deprivation

• Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis

  psychologists argue that emotional care is as important for development as physical care
• critical period

  serious effects if before 2.5 years and vulnerability until 5 years
• breaking the maternal bond during critical period

  -has serious effects on intellectual,social and emotional development

  -causes difficulty forming relationships

  -risk of developing behavioural disorders

  damage is irreversible and permanent
• supporting evidence

  Bowlby worked as a psychiatrist in a child guidance clinic in London - regular worked with children who had been caught stealing

  -observed that a lot of the delinquent thieves had experienced early and frequent separations = conducted research , 44 thieves study
• 44 thieves study

  -44 thieves and 44 non-thieves (aged 5-16)

  14/44 thieves classified as affectionless psychopaths - don't feel guilt for crime/no social responsibility

  • Bowlby interviewed the children and families about early life experiences
• 44 thieves findings

  86% of affectionless psychopath thieves had experienced maternal deprivation in early life

  compared to 17% of non-psychopathic thieves

  and 0 of the non-thieves

  = concluded deprivation leads to problems with emotional and behavioural development
• methodological issues with Bowlby's study

  uses interviews = retrospective data -they had to think back many years = produces inaccuracies

  researcher bias = Bowlby conducted all aspects himself - he diagnose children as affectionless psychopaths

  expectancy effects = study conducted to test his theory
• Bowlby's negative consequences for women

  during war women did typically 'male' jobs

  it was suggested that his theories were used by the government to make women stat at home with their children to free up the workplace for the returning men = research is socially sensitive
• Bowlby's positive applications

  before his theory only physical care was considered important so he stressed the importance of maintaining emotional bond = led to change in policies
• critical period & permanency criticization 


  critical period has been challenged - its not absolute - now called a sensitive period

  effects aren't permanent - studies show that problems can be reversed with extra effort
• contradictory research - rutter

  was argued that Bowlby confused cause & effect with an association, there is a link between deprivation and later problems but there was actually factors associated with deprivation which could be the cause
• contradictory research - isle of white study

  over 2000 boys (9-11 years)

  if deprivation was due ti illness/death of the mother then there was no correlation with delinquency but if deprivation was due to discord - boys 4 times more likely to be delinquent

  = suggests that its discord rather than maternal deprivation that causes later problems
• conclusion

  Bowlby concluded thar early deprivation affects later emotional development - however some children do recover from deprivation

  rutter argues deprivation is a vulnerability factor rather than a definite cause of future issues