Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• theory of maternal deprivation

  Bowlby considered that a strong attachment to a mother figure was essential for the psychological, emotional and intellectual development

  maternal deprivation is the loss of an existing attachment bond due to separation from the primary attachment figure creating permanent intellectual damage which cant be repaired
• emotional development

  Bowlby argued that individuals would be more likely to affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others

  this prevents a person developing fulfilling relationships and associated with criminality, they cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and so lack remorse for their actions
• Bowlby's 44 thieves research(1944)

  44 teenage delinquents who were accused of stealing, interviewed for signs of prolonged separation from mothers, control group of 44 non-criminal teenagers with emotional problems were assessed to see if maternal deprivation occurred in them

  14/44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths and 17/44 had maternal separation whereas the control group 2/44 had maternal separation and 0/44 were affectionless psychopaths

  showed that prolonged separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy, emphasises the importance of attachment during the critical period
• Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation evaluation limitations

  it has poor quality evidence it is based on as he carried out the study and knew which teenagers would show signs of psychopathy leaving him open for bias

  
  

  Bowlby failed to properly distinguish between deprivation and privation, Rutter (1981) - privation is the failure to form an attachment in the first place whereas deprivation is the loss of an existing attachment after it was formed, Rutter argues that privation is more likely to lead to long term damage not deprivation as Bowlbys theory states
• Bowlbys theory of maternal deprivation evaluation strengths

  research support for intellectual development Goldfarb (1947) - found lower IQ in children who have remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered receiving a higher standard for emotional care leading to 'mental retardation'