Effects of institutionalisation Flashcards
Summarise Rutter et al
Investigated how high quality childcare can lead to recovery from the effects of institutionalisation
- longitudinal study of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain. Assessed on cognitive and emotional development at ages 4,6,11, and 15.
-Mean IQs: 102 (adopted before 6 months), 86 (adopted between 6 months and 2 years), 77 (adopted after 2 years)
- Disinhibited attachment displayed if adopted after 6 months (argues this is an adaptation)
Summarise zeanah et al
Bucharest Early Intervention Project
- assessed attachment in 95 children (12-31 months) who grew up in institutions, compared to 50 control, using the strange situation
- interviewed carers about disinhibited behaviour
- Control = 75% secure. Insitutionalised = 19% secure, 65% disorganised, 44% disinhibited
Real life applications
Romanian orphanage studies help to improve our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation
= can lead to improvements in institutional care (Langton 2006)
= ex. There are now less carers for one child
= practical value
Low internal validity
Rutter could not interfere with the adoption process in his study, meaning he could not randomly allocate conditions to participants.
= Confounding variables, such as the sociableness of the children, may have influenced the results
= lacking internal validity
Unrepresentative sample
Romanian orphanages are not reflective of all institutions due to the extreme conditions the children experienced (poor care, low intellectual stimulation)
= the results cannot be fully generalised to all institutional care
Fewer extraneous variables
In other studies, participants had experienced a traumatic event, such as loss or abuse, which can become a confounding variable that affects the findings.
- Romanian orphanage studies have fewer extraneous variables due to the context, meaning these studies may have greater internal validity
