Developmental

Question 1

What is institutionalisation?

Answer 1

The effects of living in an institutional setting. Institution refers to the place like a hospital or orphanage where children live for a long, continuous period of time. There is often little emotional care provided

Question 2

What did Rutter study in 2011?

Answer 2

• a longitudinal study of 165 Romanian orphans adopted into British families
  The children followed were in 4 different groups:
  —> 58 under the age of 6 months
  —> 59 between 6 and 24 months
  —> 48 over 24 months
  —> a control group of 52 British adoptees
  At the start of the observation, half the Romanian children were severely malnourished and had low IQ compared to other children at the same age
• each group was assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15

Question 3

What were the results of Rutters 2011 study at age 6?

Answer 3

• children adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment, an overly friendly behaviour to strange adults.

Question 4

What were the results of Rutters 2011 study at the age of 11?

Answer 4

• the adopted children showed differential rates of recovery that were related to their age of adoption.
• just over half (54%) the Romanian adopted children who showed disinhibited attachment at 6 still displayed this behaviour.
• the mean IQ of those children adopted before the age of 6 months was 102, compared to 86 for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years and 77 for those adopted after 2 years.

Question 5

What’s general findings from Rutters 2011 study?

Answer 5

• in a small number of cases, quasi-autism tendencies were identified, with children having problems understanding the meaning of social contexts. Intellectual problems continued at the 15 year follow up.
  —> children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment - in contrast, those children adopted before the age of 6 months rarely showed disinhibited attachment

Question 6

What is disinhibited attachment?

Answer 6

— the child is equally friendly and affectionate towards people they know well or who are strangers
—> this is unusual behaviour as most children in their second year show stranger anxiety

Question 7

What is damage to intellectual development?

Answer 7

Institutionalised children often show signs of neurological divergance. It’s not as pronounced if they are adopted before 6 months

Question 8

What did Rutter study in 2007?

Answer 8

Studied 111 Romanian orphans adopted by British families before 2 years old. Natural experiment. Age of adoption was the naturally occurring IV.
Adopted before the age of 6 months Between 6 months – 2 years
After the age of two (late adoptees)

Question 9

What did Rutter find in his 2007 study?

Answer 9

disinhibited attachment (attention seeking) behaviour if adopted after 6 months old. Children adopted before the age of 6 months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
- Conclusion: more likely to recover if adopted into a caring environment at an earlier age

Question 10

What’s a strength of Rutters research?

Answer 10

Longitudinal study – lots of detailed information over a long period of time

Question 11

What’s some weaknesses of Rutters studies?

Answer 11

• The older children may be due to a lack of stimulation in the orphanage
• Natural experiment – IV when they were adopted - may have been other variables
• The adopted group may have been more socially skilled making them easier to place in adoptive families
• All Romanian – may not be the same for other children

Question 12

What’s Rutters studies in summary?

Answer 12

• This suggests that adoption in first 6 months has the greatest impact for recovery.
• Has important practical applications
  + Has fewer confounding variables than other
  research
• Issueswithgeneralising
• Children were not randomly assigned to conditions
• Long-term effects of early experience are not yet clear

Question 13

What did Chugani study?

Answer 13

administered PET scans to a sample of 10 children adopted from Romanian orphanages and compared them with 17 normal adults and a group of 7 children.

Question 14

What was Chugani’s results?

Answer 14

Assessments showed mild neurocognitive impairment, impulsivity, attention and social deficits. Specifically, the R orphans showed decreased activity in the orbital frontal gyrus, parts of the prefrontal cortex/hippocampus, the amygdala and the brain stem.
—> Concluded - that the dysfunction in these brain regions may have resulted from the stress of early deprivation and might be linked to the long-term cognitive and behavioural deficits.

Question 15

What was Tizard and Hodges study of children raised in institutions?

Answer 15

Longitudinal study 65 children placed in residential nursery before 4 months old. Hadn’t had opportunity to form close attachments with caregivers. Age of 4 some children had returned home to mum. Some adopted, some stayed in nursery.

Question 16

What were the results of Tizards and Hodges study?

Answer 16

16 years old adopted group had strong family relationships. Those who stayed in nursery or returned to mothers showed poorer relationships with family and peers than those adopted.
—> Conclusion: children can recover from early maternal privation if they receive good quality care. However social development may not be as good as those who have never suffered privation. The financial situation of the adoptive families was often better, they had on average fewer children to provide for, and the adoptive parents were particularly highly motivated to have a child and to develop a relationship with that child.

Question 17

What’s the evaluation of Tizard and Hodges study?

Answer 17

Natural experiment – high EV
However, small sample. More than 20 couldn’t be found at the end of the study (participant attrition!)– hard to generalise the results