Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation:

  • Prolonged emotional deprivation would have long term consequences in emotional development
  • Value of maternal care: children need a warm, intimate & continuos relationship with a mother or a permanent substitute
  • Critical period - emotional maladjustment will only occur if separation occurs before the age of 2.5 years & if there's no substitute mother
  • Continuing risk up until the age of 5
  • Long term consequences would be emotional maladjustment or mental health problems
  • 44 juvenile thieves study
• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation AO3:

  • ✅ Support for long term effects - 25% of women who experienced maternal deprivation later experienced anxiety or depression compared to the 15% of control group
  • ✅ Real world applications - lead to major social change (e.g. hospitals )
  • ❌ Emotional separation - can also lead to deprivation, 55% of depressed mothers had insecurely attached children
  • ❌ Deprivation vs. privation - difference between bond forms and is then broken & bond never forms - lack of clarity
• Bowlby's theory for maternal deprivation AO3:

  • ✅ Support for long term effects
  • ✅ Real world applications
  • ❌ Emotional separation
  • ❌ Deprivation vs. privation
• Key study - 44 Juvenile Thieves:

  • Bowlby (1944)
  • Aim: to investigate the long term effects of maternal deprivation
  • 88 children : 2 groups of 44, a thief group & a control group
  • Matched pairs design
  • 14 of the thief group were affectionless psychopaths - lacked normal signs of affection & responsibility
  • Children & parents were interviewed
  • Findings: 12 out of 14 of the affectionless psychopaths had had prolonged separation before they were 2, compared with 5 out of 30 of the thiefs & only 2 of the control group
• 44 Juvenile thieves AO3:

  • ❌ Interviews - interviewer effects & social desirability bias
  • ❌ Retrospective data - relies on memory - lacks validity
  • ❌ Natural experiment - can't manipulate so can't establish cause & effect
  • ❌ Extraneous variables - child's temperament, quality of substitute care