Bowlby’s 44 Thieves Study – Emotional Development

• PROCEDURE(44 thieves)

  He conducted a natural experiment which involved analysing the case histories of 88 patients who were emotionally maladjusted, 44 had been accused of stealing (the ’44 thieves’) and the other 44 formed a control group of non-criminals but emotionally disturbed young people
• FINDINGS (44 thieves)


  Bowlby found that 14 (32%) of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. Of this 14, 12 (86%) had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives
• CONCLUSION (44 thieves)

  It was concluded that prolonged maternal deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy. Therefore a lack of continuous care may cause emotional maladjustment or even a psychological disorder.

  
• Strength (44 thieves)


  Real world application - Before Bowlby’s research, children were separated from parents when they spent time in hospital, because medical professionals believed that hospitals only needed to look after the physical needs of the child
• Limitation (44 thieves)


  Individual differences - Research has shown that not all children are

  affected by maternal separation in the same way. Barrett, after reviewing various studies concluded securely attached children coped reasonably well with separation, whereas insecure attachment children become especially distressed