Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation Flashcards
What is the theory?
An attachment essential for healthy psychological and emotional development
What does it say the negative consequences of maternal deprivation are?
- Inability to form attachments in the future
- Affectionless psychopathy (child is unable to feel remorse)
- Delinquency (Behavioural problems in teenage years)
- Problems with cognitive development
When are attachments disrupted?
In situations when a child is put in day care, has prolonged hospital care or put in intuitional care.
What. affects does a child get when separated long term from their caregiver?
Temporary ir permeant. harm. Privation is when a child fails to form any attachments. This is more harmful to a child
What was the aim of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation study
To investigate the long-term effects of maternal deprivation
What was his procedure
He selected an opportunity sample of 88 children attending his clinic
Group. 1 - Thief Group - 31 boys and 13 girls were referred to him for stealing
Group 2 - Control Group - 34 boys and 10 girls were referred to him because of emotional problems
What 2 things were the same
2 groups were matched for ages and IQ. The children and their parents were interviewed and tested by Bowlby
What were the findings
14 children from the theft. Groups were identified as affectionless psychopaths, 12 of those had experienced prolong separation for more than 6 months from their mothers in their first 2 years of life whereas. only 5 of the 30 who weren’t psychopaths has experienced separations. Out of the 44 children in the control group only 2 experienced prolonged separations and none of them were afectionless psychopaths
Give a - (PD)
Some psychologists disagreed with his conclusions that. affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation caused criminality. Collecting qualitative data from interviews conducted with 500 juveniles, Lewis found no link between maternal deprivation and a difficulty forming relationships in later life. Suggesting Bowlby made incorrect casual conclusions
Give a - (ML)
Suffers from methodological limitations. 1 includes researcher bias - Bowlby was aware of what he wanted to find and may have phased the questions to influence the response. Secondly he. based his theory on interviews from. war orphans. This doesn’t control for confounding variables of poor quality care for orphanages or PTSD, which can have a larger influence on a Childs development rather than. maternal deprivation
Give a - (CPNC)
Critical period isn’t concrete. Despite obvious trauma and maternal deprivation which occurred for. an extended period of. time, after the critical. period the researchers found that. an appropriate fostering twins made a full. psychological. recovery.Therefore, the effects of maternal deprivation aren’t always clear cut
