AO3 - Bowlby's Theory of Maternal Deprivation

• Research to support Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory was conducted by Bowlby. Bowlby interviewed an opportunity sample of 44 juvenile thieves to see if they had signs of affectionless psychopathy, he then interviewed their parents to see if there were any long periods of separation within the critical period. He found that those who had affectionless psychopathy were more likely to have experienced long separations, therefore supporting Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation as it shows prolonged separations in early childhood can lead to negative consequences.
• However, one criticism of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory is that the findings from Bowlby’s juvenile thieves study are based on retrospective data. It relies on the memory of the juvenile’s parents to recall the periods of separations in childhood. Therefore they could have lied about this information to present themselves in a better light or simply forgotten it. This reduces the internal validity of Bowlby’s 44 juvenile thieves study and weakens the support the research provides for theory of maternal deprivation.
• Moreover, research to contradict Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory comes from Lewis. She partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people. In her sample a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships. This therefore contradicts Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.
• However, a strength of Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation has practical applications. The principle of the theory, that there are potential negative consequences of separation from a caregiver in early life has led to changes in society, such as hospitals changing visiting hours and letting parents stay overnight with their infants, in order to reduce the intellectual and emotional issues such as affectionless psychopathy. Therefore, Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation is an important part of applied psychology.