Rutter and Songue-Barke

Question 1

when and what did rutter and Songue-Barke investigate

Answer 1

effects of institutionalisation in 2010

Question 2

what was their aim?

Answer 2

to investigate the effects of institutionalisation in a Romanian orphanage/institution

Question 3

what was their procedure?

Answer 3

-165 Romanian orphans were tested at regular intervals
111 were adopted before 2.5 years
54 were adopted before 4 years
-52 British counterparts were used
All were adopted before 6 months
-their physical, cognitive and social development was assessed

Question 4

what were the findings?

Answer 4

• the Romanian orphans differed from their British counterparts socially, physically (smaller and weighed less) and cognitively (mentally retarded).
• almost all of those adopted before 6 months developed similarly to their British counterpart by the age of 4.
• significant deficits remain in the minority of those who’d been institutionalised for 6 months.
  
  • many of those adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachments and had problems with peer relations.

Question 5

what were their conclusions?

Answer 5

• physical underdevelopment: usually physically small (lack of emotional care and poor nourishment caused deprivation dwarfism.
• intellectual under functioning: there are significant long-term consequences on overall development as a result of institutionalisation.

Question 6

what are 2 supporting evaluation points of the Romanian orphan study?

Answer 6

1.real life application
SINGER ET AL (1985)
found that adoptive mothers and their children are just as securely attached as non-adoptive families. this therefo demonstrates how rutter and songua-barke’s research has been applied in real life and used to improve the lives of children in institutional care.

2. allows researchers to gain an understanding of long-term consequences on development and behaviour. without longitudinal studies, researchers may come to invalid conclusions. For example, not being aware that the effects of institutionalisation can disappear once the child has had time to experience good quality care.

Question 7

what are 2 challenging evaluation points of the Romanian orphan study?

Answer 7

individual differences
-not all children experience negative effects of institutionalisation. some children were not as strongly affected as others. some Romanian children experienced special attention and so many have had some early attachment experiences.

other factors
-other factors aside from emotional deprivation may have impacted upon the orphans development. The orphans were also neglected, physically and cognitively. These multiple risk factors combined most likely contributed to the negative observed long-term concequences.