Bowlby

• Methodology


  series of case studies
• Methodology 


  Thieves

  44 children who attended Bowlbys child guidance clinic in London

  31 boys and 13 girls

  Stealing was one of their symptoms,a few cahrged in court some were too young(5-17)

  Graded on seriousness of stealing.

  Grade IV(22)-stealing for a long time,some more than 3 years

  Grade I(4)-only stolen once

  50% IQ was between 85-114 15 of them had a higher IQ and 2 below 85
• Methodology


  Control group

  44 children who attended Bowlbys clinic but didnt steal.

  Similar age,sex,IQ

  were also emotionally disturbed but didnt steal
• Methodology


  Mothers

  all mothers were involved and interviewed to assess the case histories of the children
• Procedures


  Opportunity sampling
• Procedures


  1-On arrival each child took an intelligence test(binet scale) with a psychologist,who also noted the emotional state of the child

  2-At the same time the social worker interviewed the mother and recorded details of the childs early psychiatric history.

  3-Psychologist and social worker then reported back to Bowlby

  4-Bowlby then interviewed the mother and child

  5-After this 2 hour examination they considered other reports such as school reports

  Children continued to meet with Bowlby weekly for 6 months and mothers spoke to the social worker
• Findings


  Diagnosis

  TO find out what might have caused the thieves to steal,Bowlby created personality types and placed each child into one.He did recognise this was difficult to do as their personalities hadnt formed yet
• Findings


  Normal-fairly normal and stable(2)
• FIndings


  Depressed-had been unstable,now in a depressed state(9)
• Findings


  Circular-unstable,alternating depression and over activity(2)
• Findings


  Hyperthymic-constantly over-active(13)
• Findings


  Affectionless-lack of normal affection,shame(14)
• Findings


  Schizoid -schizophrenic symptoms(4)
• Findings


  Affectionless character

  14/44

  12 of them had frequent separation from mothers

  Kenneth W,between 3-9,he was looked after by his grandfather who had no control over him

  30/44 who wasnt affectionless only 3 had separations

  Control group 2/44 had prolonged separations
• Findings


  Other factors

  27 thieves who didnt have separation 17 of them had mothers that were 'anxious,irratable or fussy'

  5/27 had fathers who hated them and expressed this openly
• Conclusions 


  Children wouldnt have become offenders if they havent had experienced harmful experiences in early development

  Bowlby followed psychodynamic views that early experiences are vital for development

  Mother and child relationship is important for emotional development

  The damage to this relationship,affects superego,leading to a reduced sense of right and wrong

  thieve are the consequence of many factors
• Conclusions 


  Implications for treatment

  Treatment for delinquents is slow and difficult

  Earlier diagnosis is better for treatment

  Prevention rather then treatment

  Separation maybe unavoidable
• Evaluation -Methodology and procedures

  No casual findings

  Tempting to draw the conclusions that prolonged separation caused the emotional problems experienced by many of the thieves

  Variable was not manipulated ,may be other variables that caused emotional problems

  For example,affectionless character may have caused separation
• Evaluation -Methodology and procedures

  Biased data

  Rich record of qualitative data on each pp

  Over 25 pages simply detailing case histories of 44 thieves many insights into children

  But based on the view of 1 person,may be biased of his own beliefs(subjective)

  Data collected was from mothers,recollected from many years ago,could be inaccurate,events painted in a rosy light
• Evaluation -Methodology and procedures

  Sample

  All children were emotionally disturbed

  Not able to generalise from the sample

  Delinquents who are not emotionally disturbed,cause may be social
• Evaluation Ethical issues


  Confidentiality

  pp had no confidentiality,gives their first name and the 1st initial of the last name and many details of their lives

  easy for anyone to identify individual and their families

  Not clear if families were aware it would be published,some may have preferred their details not to be shared
• Evaluation Ethical issues


  Valid consent

  Parents are asked to provide consent,more usual today for children to also be informed about the nature and purpose of the research

  The data was collected as routine of treating paitents and decisions to use data was retrospective

  Published 5 years later,hard to obtain consent
• Evaluation Social implications


  Health

  Hospitals and healthcare settings may adapt practices to accommodate attachment needs,flexible working hours for children wards
• Evaluation Social implication


  Education

  schools may implement strategies to promote emotional literacy and creative supportive environments

  Attachment concepts into PSE curricula to foster healthy social-emotional development