bowlby's theories

Question 1

What is Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 1

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

Question 2

What were some effects on development: Intellectual

Answer 2

• Bowlby believed that infants who were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period would have delayed intellectual development - abnormally low IQ
• Goldfarb (1947) found lower IQ in children who remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and those who had a higher standard of emotional care

Question 3

What was the emotional development which Bowlby encountered

Answer 3

• Bowlby identified affectionless psychpathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others
• This prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality
• Lack remorse for their crimes as they cannot appreciate the feelings of the victims

Question 4

Give some negative evaluation to do with the evidence being poor

Answer 4

• Evidence for the MD theory has come from a number of studies including studies of children orphaned during WW2, those growing up in poor quality orphanages and the 44 thieves study

Question 5

Give some negative evaluation to do with counter evidence

Answer 5

• Lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves on a larger scale (N=500)
• A history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships

Question 6

Give some negative evaluatyion to do with the critical period which is actually more of a senstive period

Answer 6

• Later research has shown that Bowlby’s critical period that prolonged separation inevitably caused damage during this time is not inevitable (thanos who)
• Some cases of severe depreivation have had good outcomes provided that child has some social interaction and good aftercare

Question 7

Give some positive evaluation to do with the animal studies show effects of maternal deprivation

Answer 7

• Levy et al (2003) showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect of their social development

Question 8

Give some negative evaluation about what did Bowlby actually mean by deprivation

Answer 8

• Rutter (1981) claimed that when Bowlby talked of deprivation, he was muddling two concepts
• Deprivation - loss of the primary attachment figure after attachment as developed
• Privation - the failure to form any attachment in the first place

Question 9

What does his theory of monotropic attachment suggest

Answer 9

Suggests that attachment is important for a child’s survival

Question 10

Give some positive support for social releasers

Answer 10

• Brazleton et al (1975) observed mothes and babies during their interactions, reporting the existence of interactional synchrony
• They extended their study to an experiment - primary attachment figures were instructed to ignore babies social releases
• The babies intially showed distress and then some responded by curling up and lying motionless
• This showed the sig of infant social behaviour in eliciting the caregiver

Question 11

How is mototrophy a social senstive area

Answer 11

• The law of accumulated separation states that have substantial time apart from a primary attachment figure risks a poor quality attachment that will disadvantage the child in a range of ways later
• Burman (1994) - places a terrible burden on mothers, setting them up to take the blame

Question 12

What is some support for the IWM

Answer 12

Bailey et al 2007
99 mothers and 1 year olds
Poor attachments of mother to their parents were more likely to have children classified as poor according to the observations