PD maternal deprivation (bowlby) Flashcards
What link did Bowlby argue?
He argued that there’s a link between sternly maternal deprivation and anti social behaviour. He argued that a child needs a good, continuous relationship with its primary carer.
What did Bowbly say the critical period was?
The relationship was key to form in the first 5 years of the child’s life.
What could happen if the attachment and relationship didn’t happen in the 5 years?
It could lead to criminal behaviour and affectionless psychopathy, which is an inability to show affection or concern for others. This was supported by Bowblys 44 thieves study
How does the murder of James Buldger link to maternal deprivation?
Two children were involved in killing James Buldger, and it was later found out that both of these don’t have good relationships with their parents, and they had poor childhoods.
What was Bowlbys 44 thieves study?
He interviewed 44 thieves, and compared them to a control group of 44 non criminals. He found that 14/44 of the thieves had experienced maternal deprivation in their childhood, and 12/14 of them also had affectionless psychopathy. However in the control group of non criminals, only 3/44 experienced maternal deprivation
Strength: why is Bowblys research a positivity thing?
It proves his theory of maternal deprivation linking directly to anti social behaviour, proving to be an accurate and valid explanation
Strength: what does he theory suggest about parents and childhood?
His work shows the need to consider the role of the parent and early childhood experiences when explaining criminality
Weakness: Bowbly did a later study and didn’t find the same results, why is this bad?
Bowlbys own later study of 60 children, who had been separated from their parents for a long period before they were 5, found no evidence of affectionless psychopathy. Therefore his original study lacks replicability and reliability as it hasn’t been done accurately more than once.
