Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

• Evaluation eXtra

  Conflicting evidence - hard to replicate the 44 thieves study (no association between early separation and later psychopathy) but recent research has shown links between poor quality maternal care and high levels of psychopathy in adults
• Evaluation - positive

  Research has provided some support to show that deprivation can have some long-term effects (rats separated from mother from as little as a day has a permanent affect on social development)
• Flawed evidence in Bowlby's research:

  • Bowlby interviewed the family of 44 thieves and carried out affectionless psychopathy assessments, creating bias as he knew what teenagers would display affectionless psychopathy
  • Bowlby based his research on Goldfarb’s study which had many confounding variables
• Deprivation and privation:

  • Children studied by Goldfarb may have been privated rather than deprived, as they may not have formed strong attachments
  • This concept can also be applied to the 44 thieves who had disrupted early lives, leading to an overestimation of effects in children’s development
• Critical vs sensitive periods:

  • Bowlby suggested damage was inevitable if a child didn’t form an attachment in the first two and a half years of life
  • Good quality aftercare can prevent most or all of this damage, as seen in the case of Czech twins abused from 18 months to 7 years old but had recovered by their teens
• Maternal deprivation

  emotional and intellectual development consequences of separation between a child and his/her mother or mother-substitute. Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development
• Separation vs deprivation

  separation is when the child isn’t in the presence of the primary attachment figure. this only becomes deprivation if the child is starved of emotional care or experiences prolonged periods of separation from the mother-figure
• Bowlby’s research - procedure

  • 44 ‘thieves’ interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy (characterised as lack of guilt about actions and empathy for victims)
  • families also interviewed in order to establish whether ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers
  • sample compared to control group (44 non-criminal young people but not emotionally-disturbed)
• Bowlby’s research - findings

  • 14 of 44 thieves describes as affectionless psychopaths (12 experienced prolonged separation from mother in first 2 years of life)
  • only 5 of remaining 30 thieves had experienced separations and 2 participants in control group
  • separation/deprivation causes affectionless psychopathy
• How does maternal deprivation affect intellectual development?

  If children are deprived of maternal care for too long during critical period intellectual development is hindered (categorised by a low IQ). Goldfarb found a lower IQ in those who remained in institutions compared to those who were fostered
• How does maternal deprivation affect emotional development?

  Lack of emotional care from a maternal figure causes affectionless psychopathy where there is an inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others. This prevents someone from forming fulfilling relationships and is associated with criminality