Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation

• What is Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation?

  • Presence of a mother figure is essential for normal psychological development
  • Both intellectual and emotional development
  • Being separated from a mother in early childhood has serious consequences
  • These consequences are permanent and irreversible
• What did Bowlby state is the Critical Period?

  2.5 years
• What are the intellectual effects on development according to Bowlby?

  • If children deprived from maternal care for too long during critical period they would suffer mental retardation
  • Lower IQ for those who had remained in institutions compared to those who had been fostered
• What are the emotional effects on development according to Bowlby?

  • Have affectionless psychopathy (the inability to experience guilt or empathy)
  • Prevent them from developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality
• Evaluation of Maternal Deprivation: Flawed Evidence

  • Bowlby's 44 Thieves study is flawed because it was Bowlby how carried out the interviews and assessed affectionless psychopathy
  • Investigator bias
  • Bowlby was also influenced by another researcher's study so his research cannot be generalised today
• Evaluation of Maternal Deprivation: Deprivation or Privation?

  • Deprivation is the loss of a primary attachment figure after the attachment has developed
  • Privation is the failure to form an attachment in the first place
  • The long term damage deprivation leaves may be due to privation instead
  • Bowlby may have overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation in children's development
• Evaluation of Maternal Deprivation: Effects can be reversed

  • Bowlby's idea of a critical period is flawed
  • Suggests the effects of maternal deprivation were irreversible
  • There is evidence that good quality aftercare can prevent most or all of this damage
  • Visiting their primary attachment figure regularly helps
  • This means lasting harm is not inevitable even in severe cases in privation
• Evaluation of Maternal Deprivation: Practical Application

  • Another strength of Bowlby's theory is that it has had wider practical application
  • In orphanages they now have to take account of emotional needs
  • Fostered children have to be kept in one stable home rather than being moved around
  • Bowlby's theory has highlighted the importance of the presence of emotional care in attachment development
  • This suggests that and educated caregivers on how to strengthen the attachment
• What was the reason for using the Romanian Orphan Studies?

  • Used to study the effects of deprivation
  • Look at the effects of institutionalisation care
• What is an Institution?


  Living outside your family home in places like hospitals or orphanages
• What was the procedure of Rutter's (ERA) study?

  • Longitudinal study of 165 Romanian Orphans adopted in the UK compared with 52 British children adopted before 6 months
  • Interviews were conducted with adoptive parents and teachers
  • To test the extent of whether good care could make up for poor early experiences
  • Assessed physical, emotional and cognitive development
• What were the findings of Rutter's study?

  • Showed signs of mental retardation and majority were severely malnourished
  • Differential rates of recovery
  • Mean IQ before 6 months: 102
  • Mean IQ between 6 months and 2 years: 86
  • Mean IQ after 2 years: 77
  • Those adopted quickly caught up with the British children by age 4
  • Serious problems occurred with those adopted after 6 months
• What are some problems children developed after being adopted after 6 months?

  1. Quasi Autism: some symptoms of autism such as obsessive behaviours
  2. Disinhibited attachment: children that are friendly and affectionate towards everyone even strangers
  3. Cognitive Impairment: IQ was impacted
• What did Rutter conclude from his study?

  • The effects of institutional deprivation are not fixed
  • The damaging effects can be reversed with a supportive adoptive family
• What is a disinhibited attachment?


  An attachment disorder where children have no fear of unfamiliar adults and are friendly and affectionate towards anyone
• What is the procedure of the Bucharest Study?

  • Zeanah assessed attachment in 95 children aged 12-31 months compared 50 children who have never lived in an institution
  • Attachment type assessed using Strange Situation
  • Also asked about unusual social behaviour e.g to measure disinhibited attachment
• What were the findings of the Bucharest Study?

  • 74% of the control group were securely attached but 19% of the institutional group were securely attached
  • Disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of the institutional group compared to less than 20% for the control group
  • 65% were found to be classified with disorganised attachment
• AO3 for Romanian Studies: Real World Application

  • Improve the conditions for children in institutions
  • Orphanages avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child so they can develop meaningful attachments
• AO3: Higher internal validity

  • Most Romanian Orphans studied had been left by loving parents that could not look after them anymore
  • There was no varying degrees of trauma
  • More validity as there were fewer confounding variables
• AO3: Lack of adult data

  • There is not much data to see the long term effects of early institutional care
  • Research that would be helpful is longitudinal studies but they take a long time to get efficient data
  • It will be a long time before we know the long term effects on Romanian Orphans
• AO1 - 44 Juvenile thieves

  Aim:

  The aim was to investigate the long-term effects of maternal deprivation

  
  

  Procedure:

  Bowlby selected an opportunity sample of 88 children

  Half the children became the 'thief group' the other half, the control group.

  
  

  Findings:

  Bowlby identified 14 of the 'thief group' as affectionless psychopaths

  12 of them had experienced prolonged separations during their critical period