PSYCHODYNAMIC Evidence - Bowlby Flashcards
Context
Argued that prolonged separation from the mother during childhood can cause long lasting psychological problems
Shows disturbances in their emotions and behaviour
John Bowlby was a psychoanalyst and treated many children in his London clinic
Argued that habitual delinquency was caused at least in part by the prolonged separation of children from their mothers
Skeels and Dye (1939) found impaired intellectual development was common in children raised in orphanages
Skodak and Skeels (1949) found that when children were moved into a home for mentally retarded adults where they were given special care, they improves
Lack of emotional care leads to intellectual impairment’
Spitz and Wolf (1946) that separation from the mother caused depression and even death in infants
Aim
Bowlby noted that for nine out of ten criminal cases the charge is theft
A large amount of convicted thieves are young people
Theft is seen as a ‘disease of childhood’ and episodes later in life are mostly
44 thieves
Had 31 boys and 13 girls
Only a few had actually been charged in court due to their age
Ages of the children were between 5 and 17 years old
Binet scale was used to assess intelligence, generally average, or above average
Half the cases were serious thieving, 10 cases had been persistent, in 8 cases had only been a few thefts and 4 had one theft
Control group
44 children from the same clinic who had not stolen
Were of a similar age, intelligence and economic status
Referred to the clinic for emotional disturbance
Mothers
The mothers of both the control group and thieves were also involved to give background information and their case histories
Procedures
Arrived at the clinic and given mental tests by researcher
Also noted emotional attitude
At the same time, a social worker interviewed the child’s mother and noted all the early psychiatric history of the child
Both psychologist and social worker reported to the psychiatrist, then interviewed child and mother for 2 hours
Many children continued to meet with the psychiatrist weekly (about 6 months) and mothers talked to a social worker
These meetings and discussions enabled a detailed case history to be recorded and enabled the psychiatrist to diagnose the children’s emotional problems
Findings
Categorised into 6 groups
Only 2 of the thieves were diagnosed as normal, but stills shows characteristics of instability
13 were in ‘hyperthermic’ which show constant overactivity ‘ADHD’
14 were in ‘affectionless’ who lack normal affection
There was a stark difference between the thieves and the controls
No affectionless characters among the controls
Affectionless group would steal more persistently and more seriously
12 of this group and suffered more frequent separations
From the 30 other thieves, only 3 had experienced separations from the mother
After periods of prolonged separation, mothers have described reuniting with their children as ‘like looking after someone else’s baby’
Postnatal depression?
17 had poor relationships with their mothers, describing as ‘extremely anxious, irritable, hostility’
6 thieves had issues with their fathers
Traumatic events happen later in childhood could account for some of the delinquent behaviour
Genetic Factors
Incidence of mental illnesses in the parents and grandparents of the thieves is high and it is possible that genetic factors played a part in some cases
Heredity is an important factor in predisposing the development of delinquent and unstable personalities
Data is limited in many respects
Cannot conclusively state whether the child’s unstable behaviour is due to the influence of the genes they have inherited from their parents or growing up with unstable parents causes the child to be unstable
Early home environment
Believed that the early experiences of the children had a massive effect on their later personality and behaviour
Could explain their delinquent behaviour’
Problems with forming a good relationship with the mother would affect the development of the superego
Child does not know that it is wrong so will keep behaving like this
Bowlby argued that through stealing, the child hopes for emotional satisfaction to compensate for the trauma associated with prolonged separation
Proves ineffective as the symbol of love has been mistaken for the real thing
Emotional satisfaction is associated with obtaining possession of things
A child separated from its mother comes to crave both for her love and for its accompanying symbols
If this craving is unsatisfied then it later presents itself as stealing
Affectionless thieves lack the usual inhibition of criminal impulses that other children have
Lack of inhibition is due to the absence of a functioning superego which is meant to control selfish and altruistic desires
Superego requires a stable love-relationship
A poor relationship with the mother could shape a child’s later personality
A child’s mother is irritable, critical and nagging, the resulting frustration will produce anger and aggression in the child
Frustration will increase desire for affection
As the child also loves their mother, they will feel very anxious and guilty about having unkind impulses
Leads to pathological reactions
Main conclusions
A large proportion of children who steal persistently are of affectionless character
Resulted from them having suffered prolonged separation
Findings agree with the psychodynamic assumption that the early years are of great importance in character development
It is a social problem as well
Poverty, bad housing, lack of recreational facilities
Implications for treatment
Attempts should be made to diagnose and treat children at a much earlier age, when treatment is more influential
Bowlby - Prevention is better than a cure
But some may be unpreventable (death)
Strengths for mothers
One strength of the study was the social implications
Highlighted the importance of maternal care, made society recognise the role of the mother
Led to more rights for mothers
Could be argued that placing such emphasis on the mother, any problem could be blamed on the mothers lack of care or attention in early childhood
May cause unnecessary guilt for women of emotionally disturbed children
Effectiveness strengths
Gives insight
Holistic
Gives overview
Effectiveness weaknesses
Not scientific / Controlled
Can’t be repeated
Opportunity sampling
Ethical issues
Not everyone gave fully informed consent
Data was collected as a routine part of treating patients at the clinic an that the decisions retrospective
Confidentiality
First names given
Not clear if camilies were aware that information would be published
Potential trauma brought up
Evaluation methology and procedures
We cannot state the conclusively one thing caused the other
The affectionless nature of the children could lead to separation
Could be a third factor involved
Father (abusive?)
Socio-economic issues
Difficult child
Biased data
Data collected was rich in detail
High ecological validity
Minimal manipulation from the researcher
May lack validity
Vulnerable to researcher bias
Bowlby conducted the assessments himself, no use of inter-rater validity
His findings may have been unconsciously influenced by his own expectations
No use of double blind trials
May have over reported / under reported
Data was being collected retrospectively
Being asked to recall events from up to 14 years previously
Social desirability
Lacks reliability
Accused Bowlby of not distinguishing between deprivation and privation
Deprivation is the loss, privation is the complete lack of
The sample
Not representative
Only consisted of those who had been caught stealing
We cannot say that all children who steal will have had the same issues of separation
Control group was used in this study were also patients at the clinic
Suffered from a range of psychological and emotional issues
Not necessarily representative
Alternative evidence
Rutter and Sonuga - Banke (2010) - Compared Romanian orphans who were adopted before or after the age of 6 months
Those who were adopted later lagged behind a control group on all measures of physical, cognitive and social developments
The Case Of John (Robertson And Robertson (1971))
Made film recording of a variety of children under the age of 3 who were separated from their mothers, John was cared for at a residential nursery and the rest were cared for by a foster mother
John spent 3 days in a residential nursery was in hospital
Staff were extremely busy and had little time for him
Several different carers every day
He clung to a teddy bear for comfort and became more withdrawn to the point of despair
When reunited, John rejected her and continued to punish her with outbursts of anger for several months
The children who had been cared for by a foster mother appeared to develop no emotional problems from their separation
Maternal deprivation does seem to cause emotional difficulties for children
Can be prevented by providing high quality substitute emotional care with a single substitute caregiver
