Bowlby's Theory Of Maternal Deprivation A.g

1. Maternal Deprivation

2. Emotional Care

3. Critical Period

4. Long-term Effects:

5. Intellectual Development

6. Affectionless Psychopathy

- His theory of monotropy suggests continuous care from mother figure is essential for normal psychological development.

- Theory of maternal deprivation explains what happens if this is disrupted.

- Emotional care is just as important as physical care for child's development.

- If infant is unable to develop warm, intimate, continuous relationship w/ mother, they would have difficulty forming relationships w/ other people & be @ risk of behavioural disorders.

- First 2 & half years of life = critical period for psychological development.

- If a child is deprived of emotional care b/c of frequent or prolonged separation from mother in the absence of suitable care then psychological damage is inevitable.

- Continuing risk until age 5 = sensitive period,

-Children who are deprived of maternal care for too long, during critical period, they would suffer mental retardation.

- Characterised by abnormally low IQ.

- Demonstrated in studies of adoption.

- Inability to experience guilt or strong emotions for others.

- Characterised by lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions & lack of empathy for their victims.

- Prevents person forming normal relationships & is associated w/ criminality.

- Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate feelings of victims so lack remorse for their actions.

Aim

- Investigate the link between affectionless psychopathy & maternal deprivation.

Procedure

-Natural Experiment

- 88 patients in Child Guidance Clinic in London.

- Children in clinic were emotionally maladjusted.

- 44 accused of stealing.

- Other 44 hadn't (control group) but still emotionally disturbed.

- All thieves interviewed for affectionless psychopathy, characterised by: lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions & lack of empathy for their victims.

- Families interviewed to establish whether the thieves had prolonged early separation from mother.

Findings

- 14/44 thieves (32%) could be described as affectionless psychopaths.

- 12/14 (86%) had experienced prolonged separation from mother in critical period.

- Early separation often consisted of continual or repeated stays in foster homes or hospitals = rarely visited by family.

- 5 of remaining 30 thieves had

experienced prolonged separations.

- 2/44 (4%) of control group, had experienced long separations.

Conclusion

- Prolonged maternal deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy = lack of continuous care may cause maladjustment or even a psychological disorder.

- Before Bowlby's research children were separated from parents when they spent time in hospital

- medical professionals believed hospitals only had needed to look after the physical needs of the child & discouraged parents from visiting (children seemed to get distressed by visits).

- One of Bowlby's colleagues (Robertson) filmed a 2 yr old called Laura during the 8 day period she was in the hospital.

- She was frequently distressed & begged to go home.

- Concluded that substitute emotional care can prevent bond disruption & prevent the harmful effects of separation/deprivation.

- Their research led to major changes in the way children are cared for in hospitals.

- Illustrates +ve impact that research into attachment has on childcare practices.

- Not all research supports Bowlby's findings.

- Lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, 500 young pple.

- In her sample, a history of prolonged separation from the mother didn't predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships.

- Problem for the theory of maternal deprivation b/c it suggests other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation.

- 44 thieves study has some major design flaws: bias b/c Bowlby himself carried out the assessment for affectionless psychopathy& family interviews, knowing what he hoped to find, so there may have been investigator bias.

- Questions validity of finding.

- Not all children are affected by maternal separation in the same way.

- A researcher, after reviewing various studies concluded securely attached children coped reasonably well w/ separation.

- Insecure attachment children become especially distressed.

- Similar conclusion drawn from another one of Bowlby's studies.

- Bowlby suggested children who were securely attached, coped better & were more resilient to the separation.

- Both studies therefore suggest individual difference, such as attachment types should be considered when assessing the -ve effects of disruption of attachment.

- Rutter criticised Bowlby's view of maternal deprivation b/c it didn't make clear whether the child's attachment bond had formed but had broken (deprivation), or had never formed in the first place (privation).

- Rutter claimed severe long-term damage Bowlby associated w/ deprivation is actually more likely to be the result of privation.

- He therefore used the term privation to refer to situations where the child fails to develops an attachment bond w/ one CG & deprivation to refer to situations where a bond does develop, but through prolonged or traumatic separations is disrupted or lost.

- Highlights the importance of distinguishing between deprivation & privation, as now, Bowlby's theory has questionable internal validity.