Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• Separation - brief, usually provided with substitute care (e.g. babysitter)

  Deprivation - extreme form of separation, no adequate care is provided
• Bowlby's MD theory:

  • a continual presence of a single mother-figure (monotropy) is essential for healthy emotional and cognitive development
  • first 30 months is a critical period for psychological development
  • during CP (but up to 5 years) if there is an extended period of separation from the mother-figure, the infant is deprived of the attachment bond and no substitute care is provided psychological damage will be severe and irreversible
  • it will also result in an inadequate internal working model and so the child does not have a healthy template for later relationships
• Consequences of maternal deprivation:

  • negatively impacts intellectual development - the child has low intelligence (IQ)
  • negatively impacts emotional development. Likely to develop affectionless psychopathy.
  • Poor social development - poor social relationships, issues with relationships in adulthood
• affectionless psychopathy = the inability to experience guilt or strong emotions for others. It is associated with criminal/delinquent behaviour.
• Strength: supporting evidence from Bowlby's 44 thieves study. He compared 44 young thieves with a control group of non-thieves. 32% of thieves showed affectionless psychopathy, whereas 0% of the control group did. Almost 90% of affectionless psychopaths had experienced maternal deprivation. Around 20% of thieves who weren't ap experienced md. This supports the idea that md can have serious, long-lasting effects such as effects on emotional development which has been linked to criminal behaviour.
• Limitation: however, there is contradictory evidence for his theory from Lewis. Lewis partially replicated 44 thieves on a larger scale and found that a history of prolonged separation from mothers didn't predict criminality or difficulty in forming close relationships. This means that these findings challenge his theory as they suggest that maternal deprivation may not lead to negative consequences such as affectionless psychopathy.
• Limitation: bowlby may have confused privation and deprivation. The severe long-term damage Bowlby discussed is more likely to be the result of privation (never having formed an attachment bond) than deprivation (when the bond is made but then disrupted or broken). This means that it weakens Bowlby's theory because the conclusions drawn may not provide an accurate understanding of the effects that deprivation has on a child.
• A = affectionless psychopathy

  C = critical period

  I = IQ low

  D = deprivation

  I = Internal working model

  C = criminal behaviour