maternal deprivation hypothesis

Question 1

what is Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 1

• If an infant is unable to form a continuous attachment with his mother during the critical period then he will be at risk of developing intellectual, behavioural, and emotional difficulties.
• Problems will arise if the infant is “deprived” of Mum for whatever reason.
• in the deprivation hypothesis, mum and baby have formed an attachment, but it is taken away or disrupted - baby is separated from mum for an extended period of time.
• Brief separation should be harmless.

Question 2

what are the effects of deprivation on intellectual development

Answer 2

• Bowlby believed that this would be delayed if the child suffered from deprivation during the critical period
• The main result would be an abnormally low IQ
• This has been demonstrated in multiple studies of adoption over the last 70 years

Question 3

what are the effects of deprivation on emotional development

Answer 3

• Bowlby identified “affectionless psychopathy” as a risk factor of deprivation
• This is the total inability to feel any emotion for other people e.g. guilt, empathy
• This prevents the child from forming normal relationships throughout their life
• This is associated with criminal behaviour

Question 4

what are the AO3 +ve’s for Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 4

• 44 Juvenile Thieves (Bowlby’s own study)
• Spitz and Wolf
• Robertson + Robertson
• implications

Question 5

expand on the +ve AO3 point: 44 Juvenile Thieves (Bowlby’s own study)

Answer 5

• 44 teenage criminals accused of stealing referred to a clinic.
  Interviews took place:
• with the ‘thieves’ themselves to see whether they fit the criteria for “affectionless psychopathy”
• • with parents to determine whether the thieves had experienced maternal deprivation during the critical period
• Compared to normal 44 teenagers - control group
  Results:
• 14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths
• Of the 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from Mum during the critical period
• only 5 of the remaining (non psychopath) thieves had experienced maternal deprivation + only 2 in a control group of 44 non thieves
  Conclusion:
• The results clearly show that maternal deprivation during the critical period is linked to thieving behaviour, and in the extreme, affectionless psychopathy.
• Totally supports Bowlby’s hypothesis.

Question 6

expand on the +ve AO3 point: Spitz and Wolf

Answer 6

• Studied 100 ‘normal’ children who became seriously depressed after staying in hospital.
• If the separation lasted less than 3 months the children recovered well
• If the separation lasted longer than 3 months the children never fully recovered
• Supports Bowlby’s hypothesis

Question 7

expand on the +ve AO3 point: Robertson + Robertson

Answer 7

• Robertson and Robertson, a husband and wife team, studied a number of children who experienced brief separation from their parents
• John- was put into a residential nursery when his mum went into hospital to have a baby
• Laura- went into hospital for treatment
  Visits from parents were severely limited
• Robertson recorded their experiences
• The children are so distressed at the separation and their experiences, even though they were only for a few days, that they caused lasting negative effects.
• This is support for Bowlby’s theory- deprivation lead to emotional issues.

Question 8

expand on the +ve AO3 point: implications

Answer 8

• Radical changes to allow parents to stay in hospital with their children
• Key worker schemes in child care settings to minimise the effects of short-term deprivation
• Extension of maternity Leave + paternity leave
  (ESSENTIALLY ALL CHANGES IN GOVERNMENT LEGISLATION)
  (Psychology and the economy)

Question 9

what are the -ve AO3 points for Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 9

• validity of interviews
• Lewis

Question 10

expand on the -ve AO3 point: validity of interviews

Answer 10

• Bowlby himself carried out the interviews with the thieves, there was no inter–rater reliability established
• We are relying on parent’s memories being accurate, this is problematic as memory is fallible

Question 11

expand on the -ve AO3 point: Lewis

Answer 11

• Replicated Bowlby’s study with 500 teenagers
• Found absolutely no link between maternal deprivation during the critical period and criminality or psychopathy
• No support for Bowlby at all!