Effects of deprivation and institutionalisation on att.

• What does Bowlby’s Theory of Maternal Deprivation suggest?

  Attachment disruption leads to long-term difficulties
• What are the potential long-term difficulties for infants according to Bowlby’s theory?

  Cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties
• What are the effects of Maternal Deprivation?

  • Delinquency
  • Reduced intelligence (IQ)
  • Increased aggression
  • Depression
  • Affectionless psychopathy
• What is affectionless psychopathy?

  Lack of empathy and guilt
• When does deprivation occur according to Bowlby?

  If separated from primary attachment for long periods
• What was the aim of Bowlby's 44 Thieves Study?

  • Investigate links between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation
• What was the sample size of the teenage delinquents in Bowlby's study?

  44 teenage delinquents
• What was done to establish prolonged early separation in Bowlby's study?

  Families were interviewed about early separation
• What was the control group in Bowlby's study?

  44 non-criminal teenagers with emotional problems
• What were the findings regarding affectionless psychopaths in Bowlby's study?

  14 out of 44 were affectionless psychopaths
• How many in the control group had maternal deprivation in Bowlby's study?

  2 out of 44 had maternal deprivation
• How many affectionless psychopaths were found in the control group?

  0 out of 44 were affectionless psychopaths
• Maternal dep. AO3 - Poor evidence


  • 44 thieves study only provided correlational data
  • Study involved war orphans who would’ve been traumatised and often had poor care - may have been cause of later development difficulties
  • Children growing up from birth in poor quality institutions were deprived from many aspects of care
  • Bowlby himself carried out interviews - investigator bias
  • Reduces validity of explanation
• Maternal dep. AO3 - Counter evidence


  • Lewis replicated study on a larger scale
  • In a sample a prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty in forming close relationships
• Maternal dep. AO3 - Animal studies


  • Levy et al showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development though not other aspects of development were affected
  • However animal studies cannot be generalised to humans
• What is an institution in the context of this study?

  A place where people live long-term
• What was the age range of the Romanian children adopted in the study?

  Before the age of 2 and by the age of 4
• What aspects of development were tested in the children?

  Physical, emotional, and cognitive development
• What cognitive differences were observed at the time of adoption?

  Romanian children were behind in cognitive abilities
• What was the IQ of Romanian children adopted before six months?

  IQ of 102
• What was the IQ of Romanian children adopted after two years?

  IQ of 77
• How long did the cognitive differences persist?

  Until the age of 16
• What happened to most Romanian children adopted by age six months?

  They caught up with British children
• What attachment issues did children adopted after six months experience?

  Disinhibited attachment and peer relationship difficulties
• What is disinhibited attachment?

  Child does not prefer parents over strangers
• What behaviors characterize a child with disinhibited attachment?

  Clingy, affectionate, no stranger anxiety
• Why might disinhibited attachment occur?

  Raised by many different caregivers
• Effects of institutionalisation AO3 - Real world app.


  • Study helped change the way children were looked after when it comes to the adoption process
  • Before mothers were encouraged to keep their babies for a period of time by which the critical period attachment formation may have passed
  • Nowadays infants are adopted as early as one week old
  • This demonstrates the benefit of institutionalisation research to help improve the lives of children
  • Children in institutional care have a chance to develop normal attachment and avoid disinhibited attachment
• Effects of institutionalisation AO3 - Valid representation


  • The study was a longitudinal study
  • The research took place over many years, allowing them to assess the long-term and short-term effects of institutionalisation and the benefits from adoption
  • Therefore, the results of their research appear to be a valid representation of the effect of being placed in institutional care
• Effects of institutionalisation AO3 - Causality


  • Although much useful data has come out of Romanian orphan studies it is possible that conditions were so bad the results cannot be applied
  • Ex. Romanian orphanages were particularly poor standards of care and had extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation
  • Multiple risk factors involved when looking at the effects of institutional care
  • It is difficult to interpret the results of the study as solely being due to deprivation as there are many different influences that affected the children such as living in poverty