having the opp to dev an att bond w caregiver
• this has far more serious consequences than deprivation
• deprivation: bond does dev but due to prolonged separation, it is lost
• Rutter disapproved of Bowlby’s use of the word deprivation
• he believed that Bowlby was confusing the two concepts and using the term interchangeably.

Question 5

real life application

Answer 5

-large impact on post-war regards to childrearing and care in hospital
BEFORE Bowlby’s research:
-children separated from parents in hospitals
-visiting was discouraged or even forbidden
-some were distressed and beg to go home
AFTER
-work led to major social change in the way that children were cared for in hospital.

Question 6

physical and emotional separation

Answer 6

-fails to emphasis the importance of psychological separation, leads to the assumption that it is physical separation that is the cause
-mother maybe physically present but emotionally unavailable to provide care
YARROW
-studied severely depressed mothers
-55% of they infants were insecurely attached
=psychological separation can slow lead to deprivation

Question 7

individual diff

Answer 7

BOWLBY

• longitudinal study of 60 TB children 4yr (under) w prolonged stay at hospital without substitute maternal care
• later assessed in adolescence
• some in the TB group were more maladjusted than others
• but no s.f diff in intellectual dev
• those who coped better maybe been more securely attached, thus more resilient