Bowlbys Theory of maternal deprivation

• Bowby proposed the theory of maternal deprivation to investigate the importance of continual presence of care from the mother or mother substitute for normal psychological development both emotionally and intellectually. The theory explains the impact of maternal deprivation if attachment is are not formed within the critical period of 2 years psychological damage is inevitable after this.
• He argued that separation from the mother may lead to maternal deprivation. Separation is where there is no presence of the primary attachment figure which can lead to deprivation of emotional care children with deprived maternal care are characterised with low IQ golfab found lower IQ in children’s institutions than fostered. Consequences of deprivation are delinquency due to delayed social development behaviour is usually outside acceptable norms
• Affection less psychopathy due to delayed emotional development children are unable to show caring behaviour to others or empathy for other people’s feelings and have little guilt for their own harmful actions Low IQ due to delayed intellectual development general cognitive abilities are lower than peers Golfarb found lower IQ in children from instructions compared to fostered children.
• Bowlby’s 44 juvenile delinquent thief’s study

  Bowlby investigated the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation. He conducted a retrospective study comparing experiences of prolonged separation from the mother under the age of 5 in a group of 44 delinquent teenagers accused of stealing. The control group were 44 maladjusted children who did not steal or commit other crimes we’re matched for age and intelligence
• The study was a natural experiment because the iv ( separation from mother ) is naturally occurring not caused by the researcher the DV ( affectionless psychopathy) is operationalised as lack of guilt , empathy . Anything else causing separation such as illness would be a confounding variables.
• Procedure

  An unstructured interview was used to gather qualitative data on signs of affectionless psychopathy. This condition was characterized by an inability to form emotionally intense relationships, a lack of affectionate behaviour, and a specific absence of guilt or remorse when causing distress to others. Additionally, interviews with the families were conducted to determine whether there had been any prolonged separations from the mother during the child’s early years.
• Findings

  Out of the 44 thieves, 14(32%) were identified as affectionless psychopaths , 86% of the affectionless psychopaths had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers before the age of 5. In contrast, only 17% of the thieves who were not diagnosed as affectionless psychopaths had experienced maternal deprivation. Additionally, only 2 individuals from the control group had experienced prolonged separation during their first 5 years of life. This suggests that maternal deprivation can have long term effects on emotional development including affectionless psychopathy.