Psychological Explanations: Maternal Deprivation Flashcards
What did Bowlby stress?
The importance of the attachments that children make in early life and the consequences of children do not form these attachments
What may maternal deprivation in the critical period lead to?
Affectionless psychopathy, so families are important
What did Bowlby believe?
The relationship between the infant and its mother during the first five years of life was most crucial to socialisation
What could disruption of this primary relationship lead to?
Higher incidence of juvenile delinquency, emotional difficulties and antisocial behaviour
What did Bowlby study?
44 adolescent juvenile delinquents in a child guidance clinic and compared them with with non criminal disturbed juveniles
What did Bowlby aim to investigate?
The long term effects of maternal deprivation on people in order to see whether delinquents have suffered deprivation
What does the Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis suggest?
Breaking the maternal bond with the child during the early stages of its life is likely to have serious effects on its intellectual, social and emotional development
What did Bowlby find?
More than half the juvenile theives had been separated from their mothers for longer than six months during their first 5 years, in the control group only two had had such separation
What did Bowlby also find?
Several of the young theives (32%) showed affectionless psychopathy, none of the control group were affectionless psychopaths
What did Bowlby conclude?
The reason for anti social behaviour and emotional problems in the first group was due to maternal deprivation
What are 3 evaluation points?
- Practical applications: greater stability in child care practice
- Might be inaccurate: recall situations from years ago
- No cause and effect but correlational
