maternal deprivation

• what does bowlby believe attachment is essential for?

  healthy social and emotional development
• what does bowlby believe will happen if the attachment figure is broken or disrupted during the critical period?

  the child will suffer irreversible long-term consequences of this maternal deprivation
• what is deprivation?


  to be deprived is to lose something. in the context of child development deprivation refers to the loss of emotional care that is normally provided by a primary caregiver
• what is the critical period?

  a biologically determined period of time, during which certain characteristics can develop. outside of this time window such development will not be possible
• what did bowlby use the term maternal deprivation to refer to?

  the separation or loss of the mother as well as failure to develop an attachment
• what is the underlying assumption of bowlby’s maternal deprivaiton hypothesis?

  continual disruption of the attachment between infant and primary caregiver could result in long term cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties for that infant. the implications of this are vast - if this is true, should the primary caregiver leave their child in day care, whilst they continue to work?
• what might the consequences of maternal deprivation include?

  delinquency, affectionless psychopathy, and reduced intelligence
• what is affectionless psychopathy?


  describes individuals who cannot exhibit caring behaviours / concern / affection for others. they dont have empathy. they show no remorse / guilt / shame for their bad deeds
• what is the support of mdh?

  44 thieves study
• what is the counter of mdh?

  individual differences (barret)
• what did barret (1997) do?


  a review of studies show that securely attached children cope better with separation than insecurely attached
• what is the alternative of mdh?

  physical separation is assumed to be the issue but it may be psychological / emotional separation (radke-yarrow)
• what did radke-yarrow (1985) do?

  studied mothers with severe depression. 55% of their children were insecurely attached. control group: 29% insecurely attached. this indicates that psychological separation can result in deprivation
• what is the application of mdh?

  work has been used to shape child care and hospital arrangements
• what is a further issue of mdh?

  definition issue - privation/deprivation (rutter)
• what is privation?


  no opportunity to form a relationship with a parent figure, or when such relationship is distorted, due to their treatment
• what are the issues and debates of mdh?

  gender bias
• what was the procedure of the 44 juvenile thieves study (bowlby, 1944)?

  bowlby analysed the case histories of a number of his patients in the child guidance clinic in london where he worked. all the children attending the clinic were emotionally maladjusted. he studied 88 of these children - half had been caught stealing and the other half were a control group. bowlby suggested that some of the ‘thieves; were affectionless psychopaths - they lacked normal signs of affection, shame or sense of responsibility.
• what were the findings of the 44 juvenile thieves study (bowlby, 1944)?

  individuals diagnosed as affectionless thieves had experienced frequent early separations from their mothers. 86% of the affectionless thieves (12 of 14) experienced frequent separations compared with 17% (5 of 30) of the other thieves. almost none of the control had early separations while 39% of the thieves had. these separations consisted of continual or repeated stays in foster care or hospitals.
• what is the support of bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

  ecological validity
• what is the counter of bowlby’s 44 thieves study?

  methodological issues - can’t infer cause, self reporting, bowlby made diagnoses of affectionless psychopathy himself