Effects of Institutionalisation

• :) practical applications

  > the principle of the theory, that institutionalisation has led to psychological problems, has led to improvements in the conditions experienced by children in institutions

  > e.g. having one or two keyworkers for each child (play a central role in emotional care) rather than a large number of caregivers

  > important part of applied psychology
• :( higher control over extraneous variables

  > in previous orphan studies, children had suffered trauma or neglect - difficult to tell if any long-term effects were due to that or institutional care

  > in Rutter's research, the majority of the orphans had been handed over by loving parents who could not afford to keep them, so it was possible to study the effects of institutionalisation without these confounding variables

  > increases internal validity
• :( introduced confounding variables

  > the quality of care in the Romanian orphanages was very poor - children receiving very little intellectual stimulation or comfort

  > harmful effects seen in studies of Romanian orphans may be due to the effects of poor institutional care, rather than institutional care on its own