disruption of attachment

• seperation - away from attached caregiver for a relatively short period of time
• deprivation - loss of something that is wanted or needed so maternal deprivation. long term or even permanent low is implied
• John Bowlby maternal deprivation hypothesis:

  1. deprecation from main caregiver during critical period lead to harmful effects such as child's emotional, social, intellectual and even physical development
  2. long-term affects may include separation anxiety (fear of separation from another carer) lead to being very clingy, avoiding going to school and future relationships may be affected.
• 44 thieves study: method - case studies on background of 44 adolescents who had been refereed to the clinic where Bowlby worked because had been stealing. control group of 44 'emotionally disturbed' adolescents who didn't steal
• 44 thieves results: separation - 17 of thieves experienced frequent separation From mother before age of two. compared to 2 in control group
• 44 thieves: results - 14 thieves were diagnosed a affectionless psychopaths. 12 of these had experienced separation from their mothers
• affecctionless psychopaths - they don't care about how their actions affected others
• 44 thieves: conclusion - deprivation of the child from its main carer early in life can have very harmful long- term consequences
• 44 thieves: evaluation - shows link between deprivation and criminal behaviour but can't tell if one causes the other no causation. only use case studies so data may not be able to be applied to the rest of the world
• maternal deprivation strengths - other evidence supports Bowlbys case Goldfarb - orphan children who were socially and maternally deprived were later less intellectually and socially developed
• maternal deprivation hip weaknesses - evidence can be criticised other things were not considered
• Bowlby's assumptions of maternal deprivation hypothesis was that the consequences were not reversible
• further research shows that maternal deprivation harmful affects can be reversed with good quality care
• Skeels and Dye found that children who had been socially deprived in an orphanage during first two years of life quickly improved IQ scores if transferred to school were they got one to one care
• affects of maternal deprivation - lasting affects of child's mental health and social functioning