Influence of attachments Flashcards
(33 cards)
Define maternal deprivation.
The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their primary attachment figure.
What is the difference between separation and deprivation?
Separation simply means the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure.This only becomes an issue for development if the child is deprived, e.g. loses an element of care.
Extended separations can lead to deprivation, which by definition causes harm.
How long is the critical period?
The first 30 months.
What happens if a child is absent of a primary caregiver or suitable substitute during the critical period?
If a child is separated from their mother in the absence of suitable substitute care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended period of time during this critical period then Bowlby believed psychological damage was inevitable.
What effects on intellectual development does maternal deprivation have?
- They may suffer delayed intellectual development, characterised by an abnormally low IQ.
- E.G. Goldfarb had found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and thus had a higher standard of emotional care.
What effects on emotional development does maternal deprivation have?
- Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotions for others.
- This prevents a person from developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality.
- Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of the victims and therefore lack remorse.
What was the procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
- 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing.
- All interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy, characterised by: a lack of guilt about their actions, a lack of affection and lack of empathy for their victims.
- Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether or not the ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers.
- A control group of non-criminal but emotional disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal separation/deprivation occurred in the children who were not thieves.
What were the findings of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study?
- 14 out of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths.
- Of this 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their lives.
- In the control group, only 2 out of 44 had experienced prolonged separations.
State 4 criticisms of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory.
The evidence may be poor:
- WW2 (traumatised and poor after care).
- Poor quality orphanages (deprived of multiple aspects of care, not just maternal).
- 44 thieves (researcher bias, Bowlby conducted assessments himself).
Counter evidence:
- Lewis (44 thieves replication with 500 young people).
Critical period is more of a sensitive period:
- Czechoslovakia twins
Deprivation vs privation:
- Rutter
- Privation = failure to form an attachment in the 1st place.
Who conducted a study into Romanian orphans?
Rutter
What was the Romanian orphans study called?
ERA (English and Romanian Adoptee) study
What was the procedure of Rutter’s study?
- 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain - testing to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions.
- Physical, cognitive and emotional development was tested at 4,6,11 and 15.
- A group of 52 British children adopted around the same time served as a control group.
What were Rutters’ findings?
- When they 1st arrived - half of adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development and majority severely malnourished.
- At age 11, the mean IQ of those adopted before 6 months was 107.
- The mean IQ for those adopted between 6 months and 2 years = 86.
- The mean IQ for those adopted after 2 years = 77.
- Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment (clinginess, attention seeking, social behaviour directed indiscriminately towards all adults.
Who conducted the Bucharest Early Intervention project?
Zeenah.
What was the procedure of the Bucharest Early Intervention project?
- Assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months who had spent most of their lives in institutional care.
- They were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution.
- Attachment type was measured using the strange situation and carers were also asked about unusual social behaviour (disinhibited attachment symptoms).
What did Bucharest Early Intervention project find?
- 74% of control group = secure.
- 19% of institutional group = secure.
- Description of disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children.
- Applied to less than 20% of control group.
What are the 2 effects of institutionalisation?
Disinhibited attachment
Mental retardation
What is disinhibited attachment?
- Equally friendly and affectionate to strangers and familiar adults.
How did Rutter explain the reason for children developing disinhibited attachment?
Rutter explained disinhibited attachment as an adaptation to living with multiple carers during the sensitive period of attachment.
What is mental retardation in terms of the effects of institutionalisation?
- In Rutters study, most children showed signs of retardation when they arrived in Britain.
- Most adopted before 6 months caught up with the control group by age 4.
- Damage to intellectual development as a result of institutionalisation can be recovered provided adoption takes place before the age of 6 months - the age at which attachments form.
State 2 positives of research into Romanian orphans.
Real life application:
- key workers
Fewer extraneous variables than other orphan studies:
- other orphan studies - children placed in care as a result of trauma (e.g. neglect, abuse etc)
- hard to observe effects of institutionalisation in isolation because the children were dealing with multiple factors which functioned as confounding participant variables
- increased internal validity of Romanian orphan studies as we can study the effect of institutionalisation without these confounding variables
State a negative of research into Romanian orphans.
Romanian orphanages were not typical:
- extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation
- studies may lack generalisabilit
- particularly poor standards of care
How does an internal working model effect later relationships?
- Bowlby suggested that a child having their first relationship with their primary attachment figure forms a mental representation of this relationship, which acts as a template for future relationships.
- If the first experience was loving and with a reliable caregiver, then the child tends to assume that this is how all relationships will be.
- They then seek out functional relationships and behave functionally within them.
- Bad experience = may struggle to form relationships or may behave inappropriately within them.
Which attachment type forms the best quality childhood relationships?
Secure
