Bowlby's research

• Procedure

  The sample consisted of 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing. All 'thieves' were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy: characterised as a lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions and a lack of empathy for their victims. Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the 'thieves' had prolonged early separations of their mothers. The sample was compared to a control group of 44 non-criminal but emotionally-disturbed young people.
• Findings

  Bowlby found that 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives. In contrast, only five of the remaining 30 thieves had experienced separations. Only two participants in the control group of 44 had experienced long separations. Bowlby concluded that prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.