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
  • 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: Critical vs Sensitive periods

  • Bowlby's idea of a critical period is flawed
  • There is evidence that good quality aftercare can prevent most or all of this damage
  • This means lasting harm is not inevitable even in severe cases in privation
• Evaluation of Maternal Deprivation: Conflicting Evidence

  • Replication of the 44 Thieves study failed to produce similar results
  • There was no association between early separation and later psychopathy
  • However later research has partially supported Bowlby by showing poor quality maternal care was associated with high rates of psychopathy in adults
• 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. Higher inattention and overactivity
  4. 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
• AO3 Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation- Research Support


  There is research evidence in support of the effects of separation.

  A child named John had been separated from his primary caregivers for a short period of time

  They proposed that children who experience separations during their critical period will display 'the syndrome of distress'

  Supports Bowlby's theory as it suggests that prolonged separations during the critical period, without substitute emotional care, can have a detrimental effect on a child's social and emotional development
• AO3 Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation- Short term effects can be reversed


  Bowlby suggests that the effects of maternal deprivation were irreversible

  There are a few things in which the child can do to reverse the short term effects of separation

  This includes staying familiar with home (e.g. bringing a toy), visiting their primary attachment figure every so often, and receiving substitute emotional care.

  It may be more appropriate to adopt a softer view of determinism.
• AO3 Bowlby's 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

  This suggests that Bowlby's theory has highlighted the importance of the presence of emotional care in attachment development and educated caregivers on how to strengthen the attachment