bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation - ao3 Flashcards
limitation - flawed evidence
P: one limitation of the maternal deprivation hypothesis is the poor quality evidence its based on
E: Bowlby himself carried out the interview and assements for affectionless psychopaths .
E: this left him open to bias bc he knew in advance which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy. also other sources of ev were also falwed eg bowlby was influenced by goldfarbs study 1943 where he conducted research into development of deprived children in wartime orphanages. this study has issues of confounding variables as children in this study expiernced early trauma and institutional care from primary caregivers.
L; thus this means bowblys og sources of ev for mat dep has serious flaws and wouldnt be taken as serious evidence in modern psychological research.
counterpoint to limitation of flawed evidence
P; is new line of research showing some modest support for the idea that maternal deprivation had some long term effects.
E: levy et al 2003 conducted an animal study and found that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day has permanent effect on social dev though not other aspects
E: thus although bowlby relied on flawed evidence to support his theory of maternal dep there are other sources of evidence for his ideas. however it must also be mentioned that animal studies lack generalisability to human behaviour as we are much more complex.
limitation deprivation vs privation
P; a limitation of bowlbys theory is his confusion between types of early expirence.
E: rutter 1981 drew an important distinction between 2 early types of neg experience. deprivation strictly refers to loss of primary attachment figure after attachment has developed. on the other hand privation is the failure to form attachment in the first place - may occur when children brought up in institutional care. so thus rutter explains that sever long term damage bowlby associated w deprivation is more likely to be a result of privation
