Bowlby Maternal Deprivation

• Sensitive period is when an infant is 3 months to 2 and 1/2 years old.
• Proposed theory of attachment ( monotropy ) but prior to this he developed the theory of maternal deprivation. ( 1951 )
• Earlier theory focused on the idea that the continual presence of nurture from a mother or mother-substitute is essential for normal psychological development of babies and toddlers, both emotionally and intellectually
• Mother-love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as vitamins and proteins for physical health - bowlby (1953.)
• Therefore Bowlby suggests that being separated from a mother in childhood has serious consequences - maternal deprivation.
• Bowlby considered that there was a critical period from about 6 months to 3 years when infants should have continuous, unbroken relationship with one person
• He believed that if a child is separated from their mother, in the absence of suitable care and so deprived of emotional care for an extended period of time during the critical period, the psychological damage is inevitable.
• Bowlby’s 44 thieves study

  A:  study examined links by seen affection less psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
• 44

  P: they used a sample of 44 teenage delinquents ( accused of stealing ). The participants were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy. Their families were also interviewed to establish if there was prolonged early separation from their mothers, a control group of 44 non-criminal teenagers, with emotional problems were all assessed to see how often maternal deprivation occurred to the children who were not thieves.
• 44

  R: 14/44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths and 17/44 had maternal separation, of the 14 that were affectionless, 12 also had experienced prolonged separation in the first two years of its life, in the control group 2/44 had maternal separation but 0/44 were categorised affectionless psychopaths.
• 44

  C: prolonged separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.
• Intellectual development:

  Bowlby believed that if a child was deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would suffer delayed intellectual development characterised by abnormally low IQ.
• Emotional development:

  Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others, this prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality, affectionless psychopathy cannot appreciate the feelings of the victims and so lack remorse for their actions.
• Evaluation:

  P/E: the 44 thieves study cannot establish casual relationships as the findings were correlational, doesn’t show causation, so can’t prove where it does, so might not cause affectionless psychopaths.
• Evaluation:

  P/E: evidence that Bowlby provides may be poor.

  Bowlby drew on a number of sources of evidence or maternal deprivation including studies of children orphaned during the WWII as they grew up in poor quality orphanages and his 44 thieves study

  However they were all flawed as evidence, war orphans who were traumatised may have later developmental difficulties rather than separation, similarly to children who have grown up in poor quality institutions were deprived of m any aspects of care, not just maternal care.
• Evaluation:

  Study had major design flaws, incredibly biased as he himself carried out the assessments for affectionless psychopathy and the family interviews, knowing what he had hoped to find.
• P/E: counter evidence to bowlby’s research

  Lewis ( 1954 ) partially replicated his study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people, in her sample, a history of prolonged early separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships, problem for the theory because it suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal deprivation.
• P/E: goldfarb ( 1947 ) found a 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. In 1955 followed up 30 orphaned children to age 12. Of the original sample, half had been fostered by 4 month so of age whilst other half remained in the orphanage. At 12 their IQ was assessed using a standard IQ-test called the Standard-Binet testwas found that the fostered group had an IQ of 96 whereas the group who had remained at the orphanage averaged only 68, within the retarded range.
• P/E: Koluchova ( 1976 ) reported the case of twin boys from Czechoslovakia who were isolated from the age of 18 months until they were 7 year old ( step-mother kept them in a cupboard ), subsequently they were looked after by two loving adults appeared to recover fully. Cases like this show that the period that was identified by Bowlby may be a ‘sensitive’ one but it cannot be ‘critical’.
• P/E: Barrett ( 1997 ) showed research that demonstrates that not all children are affected by deprivation in the same way, he reported that securely attache children are able to cope better with deprivation in comparison to insecurely attached children. Barrett contradicts bowlby and suggests that life chances are not determined and can be mediated by other factors, this suggests that there are individual differences that play an important role in maternal deprivation and not all children will suffer the same negative consequences that bowlby suggests that will occur.