Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis Flashcards
What is Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis?
Explains what happens if these attachments are broken - he argues that the disruption of the attachment bond even short term will result in serious and permanent damage to a child’s emotional, social and intellectual development
What is privation?
This is when children have never formed an attachment bond - more likely to lead to lasting damage and such cases are relatively rare - which is why they are researched using case studies
What was Freud and Dann’s research into privation?
Reported on 6 children placed in a Nazi concentration camp who were orphaned at a few months old so had no maternal attachments. At age 3-4 they were taken to the Bulldog Bank Centre. They had little language and were hostile to adults but devoted to eachother. Overtime they became attached to their carers and made huge developments in physical and intellectual capabilities - lessens support for Bowlby
What was Curtiss and Rymer’s research into privation?
Reported on Genie (a girl denied human interaction, beaten and strapped to a potty seat until discovered aged 13. She couldn’t speak or stand up - she received therapy and developed some language skills. At 18 she returned to the care of her mother before being put into care and after 6 unsuccessful foster homes and deteriorating physically and mentally she went to live in a home for people with learning difficulties - long term consequences support Bowlby
What is an advantage and disadvantage of using cases studies for this situation?
For extreme privation such as Genie it would be unethical to collect the data any other way but they are dependent upon retrospective memories that may be selective and even incorrect - cant be generalised.
What is institutionalisation?
This looks at the effects upon attachment of care provided by orphanages and residential children’s homes and Bowlby’s MDH was largely based upon studies of children raised in institutions during the 1930’s-40’s
What was Goldfarb’s research into institutionalisation?
Compared 15 children raised in social isolation in institutions from six months to 3 years old with 15 children who were in foster homes. At three years old the socially isolated children lagged behind the foster children on most social and intellectual measures
What was Bowlby’s research into institutionalisation?
Deprivation - Compared 44 juvenile thieves with a group of non-thieves who suffered similar emotional problems. 32% of the thieves exhibited affectionless psychopathy, being unable to show affection for others. None of the control group were classed as such- Bowlby argues this may have been because 86% of the affectionless psychopaths had experienced maternal separation.
What was Hodges and Tizard’s research into institutionalisation?
Followed the development of 65 children who had been in residential nurseries from only a few months old, The care provided was of good quality, but carers were discouraged from forming attachments with the children (i.e. privation occurred).
By age 4, 24 children were adopted, 15 returned to their natural home (restored), and the rest stayed in institutions
At four years of age none of the institutionalized children had formed attachments, but by eight years of age those who were adopted had formed good attachments. Also their social and intellectual development was better than that of children returned to their own families.
. -restored children tended to have poor relationships suggests institutional care has long-lasting negative effects however better socially skilled children may have been adopted so found it easier to form attachments within their adoptive families. The study suffered from attrition
Learn more later
What is separation?
Short term disruption to an attachment bond. Distress is shown through Protest, Despair and Detachment
What was Robertson and Robertson’s research into separation?
Reported their ‘young children and brief separation’ research as five films that showed how brief separation from their mother affected children’s mental state and psychological development. One film featured john (17 months) who had a close relationship with his mother - he had to spend 9 days in nursery following his mother giving birth and was confused when returned to his mother. However other children who were separated for a short time were placed in an alternative home with alternative attachments and there were no negative outcomes suggesting that negative outcomes are not inevitable as Bowlby’s MDH suggests
What was Douglas’ research into separation?
Found that separations of less than a week for children below four years old were correlated with behavioural difficulties which supports Bowlby’s MDH however as Kagan points out much evidence linking short term separation to negative outcomes is correlational and doesn’t show causality
What was Quinton and Rutter’s research into separation?
Found greater behavioural problems in samples of adolescents separated briefly from attachment figures before five years of age through hospitalisation than among adolescents who weren’t supporting Bowlby’s prediction of long-term developmental damage
What was Barret’s research into separation?
Argued that individual differences in reactions to short-term separation are important e.g. securely attached children and more mature children cope better with separation which suggests only some children experience distress
What is deprivation?
Long term disruption of the attachment bond. Causes include divorce, death, imprisonment and being taken into care
