Evaluation

• There are methodological issues with the evidence.

  1. Extraneous variables may be responsible for poor development. The children in these studies were deprived of many things not just maternal care, for e.g. children growing up in poor quality environments and may have already suffered trauma as a result of WWil.
  2. Bowlby himself carried out the interviews to establish which children exhibited 'affectionless psychopathy'. The problem with this is that it may have other reasons to show lack of empathy which leads to affectionless psychopathy. This reduces the validity of Bowlby’s theory as it suggests we cannot establish cause and effect.