Romanian orphan studies

Question 1

How many children were Romanian women required to have?

Answer 1

5

Question 2

What was the aim of Rutter’s research?

Answer 2

To investigate the extent to which good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions

Question 3

What was Rutter’s procedure?

Answer 3

• Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans as part of the ERA study.
• They had been adopted by English families.
• Physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at ages 4, 6, 11, 15 and 22-25 years.
• The control group was made up of 52 children from the UK adopted around the same time.

Question 4

How many adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development?

Answer 4

1/2

Question 5

What did the adoptees show at age 11?

Answer 5

They showed differential rates of recovery that was related to their age of adoption.

Question 6

What was the mean IQ of the children adopted before 6 months?

Answer 6

102

Question 7

What was the mean IQ of the children adopted between 6 months and 2 years?

Answer 7

86

Question 8

What was the mean IQ of the children adopted after 2 years?

Answer 8

77

Question 9

What was the procedure of Zeanah’s research?

Answer 9

• Assessed attachment in 95 Romanian children aged 12-31 months.
• Were compared to a control group of 50 children who had never lived in an institution.
• Attachment type was assessed using the strange situation.
• Carers were also asked about unusual social behaviour.

Question 10

What were the 4 findings of Zeanah’s research?

Answer 10

• 74% of the control group were securely attached, however 19% of the institutional group was securely attached.
• 44% of institutionalised children had disinhibited attachments as oppose to less than 20% of the control group.

Question 11

What is Rutter’s reasoning for a disinhibted attachment?

Answer 11

It is developed as an adaptation to living with multiple caregivers during the critical period of attachment

Question 12

What are the behaviours associated with a disinhibited attachment?

Answer 12

Equally friendly and affectionate towards familiar people and strangers

Question 13

What are the 2 issues with development?

Answer 13

• Lack of intellectual development
• Lack of emotional development

Question 14

Strength - Real world application

Answer 14

• Can improve the conditions for children growing up outside of a family home.
• Has helped psychologists understand the effects of early institutional care.
• E.g = care homes now avoid having large amounts of caregivers for the children.

Question 15

Strength - Fewer confounding variables

Answer 15

• Many children studied had experienced varying degrees of trauma, and it is difficult to disentangle the effects of neglect from those in institutional care.
• Therefore the results were less likely to be confounded by other negative early experiences.

Question 16

Limitation - Lack of adult data

Answer 16

• We don’t have data to answer some of the questions about the long-term effects of insitutional care.
• This includes questions about the development of mental health and forming adult relationships.