maternal deprivation
Cards (3)
- describe Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation
- prolonged emotional and physical separation from a maternal/paternal figure has long term emotional consequences in terms of development
- warm, continuous and harmonious relationship for infants is needed for mental health as vitamins are for physical health
- not time spent necessarily but emotional quality of relationship
- critical period- long-term negative emotional developmental effects take place if frequent separation continues after 2 and a half, continuing risk up to five years
- consequences include emotional maladjustment, psychopathy and depression
- describe Bowlby's 44 thief studyPROCEDURE
- analysed thieves in child's guidance clinic in London
- all kids emotionally maladjusted
- studied 88 kids, 44 caught stealing
- other 44 = control group
- thieves = affectionless because lacked shame and a sense of responsibility and affection
FINDINGS- affectionless thieves - 86% experienced separations frequently from mothers in childhood
- compared to 17% of the non-affectionless thieves
- almost none of the controls experienced early separations but 39% of all the thieves had
shows lack of continuous care results in lack of affection and psychopathy - evaluation of maternal deprivation theory?
- 😊related especially to emotional not just physical separation- Yarrow et al- severely depressed mothers had 55% kids insecurely attached compared to 29% in non-depressed group
- ☹️individual differences- not all kids affected by emotional disruption in the same way- Barret- securely attached infants cope better than insecurely attached, securely attached kids are more resistant to effects of deprivation
- 😊real world application- impacted care in hospitals post-war- frequent visitation is important (Bowlby and Robertson)
- 😊support for long-term effects- Bifulco- women separated from mothers because of maternal death or separation- 25% later experienced depression/anxiety compared to 15% who hadn't experienced separation