romanian orphan studies

Question 1

what is institution

Answer 1

dedicated to a particular task eg looking after children waiting adoption or caring for the mentally ill

• live there for a period time
• in the past - offered little emotional care

Question 2

romanian orphans

Answer 2

• 1966 dictator
• boost population:encourage large families and ban abortion
• many babies could not be cared for by families
• 1989:100,000 orphans in 600 state orpahanges
• very little stimulation ,days alone in crib ,malnourished

Question 3

rutter

Answer 3

aim:to test to what extent good care can make up for poor early experiences in institutions

procedure :
165 romanian orphanges
-adopted by british families :before 6 months ,before 2 years or after 2 years

• assessed ages 4 , 6 , 11 and 15 for physical , social and cognitive development
• control group :52 british children adopted at the same time

Question 4

rutter intellectual development

Answer 4

age 11 mean iq :
adopted before 6 months : 102
adopted before 2 years: 86 
adopted after 2years : 77
these differences remained at 15 years 

this shows that intellectual development can be recovered providing adoption occurs before age of 6 months

Question 5

rutter attachhment issues

Answer 5

findings :
adopted after 6 months:showed signs of disinhibited attachment
attention seeking , clingy , treat strangers with familiarity

maybe because of having up to 50 different carers in the orphanage

Question 6

rutter ao3

Answer 6

children were not randomly assigned to conditions

children adopted early may have been more sociable

therefore the adopted children were always adopted going to show less emotional and social underdevelopment

This can be a confounding variable

Question 7

cutural bias rutter ao3

Answer 7

• only based on romanian orphans
• can’t generalise results to the rest of the wider population
• unsure we would get the same results in different cultures
• also conditions were so bad (no physical , social or emotional stimulation) may not apply to other institutions

Question 8

rutter ao3

Answer 8

last assessment was at age 15

• we don’t know it the effects of institutionalism carried into adult life
• may still catch up with intelligence , emotional and physical development