bowlbys evaluation

• Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation: Evaluation

  Strengths:

  • Study showed more of his sample of delinquents had suffered maternal deprivation than control group.
  • Shows the need to consider the role of parent-child relationships in explaining criminality.

  Weaknesses:

  • Retrospective study - participants had to actively recall the past.
  • Bowlby updated his own work and found that in 60 children who had long periods of separation before age 5 there was no affectionless psychopathy.
  • Sammons and Putwain - the link between maternal deprivation and criminality is no longer widely accepted.