Bowlby's theory - attachment

• Bowlby believed that the quality of early relationships with primary caregivers has long-lasting effects on an individual's emotional development.
• The first six months are crucial for bonding, as it is during this time that infants begin to develop their sense of self and form attachments to others.
• Bowlby's maternal deprivation theory


  Continual presence of nurture from a mother or mother-substitute is essential for normal psychological development of babies and toddlers, both emotionally and intellectually
• Bowlby: 'Mother-love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health'
• Being separated from a mother in early childhood

  Has serious consequences (maternal deprivation)
• Separation versus deprivation


  There is an important distinction between separation and deprivation.

  Separation means the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure. This only becomes an issue for development if the child is deprived, i.e. they lose an element of her care.

  Extended separations can lead to deprivation, which causes harm.
• critical period


  First 30 months of life is a critical period for psychological development.

  If a child is separated from their mother in the absence of suitable substitute care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended period during this critical period then (Bowlby believed) psychological damage was inevitable.
• Intellectual development


  Bowby 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
• Studies of adoption


  • Goldfarb 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
• Emotional development


  Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others
• Affectionless psychopathy


  • Prevents the person developing normal relationships
  • Associated with criminality
  • Cannot appreciate the feelings of victims
  • Lack remorse for their actions
• Bowlbys 44 thieves study procedure

  Procedure 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing. 'thieves' were interviewed for affectionless psychopathy: characterised as a lack of affection, lack of guilt about their actions and lack of empathy for their victims. 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.
• Bowlbys 44 thieves study findings 


  Findings Bowlby (1944) found that 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. In contrast only 5 of the remaining 30 'thieves' had experienced separations. Of the control group, only 2 out of 44 had experienced long separations. It was concluded that prolonged early separation/ deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.
• 4 A03 points


  The evidence may be poor 

  Counter evidence

  The critical period is actually more of a sensitive period

  Animal studies show effects of maternal deprivation
• the evidence may be poor a03


  Bowlby did studies of children orphaned during the Second World War, those growing up in poor-quality orphanages, these are all flawed. War orphans were traumatised and often had poor after-care, these factors might have been the causes of later developmental difficulties rather than separation. Similarly, children growing up from birth in poor-quality institutions were deprived of many aspects of care, not just maternal . the 44 Thieves study had observer bias; bowlby carried out these interviews himself
• Counter evidence A03


  Lewis 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 is a problem for the theory of maternal deprivation because it suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation.
• Critical period


  More of a sensitive period
• Bowlby's term 'critical period'


  Prolonged separation caused damage if it took place within that period
• Research has shown that damage is not inevitable
• Cases of severe deprivation have had good outcomes provided the child has some social interaction and good aftercare
• Koluchová case


  • Twin boys from Czech who were isolated from the age of 18 months until they were seven years old, they were looked after by two loving adults and appeared to recover fully
• Cases like this show that the period identified by Bowlby may be a 'sensitive' one but it cannot be critical
• Animal studies show effects of maternal deprivation

  A03

  Although most psychologists are very critical of the theory of maternal deprivation, an interesting line of research has provided some support for the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects. Levy et al. (2003) showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development though not other aspects of development.