Bowlby: "the prolonged deprivation of the young child of maternal care may have grave and far-reaching effects on his character and so on the whole of his life

Question 1

What was the title of Bowlby’s 1951 monograph?

Answer 1

‘Maternal Care and Mental Health’

Question 2

In his monograph ‘Maternal Care and Mental Health’ (1951) Bowlby argued what?

Answer 2

that maternal care in infancy and early childhood is essential for mental health

Question 3

Essay structure fro the effects of the deprivation of the young child of maternal care?
4 points

Answer 3

1. Intro and structure
2. In support of the Maternal Deprivation Theory
3. Criticisms of the maternal deprivation theory
4. conclusion

Question 4

A central piece of research that led Bowlby to his controversial maternal deprivation theory was what? what year was it published?

Answer 4

the 44 Thieves Study (Bowlby, 1944).

Question 5

Between what years was the study conducted?

Answer 5

1936 and 1939

Question 6

Between 1936 and 1939 an X sample of Y children was selected from the clinic where Bowlby worked.

Answer 6

opportunity

88

Question 7

Between 1936 and 1939 an opportunity sample of 88 children was selected from the clinic where Bowlby worked. Of these, X were juvenile thieves and had been referred to him because of..

Answer 7

44

their stealing.

Question 8

Bowlby selected another group of X children to act as controls

Answer 8

44

Question 9

Bowlby selected another group of 44 children to act as controls (it is notable that these were still children who had been referred to the clinic because of …

Answer 9

emotional problems, although they had not yet committed any crimes).

Question 10

In the 44 thieves study (Bowlby 1944) what did Bowlby do? what did he find? 2 sentences

Answer 10

Bowlby interviewed both parent and child, finding that more than half of the juvenile thieves had been separated from their mothers for longer than 6 months during their first 5 years, while in the control group only 2 had had such separations.

He also found that 14 (32%) of the young thieves showed what he subsequently termed ‘affectionless psychopathy’ (i.e. they were not able to care about or feel affection for others), compared to 0% in the control group.

Question 11

How many of the thieves showed affectionless psychopathy?

Answer 11

14 - 32% compared to 0 in control group

Question 12

What was affectionless psychopathy?

Answer 12

they were not able to care about or feel affection for others

Question 13

What did Bowlby conclude from his study?

Answer 13

that maternal deprivation in the child’s early life cause permanent emotional damage.

He diagnosed this as a condition and called it Affectionless Psychopathy.

Question 14

From these findings Bowlby concluded that maternal deprivation in the child’s early life cause permanent emotional damage. He diagnosed this as a condition and called it Affectionless Psychopathy. According to Bowlby, this condition involves …

Answer 14

involves a lack of emotional development, characterized by a lack of concern for others, a lack of guilt, and an inability to form meaningful and lasting relationships.

Question 15

The 44 thieves study has been criticised on a number of grounds. elaborate?

Answer 15

firstly, the studies’ conclusions gave causal attribution (that affectionless psychopathy was caused by maternal deprivation) from correlational data.

Further, the study was vulnerable to researcher bias as Bowlby conducted the assessments himself; knowing which children were in each group his findings may have unconsciously been influenced by his own expectations

Question 16

One criticism of the 44 Thieves study (1944) was that the studies’ conclusions gave causal attribution (that affectionless psychopathy was caused by maternal deprivation) from correlational data. Indeed…

Answer 16

other variables, such as family conflict, parental income, education etc. may have affected the behaviour of the 44 thieves, and not, as concluded, the disruption of the maternal bond (Rutter, 1972).

Question 17

Despite criticisms of this initial study, it is notable that some subsequent studies have supported Bowlby’s findings. For example, ?

Answer 17

Bifulco and colleagues (1992) studied 250 women who had lost mothers, through separation or death, before they were 17.

They found that the loss of their mother doubled the risk of depressive and anxiety disorders in the women

further, the rate of depression was highest in women whose mothers had died before the child reached the age of six.

Question 18

Who studied 250 women who had lost mothers, through separation or death, before they were 17.?

Answer 18

Bifulco and colleagues (1992)

Question 19

While, in studies focusing on the positive outcomes of secure primary attachments with mothers, it has been found that infants who were securely attached at age 12-18 months are … 4 points

Answer 19

better problem solvers as 2 year olds (Frankel & Bates, 1990),

are more complex and creative in their symbolic play (Pipp, et al 1992),

display more positive and fewer negative emotions (Kochanska, 2001),

are more attractive to toddlers as playmates (Fagot, 1997)
than those who were insecurely attached.

Question 20

Bowlby used the term maternal deprivation to refer to [blank] as well as [blank]

Answer 20

the separation or loss of the mother

the failure to develop an attachment

Question 21

Bowlby used the term maternal deprivation to refer to the separation or loss of the mother as well as the failure to develop an attachment. It is important to note that this dual meaning is something that has …

Answer 21

subsequently been criticised

Question 22

Bowlby used the term maternal deprivation to refer to the separation or loss of the mother as well as the failure to develop an attachment. It is important to note that this dual meaning is something that has subsequently been criticised, particiularly by

Answer 22

Michael Rutter (1972) in his book ‘Maternal Deprivation Reassessed’.

Question 23

Bowlby used the term maternal deprivation to refer to the separation or loss of the mother as well as the failure to develop an attachment. It is important to note that this dual meaning is something that has subsequently been criticised, particiularly by Michael Rutter (1972) in his book ‘Maternal Deprivation Reassessed’. Rutter argued what?

Answer 23

that privation and deprivation each have different effects, and he went on to extrapolate this proposing that if a child fails to develop and emotional bond, this is privation, whereas deprivation refers to the loss of or damage to an attachment figure.

Question 24

According to Rutter (1972) what is privation?

Answer 24

If a child fails to develop an emotional bond

Question 25

According to Rutter (1972) what is deprivation?

Answer 25

the loss of or damage to an attachment figure

Question 26

From his survey of research published in 1982, Rutter proposed that privation is likely to lead initially to … then as the child matures…

Answer 26

clinging, dependent behaviour, attention-seeking, and indiscriminate friendliness

an inability to form lasting relationships, or feel guilt.

Question 27

. He also found evidence of what 5 things? (Rutter, 1972)

Answer 27

1. anti-social behavior
2. affectionless psychopathy
3. disorders of language
4. intellectual development
5. physical growth

Question 28

Rutter argued that these problems are not due solely to the lack of attachment to a mother figure, as Bowlby claimed, but to factors such as …

Answer 28

lack of intellectual stimulation and social experiences which attachments normally provide.

Question 29

Rutter’s findings were difficult to test - why?

Answer 29

as it would have been highly unethical to conduct experiments depriving infants of care

Question 30

Such findings were difficult to test, as it would have been highly unethical to conduct experiments depriving infants of care; however what provided an unfortunate experiment in nature?

Answer 30

the horrific conditions of Romanian orphanages following the fall of Ceausescu’s regime in 1989

Question 31

These children had experienced immense deprivation and lived in appalling conditions elaborate.

Answer 31

often they were confined to cots, had no toys, no social interaction or caregiving, and were fed gruel from propped up bottles with large teats (Rutter, 1998, p.467

Question 32

The subsequent adoption of X Romanian orphans Y years of age into stimulating homes provided an opportunity to measure…

Answer 32

111

<2

children’s ability to overcome early privation of the more extreme nature.

Question 33

The subsequent adoption of 111 Romanian orphans <2 years of age into stimulating homes provided an opportunity to measure children’s ability to overcome early privation of the more extreme nature. The control consisted of what?

Answer 33

52 within-country UK adoptees, placed before 6 months.

Question 34

What was the design of the Romanian orphanage study?

Answer 34

The study was longitudinal in nature with children being followed to age 4, and then at age 6, 11, 15 year, while the subsequent follow up is ongoing.

Question 35

What did findings of the Romanian orphanage study reveal?

Answer 35

Findings of the study indicated that if the Romanian orphans were adopted before 6 months of age, then their cognitive and language skills were closely comparable to the within-UK sample;

however, if they were adopted between 6 and 24 months of age then they were found to be far behind in development

Question 36

All children made massive gains on average, but gains were smaller, from a lower base, by those adopted later. These findings suggest what?

Answer 36

sensitive, but not critical period for development, at around 6 months;

Question 37

All children made massive gains on average, but gains were smaller, from a lower base, by those adopted later. These findings suggest a sensitive, but not critical period for development, at around 6 months; although it is notable that …

Answer 37

there were individual differences, and some children adopted after 6 months did very well, indicating that the sensitive period is not universal

Question 38

These findings suggest a sensitive, but not critical period for development, at around 6 months; although it is notable that there were individual differences, and some children adopted after 6 months did very well, indicating that the sensitive period is not universal. Further, the effects of privation could have been increased by the co-occurrence of what?

Answer 38

malnutrition, a multiplicative effect that was not considered by Bowlby.

Question 39

. Finally, it is important to note that these children represented the most extreme examples of privation, and that even among those in the orphanages between 6-24 months, X% did not demonstrate severe attachment disturbances at age 4 or age 6; further, by 11 years old that number had increased to Y% without severe attachment disturbances
Citation?

Answer 39

> 75

> 85

(O’Connor et al., 2000; 2003).

Question 40

Such findings highlight the children’s X and [blank], and do not lend support to Bowlby’s assertion

Answer 40

plasticity

capacity to overcome adversity

Question 41

The second part to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory and the above statement is its emphasis on what?

Answer 41

monotropy

Question 42

What is monotropy?

Answer 42

the concept that infants have an innate and inborn capacity to attach primarily to a single caregiver or attachment figure.

With Bowlby - the mother as the primary attachment figure

Question 43

The second part to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory and the above statement is its emphasis on monotropy, with the mother as the primary attachment figure. However, research on fathering has shown what?

Answer 43

that heterosexual fathers influence their children in similar ways to mothers (Lamb, 2010; 2013; Pleck, 2010).

Question 44

In terms of attachment, an analysis of 14 different investigations of infants’ attachment to their mothers and fathers, involving almost 1,000 families, found what? Citation

Answer 44

the proportion of children who were classified as securely attached to their father was almost identical to the proportion classified as securely attached to their mother (van Ijzendoor and De Wolff, 1997).

Question 45

Since then, many studies have shown that fathers and mothers influence children in similar ways, and that aspects of parenting that matter most for children’s psychological well-being are what?

Answer 45

warmth, responsiveness and sensitivity

(Lamb 2010, 2013; Pleck, 2010).

Question 46

Moreover, more recent research conducted on families headed by gay fathers (i.e., families where children have never had ‘maternal care’ has found what?

Answer 46

that gay fathers provide a supportive family environment for their children, and that their children flourish

Question 47

Moreover, more recent research conducted on families headed by gay fathers (i.e., families where children have never had ‘maternal care’ has found that gay fathers provide a supportive family environment for their children, and that their children flourish; indeed, Golombok, Mellish, Jennings et al. (2014) have found evidence of …

Answer 47

more positive parenting and child adjustment in adoptive gay father families than in heterosexual families