Disruption of attachment

Question 1

What is separation

Answer 1

This is where a child is away from a caregiver they’re attached to, for a relatively short period of time. This involves distress. Separation is a mild form of deprivation

Question 2

What is deprivation

Answer 2

This occurs when an attachment has been formed and is then broken for a fairly long period of time

Question 3

What is privation

Answer 3

This is the absence of attachment

Question 4

Bowlby studied long term maternal deprivation. What did he believe

Answer 4

Bowlby thought that young children might suffer sever emotional effects as a result of short term separation

Question 5

Robertson and Bowlby (1952)

Answer 5

• among the first to study effects of short term separation in detail
• studied young children separated from their mothers for some time
• observed 3 stages in the child’s response to separation which led to protest-depair-detachment model

Question 6

Explain the protest-despair-detachment model

Answer 6

• stage 1:protest-very intesne, child cries most of the time, seems panic stricken, anger and fear present
• stage 2:despair-loss of hope, child is apathetic and shows little interest in surroundings, child engages in comforting behaviours
• stage 3:detachment-child behaves in a less distressed way. If the mother re-appears, child does not show great interest

Question 7

Robertson and Robertson (1968) Little John procedure

Answer 7

• in a naturalistic observation, several children who experienced short separations from their carers were observed and filmed
• a boy called John aged around 18 months stayed in a residential nursery for 9 days, while his mother had another baby

Question 8

Robertson and Robertson (1968) Little John findings

Answer 8

• for the first day, John protested at being separated from his mother. He started trying to get attention from the nurses but he gave up trying
• he then showed signs of detachment, he was more active and content then had been previously at the nursery
• when his mother came to collect him, he was reluctant to be affectionate

Question 9

Robertson and Robertson (1968) Little John conclusion

Answer 9

• the short term separation had bad effects on John, including possible permanent damage to his attachment with his mother
• children should recieve good physical+emotional care when separated from their PCG

Question 10

Robertson and Robertson (1968) Little John evaluation

Answer 10

• John’s reaction may not have been due to separation-maybe down to his new enviornment or that he was getting less attention than usual
• little control of variables
• difficult to replicate each individual situation
• study took placin a natural situation-results have ecological validity but will be less reliable

Question 11

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis (1953)

Answer 11

• deprivation from the main carer during the critical period will have harmful effects on a child’s emotional, social, intellectual and physical development
• long term effects of deprivation may include separation anxiety. This may lead to problem behaviour e.g. being clingy. Future relationships may be affected by this emotional insecurity
• consequences cannot be reversed

Question 12

Bowlby (1944) 44 juvenile thieves aim

Answer 12

test maternal deprivation hypothesis

Question 13

Bowlby (1944) 44 juvenile thieves procedure

Answer 13

• case studies were completed on the background of 44 adolescents who had been referred to the clinic where Bowlby worked because they had been stealing
• there was a control group of 44 ‘emotionally distrubed’ adolescents who didn’t steal

Question 14

Bowlby (1944) 44 juvenile thieves findings

Answer 14

• 17 of the thieves had experienced frequent separations from their mothers before the age of 2, compared with only 2 in the control group
• 14 of the thieves were diagnosed as ‘affectionless psychopaths’. 12/14 of these had experience separation from their mothers

Question 15

Bowlby (1944) 44 juvenile thieves conclusion

Answer 15

-deprivation from the main carer early in life can have harmful long term consequences

Question 16

Bowlby (1944) 44 juvenile thieves evaluation

Answer 16

• results show a link between deprivation and criminal behaviour
• however it can’t be said that one causes the other
• there may be other factors (e.g. poverty), that caused the criminal behaviour
• case studies provide detailed information however the study relied on retrospective data-may be unreliable

Question 17

Strengths of the maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 17

-evidence support-Goldfarb (1943) found that orphanage children who were socially and maternally deprived were later less intellectually and socially developed

Question 18

Weaknesses of the maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 18

• Bowlby linked the thieves’ behaviour to maternal deprivation but other things were not conisdered e.g. poverty
• the children in Goldfarb’s study may have been most harmed by the social deprivation in the orphanage rather than the maternal deprivation
• Bowlby didn’t distinguish between privation and deprivation
• many of the effects of maternal deprivation are more reversible than was assumed by Bowlby e.g. Spitz and Wolf (1946)

Question 19

Can the effects of disruption of attachment be reversed?

Answer 19

Even when deprivation has harmful effects, these may be reversed with appropriate, good quality care

Question 20

Skeels and Dye (1939)

Answer 20

-found that children who had been socially deprived during their first 2 years of life quickly imporved their IQ scores if they were transferred to a school where they got one to one care

Question 21

Koluchova (1976) The case of the Czech Twin boys

Answer 21

• mother died soon after boys were born
• father remained remarried and stepmother treated them cruelly-often locked in celler, no toys, beaten
• they were found when they were seven with rickets and very little social or intellectual development
• they were later adopted and made much progress
• by adulthood they had above average intelligence and normal social relationships

Question 22

MDH- ACIDIC (helps remember different aspects of MDH)

Answer 22

A- affectionless psychopathy
C- critical period
I- IQ low- intellectual issues
D- deprivation
I- internal working model
C- criminal behaviour-deliquency