Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• Continuous emotional care from a mother or mother substitute is essential for normal emotional and intellectual development
• Bowlby believed that mother love in infancy is important for mental health and deprivation is when losing emotional care as a result of separation. Deprivation can be avoided if alternative emotional care is offered
• If a child is separated from their mother but with substitute care for an extended time during the first 2 and 1/2 years, then psychological damage is inevitable. If a child is deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period this may lead to maternal retardation (Goldfarb). Lack of emotional care may also lead to affection less psychopathy preventing the person developing normal realtionships
• Bowlby 44 thieves study procedure: 44 delinquent teenagers accused of stealing. All 'thieves' were interviewed for signs of affection less psychopathy which is characterised by a lack of affection, guilt and empathy. Families were also interviewed to establish any prolonged separations from mothers
• Bowlby 44 thieves study findings and conclusions: 14 of 44 thieves were affection less psychopaths. 12 of the 14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers within the first 2 years of their life. Only 5 of the remaining 30 had experienced separations suggesting prolonged early separation/deprivation caused affection less pscyhopathy
• One limitation of maternal deprivation is that evidence is flawed. The 44 thieves study is flawed because it was open to bias as Boqlby himself assessed both deprivation and psychopathy, knowing what he hoped to fins. Also, Goldfarb's study of wartime orphans is flawed because he used traumatised participants who lacked good aftercare. This means that Bowlby originally had no solid evidence on which to base this theory of maternal deprivation
• One limitation of the critical period is it is more of a sensitive period. Koluchova conducted a case study of Czech twin boys isolated from age 18 months. Later they were looked after by 3 loving adults and appeared to recover fully. This shows that severe deprivation can have positive outcomes provided the child has some social interaction and good aftercare. This means that the period identified by Bowlby may be a 'sensitive' one but it cannot be critical