Effects of deprivation

• What is deprivation?

  long term separation
• What was Bowlby's Maternal deprivation hypothesis?


  • B believed that if an infant was unable to develop a warm, intimate, and continuous relationship with his mother or caregiver then the child would have difficulty forming relationships with other people and be at risk of behavioural disorders
  • B believed that if children experience repeated separations before 2 and 1/2 years, they are more likely to become emotionally disturbed - and that this possibly continued up to 5 years old
• What was the aim of Bowlby's 44 thieves study?


  to test the maternal deprivation hypothesis (if frequent separations are associated with a risk of behavioural disorders)
• What was the procedure for the 44 thieves study?


  • 88 children, between 5-16 years old at a child guidance clinic where Bowlby worked
  • 44 thieves - 16 of these thieves were 'affection-less psychopaths'
  • 44 maladjusted but not thieves or affection-less psychopaths
  • Bowlby interviewed the children and their families - asking if there had been any long term separation in the child's infancy
• What did Bowlby find in the 44 thieves study?

  • 86% of the affection-less psychopaths had early separation from their mother
  • 17% of the thieves had early separation from mother
  • 4% of the maladjusted had early separation from mother
• What did Bowlby conclude from the 44 thieves study?

  • the findings suggest a link between early separation and later social maladjustment
  • in its most severe form, maternal deprivation led to being an affection-less psychopath
  • in it's least severe form, maternal deprivation led to being anti-social behaviour (theft)
  • his findings support his MD hypothesis
• Evaluation of the 44 thieves study

  • evidence is correlated (linked), but we cannot say that one caused the other
  • data was collected retrospectively, so therefore not reliable - parents may over/under estimate the frequency of separation or just not remember correctly
• What are the negative effects children experience as a result of maternal deprivation?


  • delinquency - more prone to committing minor crimes and taking risks
  • reduced intelligence
  • increased aggression
  • depression
  • affection-less psychopathy - inability to show affection or concern for others, they act on impulse with no guilt
• How many years before Bowlby's main theory (evolutionary theory) did he create his maternal deprivation hypothesis?

  20 years before

  • the maternal deprivation theory was formulated in the 50s
• Real life application of Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis


  Impact on the economy:

  • women feel pressure to be at home with their children during the critical/sensitive period
  • if all women are taking time off work during this period, there will be gaps in jobs are therefore negatively impact the economy

  Impact on hospitals:

  • hospitals are now set up in a way which encourages parents to stay with their children whilst they are there, which reduces separation
• EVAL: Studying children in institutions

  • Bowlby studied children who had been hospitalised, under the age of 4, due to tuberculosis - nursing was strict with little personal care, many children were visited weekly by their families - psychologists assessed them between ages 7 and 14 and found that there were no different from children who had not been hospitalised (in terms of delinquency or problems forming relationships)
  • most studies (including Bowlby's) were conducted in institutions so they tend to be deprived in many ways (not just maternally)
• EVALUATION: challenging Bowlby's MDH

  • B didn't distinguish between different kinds of deprivation (privation, minor separation, deprivation) - it could be that it is privation only that has permanent and irreversible effects rather than deprivation
• Rutter 1981


  • believed that some families were more at risk due to poor housing or unsettled personal relationships
  • these factors may lead to both early separation and later maladjustment
  • therefore, whilst early separation and maladjustment may be linked, one does not necessarily cause the other
• Rutter - Isle of Wight

  • he interviewed 2000 boys on the Isle of Wight and found delinquency was most common in cases where boys had experienced separations due to unsettled situations in their families
  • Rutter suggested that it was family-discord rather than separation that causes delinquency and emotional maladjustment
• Spitz and Wolf 1946


  • studied 100 apparently normal children who became seriously depressed after staying in hospital
  • the children generally recovered well if the separation lasted less than 3 months, longer separations were rarely associated with complete recovery