Psychodynamic theory : classic research - Bowlby

Question 1

what has been argued within this research?

Answer 1

prolonged separation from the mother can lead to psychological problems

Question 2

What did Spitz and Wolf believe?

Answer 2

they studied 90 infants separated from there mother and found out that they had become severely depressed - 1/3 of the kids died before there first birthday

Question 3

what did Skeels and Dye find out?

Answer 3

children separated from there mothers suffered in terms of there intellectual development. Later study skodak and skeels - showed than when moved into an orphanage with special care so damage is caused due to emotional care

Question 4

what is the methodology of this particular research?

Answer 4

• 44 thieves
• 44 children who had stealing as a problem were referred to a child guidance clinic
• over half were under 11 but age range was between 5-17 years old
• 31 boys and 13 girls
• the thieves had average or slightly above average intelligence with IQ between 85-114 (100 being the average IQ)
• only 2 children had above 85 IQ
• sorted into how serious + how often they had committed theft - grade 1(once) - 4 children - 22 children - grade 4 - some of them had been stealing for more than 3 years
• a control group of children(44) used with similar age,sex and IQ that were emotionally disturbed but do not steal - control group was also referred to the clinic
• mothers of all children on care histories of children through interviews - 8 in grade 2, 10 in grade 3, half in grade 4

Question 5

Proceedures of the study?

Answer 5

• sample found through opportunity sample
• arriving at the clinic - given mental tests by a pyschologist to test there intelligence(Binet scale test used) - also noted emotional attitude of the child
• social worker interviewing the child’s mother and recorded the premlimary details of the child’s early psychiatric history
• Pyschologist and also the social worker reported to the pyschiatrist(John Bowlby). interviewed the mother and the child
• after the examination that had further lasted 2 hours the team considered school and other reports and then discussed there conclusion

Question 6

findings?

Answer 6

• determining what previous experiences might have made the thieves turn to stealing, distinguish between different personality types - difficult to do this with children’s whose whole personality may not have formed yet - 6 maim personality types

Question 7

what were the 6 main personality types?

Answer 7

normal - children’s characters appear fairly normal and stable
depressed - children who have been unstable and now in a depressed state of mind
circular - unstable children who show alternating depression and over activity
affectionless - children characterized by lack of normal affection, shame or sense of responsibility
hyperthymic - children who tend to be constantly over active
schizoid - children who show marked schizoid or schizophrenic symptoms

Question 8

the affectionless character?

Answer 8

• he identified one group of children that were affectionless - there was a clear pattern that emerged in relation to delinquency(bad behaviour)
• out of the 44 thieves - 14 were classified as “affectionless”
• of the “affectionless” children 12 of these children had experienced frequent separation from there mothers
  Betty I. - place in foster home at 7 months - parents split up, she moved from one foster home to another, spent a year in Covent school before she returned home at the age of 5

Question 9

other factors?

Answer 9

• although 17 of these thieves experienced early separation - considering the other 27 they had mothers that were - “extremely anxious, fussy or were rigid, domineering and oppressive, they unmark unconscious hostility”
• 5 of 27 had fathers who hated them - expressed this openly
• experiences reported by the non delinquent group(not badly behaved)
• early experiences might explain emotional problems and not delinquency(being badly behaved)

Question 10

conclusions?

Answer 10

• children would not have been offenders if they did not have experiences that were harmful to there healthy development - harmful experiences - children offender
• Bowlby focused on mother and child relationships’ affect on emotional development
• proposed that the damage has an effect on our superego - do not have a strong sense of our right and wrong
• juvenile delinquency in this study shows that factors affecting this like psychoanalytic factors like early experiences rather than bad housing

Question 11

other conclusions?

Answer 11

• if findings correct - implication should be that the treatment should be offered too delinquents - extremely slow and a difficult process - better the treatment earlier the diagnosis is made - prolonged separation of a child and her mother may be unavoidable

Question 12

genetic factors?