Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis

• Maternal Deprivation - Being separated from a mother in early childhood has serious consequences for emotional and intellectual development
• Deprivation is a loss of emotional care and there is no adequate subsititute care.
• In terms of maternal deprivation, the first 30 months of life is considered the critical period - which is different from forming attachment
• Continued deprivation with an absence of adequate emotional care = inevitable psychological damage
• Extended deprivation of maternal care during the critical period will result in delyaed intellectual development as shown in Goldfarb's study
• Extended deprivation of maternal care can cause affectionless psychopathy
• Affectionless Psychopathy is the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others
• Bowlby's 44 Thieves Study

  • Thieves 30% were affectionless psychopaths and 86% experienced early separation.
  • Control 0% affectionless psychopaths and 4% experience separation
• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation concerns itself with how early experiences can interfere with the usual process of attachment formation
• Maternal Deprivation refers to the prolonged loss of emotional care from the mother figure, without any adequate substitute care.
• Bowlby believed that ongoing maternal deprivation would have negative effects on a child in terms of their psychological development
• Bowlby claimed that maternal deprivation could have a variety of consequences such as delayed intellectual development which could lead to Low IQ
• Limitation: Based on Flawed Evidence

  • Bowlby carried out the 44 thieves study - could be biased
  • Goldfarb - Wartime orphans - confounding variable - Lots of trauma
• Strength: Animal Studies

  • Separating rats from their mother can have serious consequences for social development
  • However these lack generalisability
• Limitation: Deprivation VS Privation

  • Rutter distinguished between privation and deprivation
  • Long term damage described by bowlby could be due to privation - many of 44 thieves may have never formed early attachments - Affect of deprivation could be overestimated
• Limitation: Sensitive Period

  • Bowlbly may have overestimated the critical period
  • Czech Twins - Abuse between 18 months and 7 years - No language, Rickets, IQ40
  • Eventually adopted and were completely normal By the time they were teenagers