Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis

Question 1

Maternal deprivation

Answer 1

-The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother or substitute mother
- Bowlby believed continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development

Question 2

Critical period

Answer 2

First 30 months (approx 2.5 years)

Question 3

IQ and mental retardation

Answer 3

This can be abnormally low as a result of deprivation

Question 4

Affectionless psychopathy

Answer 4

Inability to experience guilt or emotion

Question 5

John Bowlby (1944)- 44 thieves

Answer 5

• He aimed to test his maternal deprivation hypothesis, in particular the effects of early separation and affectionless psychopathy
• He interviewed the children and their families, who attended a clinic where he worked. He compared the backgrounds of 44 juvenile thieves with the background of 44 other non-delinquent children
• He found that 14 out of the 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths, with none of the control group being affectionless psychopaths
• 12 out of the 14 affectionless psychopaths had experienced a long period of maternal separation before the age of 5 years
• Only 2 of the control group had experienced prolonged separation in their first 5 years
• From this, he concluded that separation in early life led to long term ill effects, particularly adversely affecting emotional development. Bowlby concluded that there was a link between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy

Question 6

44 thieves evaluation

Answer 6

• Sample was bias as it was all boys. This limited generalisability through gender bias, and specifically beta bias, whereby the differences between male and female are minimised
• The data collected was retrospective, which can produce inaccuracies
• The results are correlational, so we cannot prove cause and effect. Bowlby assumed that the early deprivation caused the later disturbance, but many other factors could be responsible e.g poverty
• Bowlby did not explain why the two in the control had experienced deprivation but had not become a delinquent

Question 7

Spitz and Wolf (1947)

Answer 7

• They conducted research in children’s orphanages in South America
• In one institution, babies were separated from their mothers at 3 months and placed into an orphanage to await fostering
• In another institution, annexed to a female prison, the babies of inmates were separated from their mothers but received regular visits so their mother could care for them
• The prison babies thrived while the orphaned children isolated anaclitic depression and development delay