Institutionalisation Flashcards
Define institutionalisation
The social, mental and physical effects of living in an institutional setting (such as hospital or orphanage).
Name two orphan studies which investigate the effects of institutionalisation.
- Rutter’s ERA study (2011)
- The Bucharest Early Intervention project (2005)- Zeanah et al. (TBEI)
What are four effects of institutionalisation?
- Mental retardation (low IQ)
- Disinhibited attachment (form of insecure attachment- child is equally friendly towards strangers)
- Physical underdevelopment (dwarfism)
- Poor parenting (e.g. Harlow’s monkeys).
What was the procedure of Rutter’s ERA study?
(Era’s tour in Romania which Rutter went to for £165)
Longitudinal, natural experiment. Followed group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain. This was to test how good care would make up for poor early experiences with institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development assessed at 4, 6, 11 and 15.
What were the findings on IQ and attachment for Rutter’s ERA study?
Adopted before 6 months: IQ= 102.
Adopted between 6 months and 2 years: IQ= 86.
Adopted after 2 years: IQ= 77.
Adopted after 6 months= dis-inhibited attachment. Adopted before 6 months rarely showed dis-inhibited attachment.
What is the conclusion from Rutter’s study?
Intellectual development that is damaged by poor early experiences can be recovered provided that adoption takes place before 6 months.
What was the procedure of The Bucharest Early Intervention Project- Zeanah et al. (2005)?
Had experimental and control group. Experimental= 95 children between 12 and 31 (1231) months who had spent most of early lives in institutional care.
Control group= 50 children who never experienced institutional care.
Attachment type of both groups tested using Strange Situation and carers asked for behavioural characteristics of children (e.g. clinginess).
What were the findings of The Bucharest Early Intervention Project?
74% of control group= securely attached.
Only 19% institutionalised children securely attached with 65% of institutional group= disorganised attachment and 44%= dis-inhibited attachment. Suggests institutionalisation leads to poorer quality attachment.
2 Strengths of Romanian Orphan studies
Real world application:
has been applied to improving the lives of children placed in institutions.
E.g. orphanages and children’s homes now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and instead ensure that a much smaller number of people play a central role for the child- this person is known as a key worker. This
allows the children the chance to develop normal
attachments and helps avoid disinhibited attachment.
Also considerable effort is made to ensure that looked-after children are not put into institutional care can provide them with foster care or adoption instead.
Longitudinal studies:
Gain a deeper understanding. Following the same people over a long period of time allowing for changes to be
observed in how institutionalisation has impacted the children’s attachment
2 Limitations (and counter) of Romanian Orphan studies
Population validity:
The Romanian orphanages were not typical of other orphanages. The fact that the conditions in the orphanages of Romania were so bad means that the results found may not be able to compare to other institutionalised children around the world. The UK, for example, has higher standards of care. Must be careful in making generalisations from this research.
Lack internal validity: Many orphan studies lack control over participant variables which could be playing a role. Many of the orphans could have experienced neglect abuse or bereavement before they were institutionalised leading to trauma which could have led to developmental issues rather than being institutionalised as it is very hard to observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation because the children were dealing with multiple factors. COUNTER- In the case of the Romanian orphan studies the infants were institutionalised pretty much from birth and so it has been possible to study institutionalisation without these confounding variables.
