Research On Deprivation

Question 1

Short Term Effects : James Robertson and John Bowlby PDD model

Answer 1

Protest - acute distress aimed at caregiver to reurn can last hours to a week
Despair - child finally quiet is often mistaken for calming down but shows hopelessness, less active, cries, rocks for self comfort
Detachment - child is hostile upon return of caregiver, looks for secondary attachment figure, welcomes attention of other and sociable

Question 2

Long term effects : Bowlby (1953) Maternal deprivation hypothesis

Answer 2

Children need a warm, caring and continuous relationship with a caregiver to continue positive mental health. Shows inevitable negative effects before 2 and half years and no mother substitute available, continuing risk for up to 5 years. Long term effect is vulnerability to mental health issues - 44 Juvenile Thieves - prolonged separation leads to adolescence delinquency

Question 3

Reducing negative effects: Robertson and Robertson (1967 - 1973)

Answer 3

By providing a secondary attachment figure whilst mothers are being hospitalised, substitute care can be beneficial because children showed fewer negative effects from separation if substitute care is provided (1-1 sensitive caregiving) shows separation does not necessarily result in emotional deprivation if substitute sensitive emotional care is provided

Question 4

Robertson (1952)

Answer 4

Recorded Laura’s (age 2) behaviour is hospital and was very careful in design to only record behaviour upon separation 2 times a day at the same time for the same 40 minutes of make sure filming was not only done when she was distressed it eliminate confirmation bias.
Also, recordings made to have inter-rater reliability because it can be checked by others

Question 5

Weakness of Robertson (1952)

Answer 5

Detailed evidence is idiographic so has limited application, despite Laura being a fairly average child and matched the anecdotes of the nurses as to what happens when a child is separated.
Same PDD model was observed in people who were in threatening situations.

Question 6

Weakness = correlational

Answer 6

In 44 thieves study, children who were examined also lived in worse conditions, low socioeconomic status, bad relationships in household shows other factors could be associated with affection less psychopathy in adolescence and not only due to maternal deprivation. This suggests findings show a correlation and not causation. Most likely a vulnerability is created to mental health issues.

Question 7

Weakness = Rutter (1981)

Answer 7

No clear distinction in Bowlby’s explanation between deprivation and privation. Bowlby mixed the toe together despite different consequences.

Question 8

Application

Answer 8

Changed care in hospitals
- in the 1950s children were not allowed to visit mothers in hospital at all or only for a limited hour as to not distress the child. Whereas, to fish it is unthinkable that a child does not see a parent due to research.
Allows us to understand how related mental health issues can be prevented because we understand their cause.

Question 9

Define privation

Answer 9

Privation is the lack of an attachment bond in early childhood from e.g. losing a parent to warfare.

Question 10

Case studies of privation

Answer 10

Kulchova - Czech Twins
Curtis - Genie
Freud and Dann - Nazi death camps survivors

Question 11

What happened to the Czech twins

Answer 11

• abused by stepmother and kept in cellar until the age of 7
• had development impairments such as not being able to speak, gestural communication
• adopted by loving twins at age 14 and became developmentally normal, had their own children with church they formed secure attachments

Question 12

What happened to Genie

Answer 12

• severe privation and abuse
• extensive rehabilitative effort after no langauge
• limited success - some attachments, some language, adopted at 18

Question 13

What happened it Freud and Dann

Answer 13

Child Nazi death camp survivors
- never were able to form attachments
- hostile to adults, limited language
- adopted at 6 years and formed attachments but mental health issues like depression persisted

Question 14

Rutter’s ERA (English and Romanian children adoptees study)

Answer 14

Longitudinal study on 165 Romanian orphans
- spent early life in Romanian institutions, none emotional care, then adopted in England
- tested at adoption and ages 4,6,11 and 15 and early adulthood
- by age 6, almost all Romanian babies caught up to English control group in development despite Romanian babies being clinically retarded and weighing less that controls
- follow ups found deficits remained

Question 15

Can the negative effects of privation be reversed?

Answer 15

Yes
Disinhibited attachment, physical underdevelopment and poor parenting can be reversed if good emotional and physical care is provided, mainly if adhered before 6 months - shown in ERA study

Question 16

Strengths of ERA study

Answer 16

Good methodology:
- 165 sample
- control group
- longitudinal study to show individual differences
- number of developmental tests testing language and cognition and emotional development to make comparisons

Question 17

Weakness of case studies

Answer 17

Czech twins studies showily be treated with caution due to confirmation bias where researchers have removed parts that don’t fit their conclusions are misleading and inaccurate

Question 18

Turner and Lloyd (1985)

Answer 18

Other factors may have been involved in the Romanian orphans study that could explain why some children were more successful at recovering than others
- healthy impact = conditions were appealing and lack of cognitive stimulus affects development too followed by poor subsequent care
- privation alone is unlikely to be the reason for all of the developmental delay

Question 19

Weakness = long term effects are unclear

Answer 19

Developmental differences due to some children being adopted later also means they spent longer in institutions and just because they are developmentally lagging behind children who were adopted early doesn’t mean they won’t catch up rather than permanent deficits.
It is difficult to draw conclusions about the effect of age on privation

Question 20

Application

Answer 20

Lives of children experiencing privation can be improved
- children should be removed from institutions as farts as possible
But - research shows that adoption process has been refined by psychological research because we realised how important early adoption is and institutions such as the ones the romain children’s were in have been decreased due to the negative consequences it has