Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation

Question 1

Theory

Answer 1

Continual presence of nurture from mother or mother substitute is essential for normal psychological development of babies, both emotionally and intellectually.

Question 2

Quote

Answer 2

Mother love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health.

Question 3

Separation vs Deprivation

Answer 3

Separation: child not physically being in presence of primary attachment figure. Extended separations leads to deprivation.

Question 4

Critical Period

Answer 4

30 months.

Question 5

Effects of development

Answer 5

Intellectual & emotional

Question 6

Intellectual Development

Answer 6

If children were deprived of maternal care for too long, have low IQ. Goldfarb found lower IQ in children who lived in institutions than children who had foster care as they had a lot of emotional care.

Question 7

Emotional Development

Answer 7

Affectionless psychopathy: inability to experience guilt or empathy. Associated with criminality.

Question 8

44 Thieves Study (PROCEDURE)

Answer 8

44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing. Interviewed for signs of AP. Families were also interviewed to see if thieves had prolonged early separations from mothers. Control group of emotionally disturbed set up to see how often deprivation occurred in children who weren’t thieves

Question 9

44 Thieves Study (FINDINGS)

Answer 9

14 were APs. 12/14 had prolonged separation in 1st 2 years of their lives. 5/30 had separations. Control group: 2/44 had long separations. Concluded that prolonged early separation caused AP.

Question 10

Weakness

Answer 10

Poor evidence. Looked at studies of orphaned children during WW2. They are often traumatised and had poor after care therefore this might have been the causes of later development difficulties rather than separation.

Question 11

Weakness (Lewis)

Answer 11

Counter evidence. Replicated 44 thieves study but looked at 500 young people. Found that early prolonged separation didn’t predict criminality.

Question 12

Weakness (Kuluchova)

Answer 12

Critical period is more of a sensitive period. Twin boys were isolated from 18 months to 7 years as they were locked in a cupboard. Afterwards they were cared for by 2 loving adults and recovered fully. It didn’t cause them damage due to prolonged separation. So it is a sensitive period(doesn’t have to happen at that time but development has to happen).

Question 13

Strength (Levy)

Answer 13

Animal studies show maternal deprivation effects. Separated baby rats from mothers & found that they couldn’t last a day and it had a permanent effect on their social development.

Question 14

Weakness (Rutter)

Answer 14

Failure to distinguish between deprivation & privation. Deprivation means loss of primary attachment figure after developed attachment and privation is failure to form one in the 1st place. He claimed that deprivation is more likely to be a result of privation.