Section 3 : Attachment - Disruption of Attachement Flashcards
Attachment can be disrupted by…
- Separation
- deprivation
Define separation
Where a child is away from a caregiver they’re attached to (e.g. mother). Not a longer or permanent separation
Define deprivation
The loss of something that is wanted or needed. A more long-term or even permanent loss implied
Who studied longer term maternal deprivation
John Bowlby 1935
What did Bowlby argue
That long-term deprivation from an attachment could be harmful
How Bowlby produce his maternal deprivation hypothesis
- deprivation from the main carer during the critical period (3 years) will have harmful effects on a child’s emotional, social, intellectual, physical development
- long term effects of deprivation may include separation anxiety, lead to problem behaviour, future relationships may be affected by this emotional insecurity
What was the method of Bowlby 1944 - The Juvenile Thieves
- case studies were completed on the backgrounds of 44 adolescents who had been referred to the clinic where Bowlby worked because they’d been stealing
- there was a control group of 44 ‘emotionally disturbed’ adolescents who didn’t steal
What was the results of Bowlby 1944 - The Juvenile Thieves
- 17 of the thieves had experienced frequent separations from their mothers before the age of two compared with 2 from the control group
- 14 of the thieves were diagnosed as ‘affectionless psychopaths’
- 12 of these 14 had experienced separation from their mothers
What was the conclusion of Bowlby 1944 - The Juvenile Thieves
Deprivation of the child from its main carer in early life can have very harmful long term consequences
What are the evaluations of Bowlby 1944 - The Juvenile Thieves
- results indicate a link between deprivation and criminal behaviour
- can’t be said that one causes the other
- may be other factors (e.g. poverty) that caused the criminal behaviour
- case studies provide a lot of detailed information
- study relied on retrospective data which may be unreliable
What was Robertson and Robertson 1968
A study which investigated the effects of short term separation
What was the method for Robertson and Robertson 1968
- naturalistic observation
- used several children who experienced short separations from their carers
- they were observed and filmed
- e.g. boy called John about 18mo stayed in a residential nursery for nine days while his mother had another baby
What was the results of Robertson and Robertson 1968
- for the first two days, John protested at being separated from his mother
- started to try and get attention from the nurses but were busy with other children so he gave up trying
- after few days he began to show signs of detachment, more active and content than he been previously at the nursery
- but when his mother came to collect him he was reluctant to be affectionate
What was the conclusion of Robertson and Robertson 1968
The short term separation had very bad effects on John, including possible permanent damage to his attachment with his mother
What were the evaluations of Robertson and Robertson 1968
- Johns reaction might not have been due to separation, may have been down to new environment or he wasn’t getting much attention than he was used to
- there will have been little control of variables, difficult to replicate each individual situation
- study placed in a natural setting meaning results have high ecological validity but will be less reliable
What are the strengths of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis
- Goldfarb 1943 found that orphanage children who were socially and maternally deprived were later less intellectually and socially developed
What are the weaknesses of Bowlby’ maternal deprivation hypothesis
- evidence can be criticised
- Bowlby’s linked thieves’ behaviours to maternal deprivation but other things weren’t considered e.g. whether poverty they grew up in led them to steal
- the children in Goldfarb’s Study may have been most harmed by the social deprivation in the the orphanage rather than the maternal deprivation
Can the effects of disruption be reversed
Yes
Did Bowlby assume in his maternal deprivation hypothesis that the effects of disruption can be reversed
No
What did Skeels and Dye find
Found that children who had been socially deprived (in an orphanage) during their first two years of life quickly improved their IQ scores if they were transferred to a school where they got one to one care
