Effects Of Institutionslisation

Question 1

Reactive attachment disorder

Answer 1

-Unable to trust or love others and are often isolated
-very selfish and the needs of others often become sociopathic

Question 2

Disinhibited attatchment

Answer 2

-children select attachment figures indiscriminately
-overly familiar with strangers (friendly and affectionate)
-children may adapt to having multiple caregivers who are not seen enough to form secure attachment
-attention seeking

Question 3

Cognitive impairment

Answer 3

-delay in intellectual development
-low IQ
-problems with concentration
-difficulty in learning new concepts

Question 4

Rutter et al aim

Answer 4

Whether loving and nurturing care can overturn the effects of institutionalisation

Question 5

Procedure:

Answer 5

Longitudinal study where physical emotional and cognitive development were assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, and 15

Question 6

variables?

Answer 6

Age at adoption was naturally occuring and dependant variable was childs development

Question 7

Sample

Answer 7

111 romanian orphans adopted into british families

Question 8

What where the 3 groups rutter studied

Answer 8

Adopted before 6 months
6 months to 2 years
After 2 years

Question 9

What were the orphans compared to

Answer 9

A control group of 52 british adopted children

Question 10

What did they find on the initial assessment?

Answer 10

50% of the romanian orphans showed signs of cognitive impairment and were severely undernourished

Question 11

What happened by the age of 4?

Answer 11

They were making good recoveries but those adopted later had much higher levels of disinhibited attachment.

Question 12

What happened to the orphans adopted before 6 months when they were 4?

Answer 12

They were doing as well as the British adopted children (control group)

Question 13

What happened at the age of 11 to those adopted after 2 years?

Answer 13

The mean IQ for those adopted later as lower (77) than those adopted earlier showing cognitive impairment.

Question 14

What happened at the age of 11 to those adopted before 6 months?

Answer 14

Hey had a normal IQ level (102)

Question 15

Conclusion

Answer 15

Some negative effects of institutionalisation can be overcome by sensitive nurturing care more so if the adoption takes place earlier.

Question 16

Zeanah et al procedure

Answer 16

-Compared 95 Romanian orphans aged between 19-31 months who had on average spent 90% of their life in an institution to a control group of Romanian children who had never been in an institution

Question 17

Zeanah et al findings

Answer 17

44% of the institutionalised children showed signs of disinhibited attachment compared to less than 20% of the control group.

Question 18

Compared to previous research rutters research has

Answer 18

Higher control over extraneous variables. In previous orphan studies children had often experienced prior abuse before being institutionalised. But in rutter’s research the majority were handed over from birth from loving parents meaning no confounding variables.

Question 19

However studying children from romanian orphanages may have…

Answer 19

Introduced different confounding variables as the quality of care was extremely poor with children receiving very little intellectual stimulation or comfort.

Question 20

Research into the effects of institutionalisation has…

Answer 20

Practical applications - led to improvements in the conditions as children’s homes now avoid having a large number of caregivers for each child and instead tend to have one or two key workers who play a central role in the child’s emotional care.