maternal deprivation

Question 1

separation

Answer 1

child not with caregiver & with substitute providing emotinional care which is not detrimental

Question 2

deprivation

Answer 2

child loses or is deprived of emotional care

Question 3

critical period

Answer 3

• first 30 months

Question 4

intellectual development

Answer 4

• prolonged deprivation can cause abnormally low IQ

Question 5

Goldfarb (1947)

Answer 5

• followed up 30 mothers up to 12 years in which 1/2 were fostered by 4 months & others remained in the orphanage
• assessed IQ at 12 years
  foster group = 96 & orphanage group = 68
  affectionless psychopathy - inability to experience guilt or strong emotion toward others which can be caused by maternal deprivation
• prevents a person from developing normal relationships & is associated with criminality

Question 6

Bowbly’s 44 thieves (1944): aim

Answer 6

investigate the link between affectionless psychopathy & maternal deprivation

Question 7

Bowbly’s 44 thieves (1944): procedure

Answer 7

• interviewed 44 criminal teens accused of stealing for signs of affectionless psychopathy
• interviewed families for any prolonged separations as a child
• had a control group of non-criminals & emotionally disturbed young people
• see if maternal deprivation occurred in them

Question 8

Bowbly’s 44 thieves (1944): findings

Answer 8

• 14/44 had affectionless psychopathy
• 12/14 had prolonged separation from in the mother in the first 2 yrs
• 5/30 had separations
• control group = 2/44 had separations

Question 9

Bowbly’s 44 thieves (1944): conclusions

Answer 9

prolonged deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy

Question 10

AO3: animal studies show effects (strength)

Answer 10

• Levy et al (2003) = separating baby rats from mothers had a permanent effect on social development
• Bowlby relied on flawed evidence as well as other sources for his ideas

Question 11

AO3: flawed evidence (weakness)

Answer 11

• Bowlby carried out all the procedures for his study which left him open to bias as he knew which teens displayed signs
• Goldfarb = ppts had experienced early trauma which is a confounding variable
• sources have serious flaws and won’t be taken seriously now

Question 12

AO3: conflicting evidence (weakness)

Answer 12

• attempts to replicate Bowbly’s study failed to produce similar results
• Lewis (1954) = found no association between early separation & psychopathy
• recent research shows partial support
• Gao et al (2010) = showed that poor quality maternal acre was associated with high rates of psychopathy in adults

Question 13

AO3: critical period is more of a sensitive period (weakness)

Answer 13

• damage is inevitable if no attachment was formed by age 2
• evidence shows good quality aftercare can prevent damage
• Kulichova (1976) = 2 Czechslovakian twins were isolated from 18 months-7 years
• they were looked after by loving adults & had recovered by their teens
• period identified by Bowlby may sentitive and not critical