bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation

Question 1

maternal deprivation

Answer 1

bowlby states that any separation from the mother (or primary caregiver) has irreversible social ,emotional and cognitive consequences

• continual presence is from a mother (or mother substitute) is needed for normal psychological development of an infant
• maternal love is important to an infant as food

Question 2

separation

Answer 2

brief separation with substitute caregiver will not have long lasting effects

• extended separation will affect development

Question 3

the critical period

Answer 3

• first 30 months
• if the child is separated from the mother (or substitute care giver) and deprived of emotional care for an extended period in this time then psychological damage is inevitable
• if suitable substitute emotional care is provided then the negative effects may be avoided

Question 4

effect on development

Answer 4

affects intellectual development :

• low iq
• mental retardation
• goldfarb(1947) lower iq in children who stayed in institution compared to those who got adopted

emotional development:
affectionless psychopath
no empathy,inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others

Question 5

bowlby 44 theives study

Answer 5

• 44 teenage thieves
• control group :non criminals but emotinallly disturbed teenagers
• interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopath
• family interviewed - determine if there was prolonged early separation from mother

findings:

• 14 of the 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths
• of these 14 , 12 had experienced prolonged early separation from mother

conclusions - prolonged early separation from mother caused affectionless psychopathy

Question 6

ao3 : evaluation may be poor

Answer 6

44 thieves study : bowlby conducted the assessment for affectionless psychopaths and the family interviews

• interviewer bias
• he knew what he hoped to find and this may have impacted the results
• this question the validity if the evidence supporting maternal deprivation hypothesis

Question 7

44 theives evaluation

Answer 7

asked to recall events from many years ago

• results in inaccuracies
• reduces internal validity

results are correlational

• can’t establish cause and effect
• results may be due to other factors such as poverty

Question 8

counter evidence

Answer 8

lewis(1954)
-replicated the thieves study
-500 young people
prolonged early separation form the mother did not predict criminality or difficult forming close relationships

-shows other factors may affect outcome of maternal deprivation

Question 9

ao3:faliure to distinguish between deprivation and privation

Answer 9

rutter:
bowlby talked about ‘deprivation’ in his theory(loss of attachment once it has been formed)

• rutter stated that the damage was more likely the result of privation (failure to form an attachment at all )
• undermines bowlbys theory