instituionalism Flashcards
what is institutionalisation
is the effects of living in an institutional setting where children live for long, continuous periods where they recieve very little emotional care
what are the effects of institutionalism
• Physical underdevelopment - children are usually physically. Development dwarfism
• Low intellectual/Low IQ-
• Disinhibited attachment- children are equally friendly and affectionate towards ppl they know and strangers. They are attention seeking and clingy.
•Poor parenting
• Emotional functioning- show affectionless psychopathy, have more temper tantrums
• Lack of internal working model- children in institutional care may have difficulty interacting with peers and forming closer relationships
• Quasi-autism- children in institutional care will have difficulty understanding social contexts and may display obsessionsal behaviour
differences between institutional care and family care
Institutional care have no attachment figure they’re bored not cared well less sociable interact less and have fewer toys whereas family care have strong emotional attachment well stimulated cared for well lots of socialising and more toys
Rutter English and Romanian study
A group of 165 romanian orphans that were in the institution were adopted to. test the extent good care can make up for poor early stages of experiences in the institution. 111 were adopted before the age of two and 54 after the age of 4 they had 54 british orphans adopted as the same time and they informed by interview in teachers and parents
The romanians were smaller weighed less and showed signs of mental retardation by the age of four some of the children had caught up with their british counterparts true forest orphans adopted before the age of six months
Children adopted after they were six months old showed signs of disinhibted attachment. Like attention-seeking, clinginess. In contrast those adopted before the age of six months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment
Rutter English and Romanian study
A group of 165 romanian orphans that were in the institution were adopted to. test the extent good care can make up for poor early stages of experiences in the institution. 111 were adopted before the age of two and 54 after the age of 4 they had 54 british orphans adopted as the same time and they informed by interview in teachers and parents
The romanians were smaller weighed less and showed signs of mental retardation by the age of four some of the children had caught up with their british counterparts true forest orphans adopted before the age of six months
Children adopted after they were six months old showed signs of disinhibted attachment. Like attention-seeking, clinginess. In contrast those adopted before the age of six months rarely displayed disinhibited attachment
Conclusion of Rutters ERA study
It suggest that the long term consequences may be less severe then was onvce thought if children can form attachments. However, when children do not form attachments, then the consequences are likely to be severe. It appears that children can recover, and it may be slower development rather than irreversible
Strength: helped understand institutionalisation
Romanian orphans has helped enhanced our understanding of the effects of institutionalisation.
Results have led to better care of children.eg children homes are now avoiding having large numbers of caregivers for the children and take care of maybe one or two children caregivers are now called key workers they allow children to have the chance to develop normal attachments and avoid disinhibited attachment
This supports that the idea the effect a key worker or some that can be a main attachment to the child can have and it has real world application
Undermining AO3: fewer confounding variables
It could be argued that there are fewer confounding variables in the Romanian orphan studies than in previous orphan studies
Because many of the orphans had experienced loss or trauma before they institutionalised like abuse and neglect. So it was very difficult to observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation because the children were dealing with multiple factors which functioned as confounding participant variables. However the romanian orphans were institutionalised by loving parents that couldn’t afford them
This means that we can be more confident in the conclusions drawn n about the effects of institutionalisation
Weakness AO3: bad conditions of Romanian orphanages
It is possible that the conditions of the Romanian orphanages were so bad that the results cannot be applied to understanding the impact of better quality institutional care or any situation where children experience deprivation
Eg The R orphanages had poor standards of care, especially when forming a relationship with the children and really low levels of intellectual stimulation
The unusual situational variables means that the findings may only apply to poor institutional care rather than to institutional care in general
Weakness AO3: they do disappear
A criticism of the research is that it implies the effects of institutionalisation are irreversible but the effects do disappear over time if children have good quality emotional care .
A finding was that a lower number of children had disinhibited attachment. It may be that the effects of institutionalisation do disappear over time if children have good quality emotional care and that it may be that ex-institutional children need more time than normal to mature sufficiently and learn to cope with relationships
Therefore, it may be that the effects of institutional are just dut to slower development rather than it being irreversible
Weakness AO3: may not be true
It may be true that all children who experience institutionalisation are unable to recover.
Research suggests that some children are not as strongly affected as others. Rutter ha suggested that it might be that some of the children recieved special attention in the institution, perhaps because they smiled more, and this might have enabled them to cope better
Due to these individuals differences it is not possible to conclude that institutionalisation inevitably lead to an inability to form attachments
Weakness AO3: Socially sensitive research
The results from the research have been published whilst the orphans were growing up, making it more socially sensitive research
Results showed that late adopted children have relarively poor development outcomes this can leto ppl like teachers parents and even chikdren havig low expectations and can lead to lower self-esteem and lack of belief in themselves
Theerefore depsite the amount of good tht has come from the research it cause serious damage to the child
the effects of institutionalisation
- Physical underdevelopment: children in institutional care are usually smaller and physically small. Have developmental dwarfism
- Low IQ - shows signs of intellectual disability disorder
- Disinhibited attachment: A form of insecure attachment where children are equally friendly to strangers and ppl they know they often are attention seeking and clingy. Thought that this was an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the sensitive attachment period of attachment information
- Poor parenting: Quinton et al study with women
-Emotional functioning: show affectionless psychopathy more likely to have temper tantrums
Lack on internal working model: may have difficulty interacting with peers and forming close relationships - Quasi-autism: difficulty understanding meaning of social context and display obsessional behaviour
