PSYCHODYNAMIC: Bowlby’s 44 Thieves Flashcards
methodology: what type of experiment was Bowlby’s?
A series of case studies
What did Bowlby’s study look at?
An association between 2 groups of Ps (thieves & control and experiences of separation)
— control group but it is not an experiment
Describe the methodology of the thieves
- 44 children (31 boys, 13 girls) attending Child Guidance Clinic in London for emotional problems
- aged 5-17 with over half under age 11
- average IQ higher than the average for the population - used Binet scale to measure
- graded in terms of seriousness of stealing with grade 4 being serious and chronic, and grade 1 being one theft
— 22, 8, 10, 4 from grade 4 through 1 - also had emotional attitude recorded
Describe the methodology of the control Ps
- 44 children all attending the same clinic for emotional problems but had not stolen
- similar age, intelligence and economic status as the thieves
What were the mothers of both groups used for in the methodology?
Interviewed to access case histories of children
What type of sampling did Bowlby use?
Opportunity
Outline the procedure of Bowlby’s 44 thieves
- on arrival at the clinic a psychologist assessed their intelligence wiht the Binet scale and noted their emotional attitude
- whilst the child was being tested, a social worker recorded details of the child’s early psychiatric history
- the psychologist and social worker reported to the psychiatrist, Bowlby, who then interviewed mother and child
- all this info ( including school & other reports) was pooled together for a case conference
- the team discussed it and a provisional diagnosis was made
How many of the thieves were
- ‘normal’
- ‘depressed’
- ‘circular’
- ‘hyperthymic’
- ‘affectionless’
-‘schizoid’
- 2
- 9
- 2
- 13
- 14
- 4
There was a stark difference found between the types of characters in the criminal and control group. Outline one
- no affectionless characters amongst the controls
- statistically signif as demonstrates strong association between the affectionless and thieving
What is the link between stealing and character type?
- thieves in affectionless group steal more persistently and more seriously than any other group
- 13/14 affectionless characters were grade 4 thieves
Outline the link between affectionless character and separation
- regarding causal factors of the personality types, the incidence of prolonged separation from the mother was significantly higher in the affectionless characters (12 of 14) than in any other group
- clear link between thieving and affectionless type - 13/14 grade 4
- in total, 40% of the thieves had experienced prolonged separation
What % of the control group had prolonged separation?
5%
what did the remaining 60% of thieves experience that could explain their behaviour?
- 17 out of 27 had poor relationships with their mothers - had traits which mask unconscious hostility
- 6 had issues with fathers who openly hated them
Outline the overall findings
- more than one factor present in majority of thieves
- most common were genetics, separation from mother or ambivalent mother
What were Bowlby’s conclusions
- findings agree with psychodynamic assumption that early years are important to character development
- had it not been for separation of mother and child, it is possible they may not have become offenders
- crime is a social problem not just psych. Young criminal behaviour is an outcome of many complex factors that should be studied together
- children would not have become offenders if they had not had experiences that harm development
- study emphasises psychoanalytic factors
what assumption did Bowlby link his study to in his conclusion?
- early experiences vital to psychological development
- damage to mother and child relationship affects development of the superego, lading to a reduced sense of right and wrong
What are the implications of Bowlby’s study?
- if findings are correct, treatment should be offered to delinquents
- slow and difficult
- prevention is preferable
Evaluation (m+p): causal conclusions
- weakness
- causal conclusions like prolonged separation causing affectionless personality cannot be drawn from research as it was not an experiment
- no control of variables and therefore only a relationship can be suggested
- other variables could have caused emotional problems ie affectionless character cause separations - cannot be clearly distinguished
- lack internal validity
Evaluation (m+p): rich data
- strength
- Bowlby’s interviews on Ps and mothers produced rich detailed, qualitative data. This is strength as provides info into events which preceded childrens problems
- Bowlby was a very experienced psychiatrist
- 25 out of 56 pages of final report detailed case histories of 44 thieves
- has internal validity
Evaluation (m+p): bias data
- weakness
- Bowlby’s recording of interviews and conclusions may have been biased by his own beliefs (ie importance of early experiences)
- further bias arose with interviews as parents supply case histories - social desirability bias and inaccurate memory
- lacks scientific validity
Evaluation (m+p): the sample
- weakness
- all 88 children were emotionally disturbed therefore cannot generalise findings to all children
- only shows caught thieves - G1 could easily be G4, control could easily be thieves
- control weren’t ‘normal’ to compare to
- lacks population validity
Evaluation (e+i): confidentiality and privacy
- weakness
- report gives first names and initial of last name & case histories have lots of detail about lives - easy to identify
- not clear if Ps knew their info would be published
- breaks integrity
Evaluation (e+i): valid consent
- weakness
- initial data collect during treatment of patients and as info published approx 5 years later, it was probably the case that researchers did not decide to use data till later
- hard to gain valid consent at that point
- break responsibility and respect
Evaluation (e+i): social implications
- treatment could be offered to delinquents - earlier diagnosed the better
- prevention focused on so help such as substitute care should be rapidly provided - foster care not orphanage, qualified child minders or nursery workers
- juvenile crime not just psychological problem, also social and economic one
—> poverty, bad housing, lack of recreational facilities, etc lead to criminal behaviour - criminal behaviour outcome of many complex factors
- blame put on mothers who feel guilty to leave children
How many of each thief grade is there?
1: 4
2: 8
3: 10
4: 22
