Romanian Orphan Studies Flashcards
What is insitionilasation
• Institutionalisation: refers to a place like a hospital or an orphanage where children live for long periods of time in such places there is often very little emotional care provided
• Psychologists look at the effects of it.
Brief explanation of Romanian orphan studies
ROMANIAN ORPHAN STUDIES
• Research on maternal deprivation has turned to orphan studies as a means of studying the effects of deprivation
• Look at EFFECTS of institutional care and the consequent institutionalisation arose in
Romania
• Former president required women for 5 children.
• Couldn’t afford to keep their children and the children ended up in huge orphanages in poor conditions.
Explain rutters study
RUTTER’S ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN ADOPTEE STUDY
• Procedure: followed 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain to test to what good care could make up for early experiences in institutions
• Physical, cognitive and emotional developments were assessed at 4,6,11,15 years
• A group of 52 British children adopted around the same time acted as a control group
• Findings:
• Physical development: majority severely undernourished
• Cognitive development: when first arrived showed signs of mental retardation.
• Mean IQ for those adopted before 6 months = 102
• Mean IQ adopted between 6 months and 2 years = 86
• Mean 1Q adopted after 2 years = 77
• Emotional development:
Those adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment.
: Soptems fore emin terarely displayed disinhibited attachment.
What is disinhibited attachment
• Disinhibited attachment typical effect of spending time in institution
• Friendly/ affectionate toward strangers and to people they know well.
Pros of insitionilasation studies
• Real life application: led to improvement in way children are cared for in institutions (Langton 2006)
• Children homes avoid a lot of caregivers for each child, instead have one/two key workers who play a central role
• Gives a chance for children to develop normal attachments and avoid disinhibited attachments
• Increases generalisability and can help children’s homes deal with institutionalised children
• Fewer extraneous variables than other orphan studies
• These findings have greater internal validity - certain that the effects of institutionalisation can explain the attachment behaviour in the orphans
Cons of insitionilasation studies
• the Romanian orphanages were not typical situations
• Conditions were so bad that results may not apply to institutional care or general deprivation
• Had poor standards of care when it came to relationships with children
• Lacks generalisability - cannot be applied to children who are in care
