bowlbys maternal deprivation

• what did bowlby say?

  'mother love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health'
• what is seperation

  absence of the primary caregiver for a short period of time
• what is deprivation

  a loss of something that is wanted or needed for an extended period of time
• what do both separation and deprivation cause when added together

  bond disruption
• what is the critical period for this study

  2 and a half years and he also believed there was a continuing risk up to the age of 5.
• what is bowlbys maternal deprivation theory

  separation will not neccessarily harm development if substitute care is provided
• if separation is on going what occurs

  deprivation
• what are the effects of bowlbys theory

  emotional damage, abnormally low IQ, poorer interlectual development
• what is the emotional effect on development

  being prevented from forming a normal relationship and is associated with criminality as they lack remorse
• what is the anaclitic effect on development

  involves appetite loss, sleeplessness and impaired social and interllectual development
• what did spitz do

  visited poor orphanges in south america. infants recieved little affection or warmth from staff and many suffered anaclitic depression
• what was the procedure

  bowlby looked at 44 children in the child guidance clinic where he worked who had been in trouble for stealing.

  he recorded whether children had experienced prolonged separation from their mother or not.

  they had interviews to classify them as affectionless psychopaths or not, then compared them to a control group of 44 non criminals
• what were the findings

  17/44 thieves experienced deprivation, 15/17 were classified as affectionless psychopaths and 2/44 non criminals experienced separation from their mother.
• What is a strength

  Support for the maternal deprivation hypothesis

  Bifulco et al studied 250 women who has lost mothers through separation/ death before they were 17 .

  They found the separation / death doubled the risk of anxiety disorders in adult women.

  Therefore supports critical period
• what’s a weakness of this study

  interviews are self report techniques.

  bowlby conducted them himself.

  therefore this may creat investigator bias because he knew who had / had not been separated from their mothers.

  therefore lacks internal validity
• what’s another weakness of this study

  cause and effect is difficult to determine

  ppts had to recall retrospectively which could lead to inaccuracies.

  results only suggest a correlation between maternal deprivation and effectionless psychopathy.

  therefore, we cant say one causes th other for definite.