Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

Question 1

critical period

Answer 1

Bowlby saw the first 2 and a half years as a critical period for psychological development. He also believed there was a continuing risk up to the age of 5 if substitute care wasn’t provided.

Question 2

deprivation meaning

Answer 2

Deprivation is when an attachment bond is formed between an infant and caregiver but is broken later in life. It is believed that ongoing maternal deprivation would have lasting negative effects on a child in terms of emotional development.

Question 3

what are the maternal deprivation effects on development

Answer 3

Lack of intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ

Lack of emotional development – affectionless psychopathy which is the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others. Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and so lack remorse for their actions.

Question 4

Bowlby’s 44 Juvenile Thieves (1944)

Answer 4

Aim: see if deprivation from primary caregiver was associated with behavioural disorders (specifically affectionless psychopathy)

Procedure: children 5-16 years old who’d been reported to a guidance clinic in London were examined. 44 of the children were criminals and 44 non-criminals were used as a control group. Bowlby interviewed the children and their families to create a record of early life experiences.

Findings: Bowlby identified 14 of 44 thieves as affectionless psychopathd. 86% of these affectionless psychopaths had experienced early and prolonged deprivation. Only 4% of the control group had experienced frequent early separation.

Conclusion: suggests a link between early separations and later social maladjustment. The maternal deprivation hypothesis appears to lead to affectionless psychopathy and antisocial behaviour

Question 5

Evaluation of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation (brief)

Answer 5

strength - impact on practice in institutions
weakness - Lewis
weakness - findings are correlational, retrospective data

Question 6

strength of of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 6

research has had a significant impact on best practice in institutions ,e.g. hospitals. Historically, visiting children in hospital was very restricted. The Robertson’s (1952) observed a two year old who was hospitalised for 8 days. She struggled to cope with the emotional deprivation, demonstrating real distress. Key changes have since occurred due to new psychological insight into how to provide quality substitute emotional care in the absence of parents to minimise negative consequences for the child.

Question 7

weaknesses of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 7

There is evidence that counters Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis claims. Lewis (1944) replicated the juvenile thieves study with a larger sample but didn’t find that early deprivation predicted a greater likelihood of criminal behaviour in youths. This casts doubt on Bowlby’s theory as it suggests that other factors may be involved which mediate the consequences of maternal deprivation.

the findings are correlational. Bowlby found a relationship between deprivation and later behavioural issues but it is not clear that early separation caused these issues, as there could be other factors involved. Therefore we cannot establish cause and effect relationship to conclude that separation leads to behavioural issues and affectionless psychopathy. There is also additional methodological issues with Bowlby’s maternal deprivation research as he used retrospective data collection by means of an interview. Therefore, the parents of the juvenile thieves may have over/underestimated the details of early separation with their children, making the results less valid.