romanian orphan studies - institutionalisation Flashcards

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1
Q

what is an institution

A

a place where someone has to live 24/7 for a long period of time (e.g. an orphanage, a hospital).

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2
Q

what is institutionalisation/when someone is institutionalised

A

they are suffering from the long term effects of living in an institution
often associated with very poor emotional care

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3
Q

what is privation

A

never having formed an attachment, never had the opportunity to build an attachment

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4
Q

what was Rutter’s study and aim

A
  • Rutter followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans adopted in Britain
  • Aim: to see whether good care could make up for the hell they had experienced in institutions
  • Physical, cognitive and emotional development was assessed at 4,6,11 and 15
  • Control group of 52 British children adopted at the same time was used as a comparison
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5
Q

what were the physical findings

A
  • Romanian orphans were smaller, growth had been stunted (due to malnourishment and lack of love) more under nourished + weighed less than the British orphans
  • By the time they were 4, some of the Romanian orphans had caught up-particularly the ones who were adopted before 6 months - early on during critical period
  • Physical Underdevelopment due to the lack of emotional care rather than lack of nourishment that psychologists say impacts upon the growth of the child.
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6
Q

what were the IQ (intellectual development) findings

A
  • By age 11 (and still remaining at 16) there were differences which hinged upon the age at which each child had been adopted.
  • IQ decreased according to age of adoption.
  • on average IQ 102 if adopted before 6 months and IQ 76 if after 2 and a half.
  • Cognitive development is slowed by lack of love/care (lower IQ)
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7
Q

what were the emotional + behavioural findings

A
  • The child is likely to experience difficulty controlling his or her emotions and moving forward in childhood
  • may display issues with conduct and general behaviour
  • Lacked stability in emotions - outburst of anger
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8
Q

what were the attachment findings

A
  • Those adopted before 6 months rarely demonstrated this attachment style
  • The child is likely to find it difficult to attach to the new caregiver
  • The child is likely to find it difficult forming and maintaining friendships
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9
Q

what was the disinhibited attachment finding

A
  • Those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment which involves attention seeking, clinginess and indiscriminate treatment of all adults (known or unknown)
  • Likely caused by the many carers the child experienced in the institution (children will treat strangers with inappropriate familiarity as they are so desperate for love).
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10
Q

what are the +ve AO3 points for Rutter’s study

A
  • lack of confounding variables
  • real life application
  • support for disinhibited attachment
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11
Q

expand on the +ve AO3 point: lack of confounding variables

A
  • there are fewer confounding variables than other studies into institutional care.
  • That is because children will have often suffered a bereavement or neglect/abuse prior to institutionalisation which acts as a massive confounding variable. → adopted so early on, in institution really early on
  • in Rutter’s study we can be fairly confident that it is the institution causing the behaviour/traits we are measuring
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12
Q

expand on the +ve AO3 point: real life application

A
  • Apparently orphanages have been made better as a direct result of Rutter’s research.
  • Where children are institutionalised they are given a key worker who they can bond with.
  • This allows them to develop attachments that will prevent damage to their development
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13
Q

expand on the +ve AO3 point: support for disinhibited attachment

A
  • Zeanah (2005) compared 136 Romanian children (aged 1 – 2.5) who had spent over 90% of their lives in an institution to a control group of Romanian children who had never been in an institution.
  • Institutionalised children much more likely to show disinhibited attachment
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14
Q

what are the -ve AO3 points for Rutter’s study

A
  • Generalisability
  • Perhaps the children needed more time?
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15
Q

expand on the -ve AO3 point: generalisabilty

A
  • The results from the Romanian orphanage studies cannot be easily generalised
  • This is because the standard of care in these institutions was so atrocious that it is incomparable to any other institutional care
  • This means that results about institutionalisation and its effects cannot be generalised
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16
Q

expand on the -ve AO3 point: perhaps the children needed more time

A
  • Psychologists have criticised the conclusions Rutter and Zeanah have come to and suggested that perhaps if the children had been given more time to adjust before the assessments were made, they would have shown greater evidence of recovery.
  • More data should have been obtained through the teenage years, early twenties and onwards in order to draw out whether the effects of institutionalisation were irreversible.