emotional deprivation would have long-term effects on emotional development
value of maternal care - children need a warm, intimate, continuous relationship w/ mother or mother-subsitute
critical period - frequent or prolonged separations from mother will have negative effects if occuring before age of 2 1/2 (critical period) or 5 years (sensitive period)
long-term consequences of emotional maladjustment or mental disorders like depression
Describe Bowlby's 44 thieves study
44 juvenile thieves and 44 control group
analysed case histories of patients in child guidance clinic - all emotionally maladjusted
suggested some were affectionless psychopaths - lacked normal signs of affection, shame, responsibility or empathy
found 86% affectionless thieves had frequent separations before 2 yrs old compared w/ 17% other thieves and 2% control group
AO3 - strengths maternal dep theory
support for long-term effects - Bifulco - women experiencing separation from mothers for more than a year more likely to experience mental health problems than those who weren't separated - supports notion of critical period
real world application - impact on post-war childbearing and care in hospital
AO3 - limitations of maternal dep theory
Radke-Yarrow et al - may also be related to psychological separation - found depressed mothers more likely to have insecurely attached children
individual differences - Barret - not all children affected by emotional disruption in same way - reviewed studies + found securely may cope well with separation and insecurely may become especially distressed
Rutter - deprivation vs privation - Bowlby not clear whether bond had been broken or never formed