Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation

• Bowlby focuses on the idea that the continual presence of care from a mother or substitute is essential for normal psychological development of babies and toddlers, both emotionally and intellectually.

  Separation simply means the child not being in the presence of the primary care giver

  This is only a problem if the child becomes deprived of emotional care

  Brief separations are not significant for development but extended sessions can lead to deprivation
• The critical period

  Bowlby saw the first 2 1/2 years of life s the critical period for psychological development. If a child is separated from their mother in the absence of a suitable substitute care and so deprived of emotional care for an extended time in this critical period then psychological damage was inevitable, he also believed it was a continuing risk up to the age of 5
• Effects on development

  Intellectual- if children were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period, they would experience delayed intellectual develop (abnormally low IQ)

    - Goldfarb found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered

  Emotional- affectionless psychopathy is the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others, this prevents a person developing fulfilling relationships and is associated with criminality, as they lack remorse for their actions
• Bowlbys research

  -44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing, they were all interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy 

  -their families were interviewed to see if they had prolonged early separations from their mothers

  -the sample was compared to a control group of 44 non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people

  Findings- bowlby found that 14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers, only 5 of the remaining 30 had experienced separations (2 ppts from control had long separations)
• limitation

  poor quality of evidence it’s based on, Bowlbys study is flawed because Bowlby carried out the interviews and the assessment.

  left him open to bias because he knew which teenagers he expected to show signs of affectionless psychopathy.

  
  

  However, a new line of research has provided some support that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects

  Levy showed that separating baby rats from their mother for a little of the day had a permanent effect on only their social development.
• limitation

  confusion between different types of early experience

  There is an important distinction between deprivation and privation

  deprivation is the loss of the primary attachment figure after the attachment has developed

  privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place.

  This may happen when the child is brought up in institutional care.

  Rutter - long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is likely to be the result of privation.

  Bowlby may have overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation in children’s development.
• limitation

  Bowlbys idea of a critical period

  he said damage was inevitable if a child had not formed an attachment in the first 2 1/2 years.

  There is evidence to suggest that good quality after-care can prevent most of this damage.

  2 twins experienced severe physical and emotional abuse from the age of 18 months until they were seven. Although they were severely damaged emotionally by their experience, They received excellent care and by their teens they had fully recovered.

  This means the critical period should be seen as a sensitive period.