maternal depravation: bowlby

Question 1

What is monotropy according to Bowlby?

Answer 1

Attachment bond between an infant and mother
Mother acts as a secure base, which the child uses to explore the world and return to for comfort

Question 2

What does Bowlby argue about maternal depravation?

Answer 2

If the child’s monotropic attachment is disrupted during the critical period (2.5years), deprivation will result in negative and irreversible consequences, affecting infants social, emotional and intellectual skills

Question 3

What are 3 consequences of deprivation

Answer 3

Delinquency- because of disrupted social development, behaviour is outside acceptable norms e.g. petty crimes
Low IQ- due to disrupted intellectual development, cognitive abilities are lower than peers
Affectionless psychopathy- disrupted emotional development>children are unable to show caring behaviour to others and have little guilt

Question 4

What does the continuity hypothesis suggest?

Answer 4

Deprivation caused by prolonged separations from the mother limits the ability of the infant to form an effective interworking model (schema formed from monotropic relationship)
This leads to unsuccessful childhood and adult relationships and issues with parenting skills

Question 5

One strength of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation is that there’s research support (44 thieves study)
PET

Answer 5

E: 44 child thieves and a control group of 44 emotionally disturbed non-thieves were interviewed to assess affectionless psychopathy
Found that 14 thieves matched the criteria, compared to none of the control group
T: Evidence that there’s a link between maternal deprivation and delinquency

Question 6

One weakness of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation is that the supporting research is correlational
PET

Answer 6

E: Deprivation and delinquency could be linked to a third factor
Children who experience deprivation may also experience extreme poverty, have context with criminal role models
T: limited explanation

Question 7

One strength of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation is that it’s led to significant positive changes
PET

Answer 7

E: e.g. visiting mothers in hospitals, length of maternity leave
Also improved the economy as nursery places are more expensive (high staff to kid ratio)
T: real world application

Question 8

What is institutionalisation?
What is it’s impact?

Answer 8

When children are cared for by the state
Thought to influence childhood development negatively

Question 9

What is the difference between deprivation and privation?

Answer 9

Deprivation- not receiving emotional care from primary attachment figure
Privation- total lack of care, no ability to form bond, more sever

Question 10

What was the background of the Romanian orphan study?

Answer 10

Fall of the Romanian gov in 1990 led to 170,000 orphans
They lacked emotional care, many of the children were malnourished and abused
Many of these children were adopted by Western families -Rutter studied this:
Longitudinal study of 165 Romanian orphans who were adopted into British families

Question 11

What was the procedure of Rutter’s Romanian study?

Answer 11

Children were grouped into those adopted:
Under 6 months
6 months - 2 years
Over 2 years
There was a control group of British adoptees who had not experienced privation
Each group was assessed at 4, 6, 11, 15

Question 12

What did Rutter find at age 6?
What did Rutter find at age 11?

Answer 12

-Children showed disinhibited attachment- overly friendly behaviour to strange adults, most common in those adopted after 2
-Children adopted after 2 years had an average IQ of 77, compared to 102 for those adopted under 6 months

Question 13

What does Rutter’s research suggest?

Answer 13

Adoption within first 6 months is important
Affects of privation in institutions are severe and long-lasting
Many children adopted after 2 showed recovery signs, suggesting the critical period is sensative

Question 14

One weakness of Rutter’s study is that there is potential
PET

Answer 14

E: Children were not randomly assigned for adoption because they were selected by the new parents in Romania
Bias with the more social able children picked for adoption at a younger age
T: lacks validity

Question 15

One strength of Rutter’s study is that there have been practical applications
PET

Answer 15

E: policies have changed in adoption e.g. critical workers are given higher level of care to infants and there’s a focus on ensuring an early age of adoption
T: applied

Question 16

One strength of Rutter’s study is that there’s evidence supporting the sensitive period

Answer 16

E: Hodges and Tizard found that children adopted into new, caring families coped better on measures of relationships than children returned to their abusive families
T: support