Maternal Deprivation

• Maternal deprivation

  Long term absence of care from a primary caregiver
• critical period

  2.5 years
• effects of maternal deprivation on emotional development

  affectionless psychopathy
• affectionless psychopathy

  Inability to experience guilt, empathy or strong emotions towards others
• effects of maternal deprivation on intellectual development

  delayed intellectual development characterised by low IQ
• Bowlby’s 44 thieves study

  • 44 thieves were compared with 44 non-thieves via interviews and questionnaires
  • 17/44 thieves had prolonged separation from their mothers during the critical period and 14 of these were classed as affectionless psychopaths
• conclusion from the 44 thieves study

  maternal deprivation is linked to criminal behaviour
• positive evaluations

  • 44 thieves study had an impact on child rearing after the war - changed the way children were cared for in hospitals
  • Concurrent validity - Gao et al also found that maternal deprivation is linked to psychopathy
• negative evaluations

  • researcher bias - Bowlby already knew which participants he expected to show affectionless psychopathy so may have influenced their responses
  • overestimated effects of deprivation - Rutter suggested that Bowlby studied privation rather than deprivation —> people can recover from deprivation
• privation

  failure to form any attachment in the first place