Bowlby

• How many thieves were in the study

  44 thieves

  31 boys

  13 girls
• Age range of participants

  5 to 17
• How many grade IV thieves were there

  22
• Control group


  44 children who attended the same clinic

  Similar age, sex and IQ

  Emotionally disturbed but did not steal
• Where did all the children attend?


  A child guidance clinic in London
• What type of sampling was used


  Opportunity sampling
• Initial exam 1

  Test by psychologist to assess intelligence

  Social worker interviewed Childs mother

  Recorded preliminary details of the Childs early psychiatric history
• What was used to test intelligence

  Binet scale
• Initial exam 2

  Psychologist and social worker report to psychiatric (Bowlby)

  Bowlby interviewed the mother
• Initial exam 3

  2 hour examination

  The team consider school reports, court reports etc

  Discussed conclusions
• Therapy

  Six months or more

  Continued to meet with psychiatric

  Mother talked with social worker

  Enabled detailed case history and diagnosis to be made
• What method did Bowlby use

  Case study
• What were the six main personality types found 


  Normal

  Depressed

  Circular

  Hyperthymic

  Affectionless

  Schizoid
• Normal personality trait

  Character appears fairly normal and stable
• Depressed personality type

  Unstable and now in a more or less depressed state of mind
• Circular

  Unstable, show alternating depression and over activity
• Hyperthymic

  Constantly over active
• Affectionless

  Lack of affection and sense of responsibility
• Schizoid

  Show schizophrenic symptoms
• Betty I

  Placed in foster home at one month when her parents split

  Moved from one foster home to another

  Spent one year in convent school

  Returned home at age five

  Affectionless
• Raymond E (age 6.3)

  ‘Roaming disposition’

  Likes to stay away from home

  Stealing money, toys and various things

  Easy baby but late to walking and talking

  Never saw any danger

  15 months - mother died

  2 and a half to five - looked after by sister - would lock him in the house without food

  Step mother had epilepsy and violent temper

  Did not cry when punished

  Temper with siblings

  Would steal anything from school - saw nothing wrong with it

  Affectionless
• How many had fathers who openly hated them

  Five
• How many had mothers who were extremely anxious, irritable or fussy

  Seventeen
• How many thieves experienced early separation

  Seventeen
• How many in the control group had prolonged separation

  Two
• How many affectionless thieves were there

  Fourteen
• How many affectionless thieves experienced separation from mother

  Twelve
• Conclusion - Psychodynamic view

  Focused on the relationship between mother and child

  Damage to this relationship affects development of super ego

  This leads to a reduced sense of right and wrong
• Implications for treatment - conclusion

  The earlier the diagnosis, the better for treatment

  Treatment should be offered

  Process is extremely slow and difficult

  Separation of mother and child could be unavoidable
• Why might separation be unavoidable

  Death

  Illness

  Social
• Alternative research

  Rutter et al

  Compared Romanian orphans adopted before and after six months

  Those adopted after six months lagged behind control group in their physical, cognitive and social development

  Strength

  Increase external validity
• Sample and culture

  All 88 children were emotionally disturbed

  May not be appropriate to generalise

  There may be delinquents who have no emotional disturbance and the cause of their delinquency may be social rather than emotional

  Weakness

  Cannot make valid claims
• Empirical insight

  Case study

  Cannot manipulate independent variable - maternal deprivation

  Difficult to know what causes affectionless character

  Weakness

  Cannot test validity of the claim that maternal deprivation causes affectionless character
• How consistently was the procedure standardised

  Partially standardised

  IQ test was standardised

  Information gathered was inconsistent

  e.g. some mothers had passed away, not all children had court records

  Weakness

  Decreases reliability

  Difficult to compare fairly

  Problem with internal reliability