Maternal deprivation

Question 1

What is maternal deprivation?

Answer 1

• the emotional and intellectual consequences of prolonged seperation between a child and their mother
• This is because continuous care from a mother is essential for emotional and psychological healthy development.

Question 2

What is the difference between seperation and deprivation?

Answer 2

• seperation is the child not being in the presence of a primary attachment figure whereas deprivation is prolonged seperation

Question 3

What is the critical period

Answer 3

• the first two years of a child’s life is called the critical period for psychological development

Question 4

What are the effects of deprivation on development?

Answer 4

i = intellectual development, this is characterised by low IQs. This has been demonstrated by William Goldfarb who found lower IQs in children who had been been in institues
A = affectionless psychopathy, an inability to feel remorse, guilt or strong feelings. This prevents them forming relationships
D = Deliquency = due to their affectionless psychopathy, they cant feel remorse for their victims and therefore commit more crimes
F = forming relationships = due to their internal working model

Question 5

Outline the procedure of the 44 thieves study

Answer 5

• Bowlby interviewed 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing and looked for signs of affectionless psychopathology. They compared this to a control group of 44 non criminal but emotionally disturbed people

Question 6

What were the findings?

Answer 6

• 14/44 of the theives had affectionless psychopathy and 12 of them had expierenced maternal deprivation compared to 2/4 in the control group

Question 7

Give three weaknesses

Answer 7

L - flawed evidence. Bowlby conducted this research himself and through family interviews, expected certain individuals to have affectionless psychopathy. This shows his research may be biased. His research was also influenced by Goldfrab who had confounding variables in his reasearch in studying war time orphans.
L - Rutter drew an important distinction between deprivation which is loss of a P.A.F and privation which is never forming an attachment. As many of the theives were institutionalised they may have suffered from privation and not maternal deprivation
L - Critical periods. Koluchova reported the case of then czech twins who were locked in cupboards for the first 7 years of their life. However, they were succesfully recovered from their trauma and fostered. After this they were able to form attachments, showing that the critical period of two and a half years isnt always valid