Bowlby, maternal deprivation

• What is the maternal deprivation theory?

  • Bowlby suggested that the lack of a maternal figure and attachment during the critical period has long lasting social and intellectual effects
• Critical period

  • Bowlby proposed that we have a critical period of 30 months in the first few months of life
  • We must form an attachment during this period to survive and develop normally
  • If a child is separated from their mother or substitute care they will experience permanent psychological damage
  • Failure to develop emotionally and psychologically (underdeveloped)
• What are the effects on development?

  • Intellectual development
  • Emotional development
• Intellectual dev. effects

  • Abnormally low IQ
  • Demonstrated/supported by Goldfarb
  • FOUND lower IQ in children who had remained in institutional care compared to those who were fostered and had a higher standard of care
• Emotional dev. effects

  • Affectionless psychopathy
  • Inability to experience guilt and empathy for others
  • Prevents individual from developing normal relationships and may be linked to criminality
  • Lack remorse for actions
• 44 THIEVES (AO1)

  • Bowlby studied 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
  • Interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy characterised by a lack of affection, guilt for actions and empathy for victims
  • Families also interviewed to establish early separation from mother
  • Control group of non-emotionally disturbed young people
• 44 THIEVES FINDINGS

  • 14/44 were met affectionless psychopathy criteria
  • 12/14 had experienced prolonged separation from mother during first 2 years of life
  • 5/30 thieves had experienced separations
  • Control group only had 2/44 who experienced long separations
  • Concluded prolonged/early separation caused AP
• KOLUCHOVA TWINS (A03)

  • Limitation of Bowlby's theory, critical period as more of a sensitive one
  • 'Critical period' refers to that prolonged separation inevitably causes damage in which is irreversible
  • However the case of czech-slovakian twins suggests otherwise
  • Locked in cupboard from 18 months to 7 years by step mother
  • However, after being adopted and cared by two loving adults, they recovered fully
  • Therefore suggests that Bowlby overstated the importance of the critical period which may be more of a sensitive one
• LIMIATION DEPRIVATION VS PRIVATION (AO3)

  • Rutter claimed that Bowlby failed to account for the differences between deprivation and privation
  • Deprivation refers to the loss of a primary attachment figure due to prolonged separations after an attachment has developed
  • Privation, failure to form attachment in first place
  • The severe long term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation may be more likely to result from privation
  • Therefore limitation as Bowlby's theories may lack predictive value for cases of deprivation and may overstate the effects
• LIMITATION, RESEARCHER BIAS (AO3)

  • Bowlby carried out the assessments for AP himself and family interviews
  • Knowing the findings he was looking for may have resulted in a unconscious or conscious bias towards the way he asked questions which may have led to the findings concluded
  • Additionally Bowlby was influenced by Goldfarb’s research on the development of deprived children from wartime orphanages
  • This acted as a confounding variable as the children in his study had experienced early trauma and prolonged separation from their primary caregivers
  • Therefore suggests that Bowlby’s original sources of evidence for maternal deprivation had a lack of internal validity and clarity over conclusion formed
  • therefore calling to question the overall external validity of Bowlby’s theory on children experiencing deprivation without such a confounding variable