bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation Flashcards
maternal deprivation
emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother/ substitute mother
- separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development
bowlbys ideas of effects on development
intellectual, emotional, social e.g. affectionless psychopath
bowlbys ideas of the critical period
issue if prolonged separation occurs within critical period
bowlbys ideas of internal working model
can lead to incapability to be a good parent. our younger relationships impact our later ones
bowlbys ideas on continuity hypothesis
is there are prolonged separations then there will be issues in adulthood
privation
not having opportunity to form a bond in the first instance
bowlbys 44 thieves
aim
test his maternal deprivation hypothesis
method
interviewed children and families
compared 44 juvenile thieves with 44 non delinquent children
findings
- 32% of young thieves showed affectionless psychopathy
- 0% of the controls showed affectionless psychopathy
- 86% of affectionless psychopathy had experienced long periods of maternal separation before the age of 5 years
- only 2 of controls had expereinced prolonged separation
affectionless psychopath
- lack of emotional development
- lack of concern for others
- lack of guilt
- inability to form meaningful relationships
- lack of empathy
- impulsive
advantages of bowlbys theory
- provides research for his maternal deprivation hypothesis
- his research is influential in his area of attachment
- has impacted child care practices
disadvantages of bowlbys theory
- gender bias- sample only looked at boys
- data is retrospective- innacuracies in memory
- correlation, but not causation
- failed to explain why the 2 in the control did not become delinquent
- investigator effects
