Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation theory Flashcards

1
Q

Maternal deprivation theory

A
  • explains the effects of broken attachments
  • Bowlby’s idea that prolonged seperation from mother can cause serious damage to emotional and intellectual development
  • long term effects include: abnormally low IQ, and affectionless psychopathology
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2
Q

44 thieves study

A

Bowlby
* 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
* all were interviewed, and families also interviewed
* control group was set of people who were non-criminals, but emotionally disturbed young people findings -
* 14/44 theives were described as affectionless psychopaths
* of this 14, 12 experienced prolonged seperation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives
* of the control group, only 2/44 had experienced long seperations
* it was concluded that prolonged early seperation caused affectionless psychopathology

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3
Q

Evaluation

A

- Methodological flaws
- Correlational research
- Czech twins opposing evidence
+ Baby rat experiment

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4
Q

- Methodological flaws

A
  • 44 theives study had major design flaws
  • Bowlby himself carried out the assessments for affectionless psychopathology and family interviews, knowing what he hoped to find
  • this suggests his research is prone to researcher bias as Bowlby may have recorded the findings in a way that fits in with his theory
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5
Q

- Correlational research

A
  • the 44 thieves study is correlational research
  • Bowlby states that there’s a relationship between broken attachments during the critical period and affectionless psychopathology
  • however, bowlby cannot establish cause and effect
  • this means that we cannot be sure that broken attachments cause affectionless psychopathology
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6
Q

- Czech twins opposing evidence

A

Koluchova (1976)
* reported a case of identical twins in 1960 who lost their mom shortly after birth
* they were taken by step mom from 18 months to 7 years who locked them in cupboard and deprived them of food, exercise and sunshine
* when rescued at 7, they were abnormally small, and could barely walk or talk
* at 8, they were cared for by 2 sisters in a loving and secure family
* they learned to walk and talk
* later the twins married and enjoyed stable relationships
* opposed Bowlby’s theory because eventhough twins were deprived of mother during critical period, they were able to recover and have stable relatiosnhips
- this evidence has been criticised becasue the research cannot be generalised. main problem with generalising is that the twins had each other, and therefore could have formed an attachment with one another

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7
Q

+ Baby rat experiment

A

Levy et al (2003)
* showed that seperating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day, has a permanent affect on their social development
* supports theory as it illustrates that when a baby is seperated from mother during critical period, it has damaging affects

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