Institutionalisation

• What is it ?

  • the effects of growing up in an orphanage whilst waiting for adoptions whilst being treated for a physical or mental illness deprived of any emotional care
• What was Rutters aim ?

  • affect of extreme deprivation on infants + if the effects could be overcome by sensitive care
• Method ?

  • 165 orphans
  • consider the effects on physical, mental and emotional development at ages 4.6,11+ 15
  • whether love and nurture could reverse the effects
• What was the IV?

  age they were adopted

  • before 6 months
  • between 6-2 years
  • 2years +

  - control group or 52 + British children who were re adopted at around the same time were used for comparison
• What techniques were used ?

  1. Parental reports at 4 and 6 to assess child’s willingness to go off with strangers
  2. at home observation at 6 years to measure over friendly behaviour towards the researcher
  3. parent + teacher reports at 11 years on peer relations
• What were Rutgers findings ?

  • disinhibited attachment
  • cognitive development
• Disinvited attachment ?

  • those adopted after 6 months developed- pervasive pattern of attention seeking behaviour with a lack of selectivity in social relationships
  • meaning seek attention in inappropriate ways
• Who did disinhibited attachment impact the most ?

  • rare in control group 3.8%
  • very common in late adoptees 26.1%
  • those adopted before 6 months only 8.9%
• What did Rutter believe ?

  • poor quality care with each child in typical care home having 50 carers meant they didn’t see anyone long enough to form a secure attachment
  • more impact on this exposed to conditions for longest
• Cognitive development ?

  • age of adoption made a difference
  • half of infants showed signs of mental retardation upon arrival but by age 4 if adopted before 6 months had recovered dramatically and caught up to brittish counterparts
• What happened with mean IQ ?

  • Before 6 months - 102
  • between 6 months - 2 years - 86
  • after 6 months -77

  differences remained at 16 years
• Evaluation ?

  1. Real life application
  2. individual differences
  3. supports importance of critical period
• Real life application ?

  • improve adoption policies and quality of care in instititions
  • key workers assigned to each child to decrease chance of dissinhibited attachment and increase secure
• Individual differences ?

  • some kids smiled more than others so receive more attention and therefore more likely to recover