weaknesses

• • Sensitive period, not critical  Rutter argued that the idea of a critical period is incorrect. His results suggest that children can still form a positive attachment after 2.5 years old; however, it just takes them longer to form one and it is more difficult to do so. He argued that the term should be ‘sensitive period’ and not ‘critical’.​
• • Correlational  Bowlby found a relationship between deprivation and later behavioural issues (affectionless psychopathy), but it is not clear that the early separation caused these issues, as there could have been other factors involved. Therefore, we cannot establish cause and effect relationship to conclude that separation leads to behavioural issues and affectionless psychopathy.​