maternal deprivation and institutionalisation

Question 1

Bowlby PDD model

Answer 1

• Protest = crying,screaming, kicking etc outward displays of anger/fear + clinging to mum
• Despair = calmer, child may appear sulky/apathetic, still feel anger/feel, may not react to people even the mum
• Detachment = if seperation continues child will resume reactions to others but will be superficial, if reunited with mother child may need to relearn relationship or reject her

Question 2

Robertson and Robertson study

Answer 2

showed Bowlbys PDD model of behaviour does occur with maternal deprivation, filmed seperations of young children going into care for a short time
‘John’ was a famous case study, he was taken into residential care for 9 days, John initially an outgoing and cheerful child showed severe distress and later despair and detachment that continued after he returned to his mother

Question 3

Robertson and Robertson evaluation

Answer 3

• the evidence comes from case studies, small sample + ideographic, cant be generalised however can be studied in detail = valid
• real-life application, results had large impact on way institution treat children, hospitals now reluctant to allow brief periods of seperation and have put beds to the side of hospital beds = more emphasis on role of attachment

Question 4

Bowlby 44 juvenile thieves study aim and method

Answer 4

• aim to examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation
• 2 groups of 44 children attending bowlbys child guidance clinic, 1 group had been reffered for thieving and were interviewed for affectionless psychopathy, lack of affection/guilt/empathy for victims + families were also interviewed to see if they had prolonged early seperations from their mothers - 1 control group experiencing emotional problems to see how often maternal deprivation happens in those not thieves

Question 5

Bowlby 44 juvenile thieves study results and conclusion

Answer 5

14 out of 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths, of this 14, 12 had experienced prolong seperation in the first 2 years of birth, only 5 of the other 30 had experienced seperations, in the control group only 2/44 had experienced seperations
=having seperations from mother in critical period can create an affectionless psychopath

Question 6

Bowlby 44 juvenile thieves study evaluation

Answer 6

• retrospective data, could be unreliable and memory may have changed
• small sample from same clinic so cant be generalised
• Rutter questioned whether his study demonstrates maternal dep or privation, argues he uses the 2 terms synonymously, privation=when a child fails to develop an attachment bond with 1pcg = flawed study

Question 7

rutter effects of privation study of romanian orphans aim and method

Answer 7

• to examine development of 165 romanian orphans raised in romanian orphanages who experienced effects of institutionalisisation, brought to britain for adoption in 1990s some adopted before/after 6 months
• children assessed on a variety of measures of physical/intellectual ability, group of 52 british adopted children also monitored - physical, cognitive + emotional development were periodically assessed at the ages 4,6,11+15

Question 8

rutter effects of privation study of romanian orphans results

Answer 8

physical and cognitive devlopment:
at time of adoption romanian lagged behind british orphans, most were small, underweight, showed cognitive deficits whereas control had no effects - mean IQ for those adopted before age of 6 was 102 compared with 86 for those adopted between 6 month+2 yrs and 77 those adopted after 2 yrs
social-emotional development:
romanian children adopted younger than 6 month developed normally in line with british and formed secure emotional attachments, adopted after 6 month showed disinhibited attachment and had problems forming peer relationships

Question 9

Bucharest early intervention project (Zeanah) procedure

Answer 9

attachment in 95 children ages 12-31 months who spent an average of 90% of their life in an institution was assessed and compared to a control group, attachment type measured using strange situation

Question 10

Bucharest early intervention project (Zeanah) results and conclusion

Answer 10

74% of control group found to be seucrely attached but onlt 19% of institutionalised group, 44% of this group were disinhibited
=effects of institutionalisation and privation can be overcome if an attachment is formed within first 6 months but after 6 months negative effects tend to be more permanent and seperation from mother alone isnt sufficient to cause negative outcomes as british children werent developmentally delayed

Question 11

Rutter institutionalisation evaluations

Answer 11

• real-life application, improvements to lives of children in care and importance of early adoption
• value of longitudinal studies, Rutter identified key patterns over time however they stopped at 15 so dont know long-term effects
• romanian orphanages were not typical, its possible the conditions were so bad that results cant be applied to understanding impact of better quality institutional care = lacks generalisability