AO1 Bowlby Maternal deprivation

• What is maternal deprivation?

  The absence or loss of a mother figure during critical periods of a child's development.
• Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development.
• How does maternal deprivation affect intellectual development?

  Bowlby believed that if children were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would suffer delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ.
• Who conducted a study that showed the effects on intellectual development?


  Goldfarb
• Goldfarb (1947) found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and thus had a higher standard of emotional care (see facing page for details of study).
• What was the procedure of Goldfarb’s study?

  He followed up 30 orphaned children to age 12. Of the original sample half had been fostered by four months of age whilst the other half remained in an orphanage. At 12 their IQ was assessed using a standard IQ test
• In Goldfarb’s study, the average IQ of the fostered group was 96 compared to 68 in the orphaned group (which is within the retarded range)
• How does maternal deprivation affect emotional development?

  Affectionless psychopathy
• What is affectionless psychopathy?


  The inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others. This prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality. Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and so lack remorse for their actions.
• What is Bowlby‘s 44 thieves study?

  Study which examined the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation
• What was the procedure of the 44 thieves study?

  44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy. Their families were also interviewed in order to establish whether the ‘thieves’ had prolonged early separations from their mothers. A control group of non- criminal but emotionally disturbed young people was set up to see how often maternal separation/deprivation occurred in the children who were not thieves.
• What were the findings of the 44 thieves study?

  14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives.
• None of the control group in the thieves study were affectionless psychopaths. Only 2 out of 44 had experienced long separations