Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Question 1

What is separation from the primary attachment figure?

Answer 1

When you are without the primary attachment figure for a short period of time.

Question 2

What is deprivation from the caregiver?

Answer 2

When you are without the primary attachment figure for a very long period of time.

Question 3

What is the critical period?

Answer 3

The time where an attachment must be formed otherwise the child may not develop as they should.

Question 4

What is the critical period in humans?

Answer 4

2.5 years.

Question 5

How can maternal deprivation during the critical period lead to intellectual issues?
How are intellectual issues characterised?

Answer 5

If an attachment is not formed, the child may experience delayed intellectual development which is characterised by a low IQ.

Question 6

Name the type of psychopathy people experience when they are deprived of a primary attachment figure.
Describe what this condition causes you to not be able do.

Answer 6

Affectionless psychopathy.
This condition causes you to not be able to form fulfilling relationships with others and may even lead to criminal behaviour.

Question 7

How do affectionless psychopaths behave towards victims?

Answer 7

They don’t show any sympathy and lack remorse for their actions.

Question 8

In Bowlby’s research on maternal deprivation, what did he study the link between?

Answer 8

Affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.

Question 9

How many people did Bowlby interview in his study?
What did these people do?
Roughly how old were these people (specific number not needed.)

Answer 9

44 teenage thieves.

Question 10

The PPTs in Bowlby’s study were interviewed for what condition?

Answer 10

Affectionless Psychopathy

Question 11

What 3 signs of affectionless psychopathy were used to characterise it in Bowlby’s study?

Answer 11

Lack of affection, lack of guilt, lack of empathy

Question 12

As well as interviewing the teenagers, who else was interviewed in Bowlby’s study?
What did this allow Bowlby to establish about the thieves?

Answer 12

Their families were interviewed.
This was to establish whether the thieves had prolonged early separations from their mothers.

Question 13

Describe the control group in Bowlby’s study.

Answer 13

44 non-criminal teenagers, who were not psychopaths but were emotionally disturbed.

Question 14

What number out of the 44 thieves were described as affectionless psychopaths?

Answer 14

14

Question 15

How many out of the 14 affectionless psychopaths had experienced long term separation from the mother in the first 2 years?

Answer 15

12

Question 16

Out of the 30 remaining thieves, how many had experienced long term separation?

Answer 16

5

Question 17

How many PPTs in the control group had experienced separation from the mother?

Answer 17

2

Question 18

What did Bowlby conclude from his research?

Answer 18

Early deprivation causes affectionless psychopathy.

Question 19

Explain that limitation of the theory of maternal deprivation being based on poor quality evidence.
Explain the issues with it being Bowlby who carried out the interviews and the assessments for affectionless psychopathy - how does lead to bias?
Whose findings was Bowlby’s research influenced by? What did this researcher look at in their study?
Describe the confounding variables in this person’s research.

Answer 19

Bowlby’s 44 thieves study is flawed because it was Bowlby himself who carried out both family interviews and assessments for affectionless psychopathy. This left him open to bias as he knew in advance which teenagers to expect psychopathy from. Other sources of evidence are equally flawed. For example, Bowlby was also influenced by the findings of Goldfarbs research on the development of deprived children in wartime orphanages. This study has problems of confounding variables because the children in Goldfarbs study experienced trauma and institutional care as well as prolonged separation from primary caregivers. This means Bowlby’s original sources of evidence for maternal deprivation had flaws and wouldn’t be taken seriously nowadays

Question 20

Explain the limitation of Bowlby’s theory that there is confusion between different types of early experience.
Explain what privation is, and where they are likely to occur.
What did Rutter point out that thieves in Bowlby’s study had most likely experienced rather than deprivation/separation?
What did the Children in Goldfarb’s study also most likely experience as well?
Therefore, what might Bowlby have done when estimating the effects of deprivation on development?

Answer 20

Rutter made a distinction between 2 types of early bad experience. Deprivation refers to loss of a primary attachment after it has formed. Privation would be when attachments fail to form in the first place. (eg; in institutions) Rutter pointed out severe long term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is more likely to be a result of privation. So the children studied by Goldfarb may have been prived rather than deprived. Similarly, many of the children in the 44 thieves study had disrupted early lives and may have never formed strong attachments. This means that Bowlby may have overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation on development.

Question 21

Explain the limitation of Bowlby’s idea of a critical period.
Bowlby said damage is inevitable if an attachment is not formed in the critical period - what is the human critical period?
Use the example of the Czech twins case study. How did their case show that damage from lack of care can be prevented?
What did the Czech twins experience in their early childhood?
What were the Czech twins able to during adulthood that Bowlby’s theory does not suggest?
What conclusion should we draw from this about the critical period - what should this period be called instead?

Answer 21

Bowlby said damage is inevitable if an attachment hadn’t formed in the first 2.5yrs, so this period is critical. However, studies, such as the Czech twins, have shown that good quality aftercare can prevent this damage. The twins experienced severe abuse as children but grew up to have healthy relationships and families of their own. This means that lasting harm isn’t inevitable even in severe cases of privation. This means the critical period should be viewed as a sensitive period.

Question 22

Explain the limitation of there being conflicting evidence for this theory from Lewis.
How many people did Lewis study?
What did Lewis not find a link between in her research that Bowlby did?
What have other researchers found that does support Bowlby’s theory?
Therefore, should Bowlby’s theory be supported or discredited?

Answer 22

For example, Lewis looked at 500 young people and found no link between early separation and later psychopathy. This means that we can’t take Bowlby’s findings fully seriously. On the other hand, there is evidence from Gao which supported Bowlby by showing how lack of maternal care led to psychopathy in adults. This shows although Bowlby’s evidence is weak, it shouldn’t be entirely discredited.