Bowlby’s Theory Of Maternal Deprivation

Question 1

Maternal deprivation.

Answer 1

The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother or mother substitute. Caused by prolonged separation - continuous care is needed for normal psychological development.

Question 2

What are the effects of maternal deprivation ?

Answer 2

-An inability to form attachments in the future.
-Affectionless psychopathy.
-Delinquency - behavioural problems.
-Problems with cognitive development.

Question 3

Privation.

Answer 3

When a child fails to form any attachments at all.
Most common cause has been institutionalisation.

Question 4

Outline Bowlby’s 44 thieves study.

Answer 4

-sample consisted of 44 teens accused of stealing.
-families of ‘thieves’ were interviewed to establish whether the teenagers had prolonged early separation from their mothers.
14/44 affectionless psychopaths
12/14 maternally deprived

-concluded that prolonged early separation or deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Question 5

Give 3 limitations Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.

Answer 5

1. conflicting research.

-lewis et al disagreed with bowlby’s theory that affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation cause criminality.
-collected qualitative data from interviews conducted with 500 juveniles and found no link between early separation and later psychopathy.
-suggests bowlby may have made incorrect conclusions and shows that the theory is flawed.

2. 44 thieves study suffers from severe methodological limitations such as interviewer bias.

-bowlby was aware of what he wanted to find and so may have phrased the questions in the interviews in a way which influenced to respondents to respond in a particular way - leading qs.

3. bowlby may have over emphasised the significance of deprivation during the critical period.

-for example, there was a case in which two twins were locked away in cupboards for the first 7 years of their lives. despite the obvious trauma and maternal deprivation they experienced which exceeded the critical period of their lives, researchers found that with appropriate fostering, the twins made a full psychological recovery.
-therefore the effects of maternal deprivation are not the same for everyone and are not clear-cut. they differ and generalisations cannot be made.