Maternal Deprivation Flashcards
Maternal Deprivation
The emotional + intellectual consequences of seperation between a child + PCG
Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development
Prolonged separation causes serious damage to emotional + intellectual development
Separation vs Deprivation
Separation is just just not being in PCG’s presence - only a problem if child is deprived of emotional care
Brief separations where child has a substitute for emotional care aren’t significant for development
Extended separations lead to deprivation
Critical Period
The first 2 and 1/2 years for psychological development
Separation w/o a substitute (deprived of emotional care) during this period - psychological damage ensues
Effects on development - Intellectual development
Deprivation causes delayed intellectual development => abnormally low IQ
Goldfarb - lower IQ in children who were institutionalised vs fostered ones w/ higher standard of emotional care
Effects on development - Emotional Development
Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy - inability to experience guilt or empathy
Prevents a person developing normal relationships + causes lack of remorse
Bowlby’s Research - 44 thieves study
P: 44 teenaged thieves interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy + families interviewed to see if they experience early separation from their mothers
- Compared to control of 44 non criminal but emotionally disturbed young ppl
F: 14/44 could be APS + 12 of them had prolonged seperation from PCG in 1st 2yrs
Only 5 of remaining 30 had separations + 2 of control did
Bowlby concluded prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy
(L) Flawed Evidence of the 44 thieves
Bowlby carried out the family and assessments for affectionless psychopathy leaving him open to bias
Other sources of evidence (Goldfarb) like deprived wartime orphans has problems of confounding variables such as early trauma and institutional care
MEANS Bowlby’s original sources of evidence have seriuos flaws and can’t be taken seriously nowadays
(S) Counter to Flawed Evidence
However, new line of research found support - Levy et al
=> showed seperating baby rats from their mother for a day had a permanent effect on social development
MEANS that although Bowlby had flawed evidence there are valid sources
(L) Deprivation and privation - Rutter
Drew a distinction between 2 types of early negative experience
- Deprivation refers to loss of PCG after attachment is formed
- Privation is the failure to form any attachment in the 1st place like those in institutional care which may be the result of negative effect Bowlby described e.g those in Goldfarb’s study and 44 thieves
MEANS Bowlby overestimated the seriousness of deprivation in development
(L) Conflicting Evidence - Lewis
- Most attempts to replicate the 44 thieves failed to produce similar results e.g Lewis found no association between early separation and later psychopathy in 500 young people
COUNTER Gao partially supported Bowlby by showing poor quality maternal care was associated with high rates of psychopathy in adults
