Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

• Separation= simply means the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure.
• Deprivation= lack of emotional from primary caregiver.
• Bowlby proposed the theory of the critical period (the first two-and-a-half years of life). If a child is deprived of their mother’s emotional care for an extended duration during this critical period then psychological damage is inevitable. He also believed there was a continuing risk up to the age of 5.
• Maternal deprivation can affect both intellectual and emotional development.
• Effects on intellectual development:

  Maternal deprivation can cause delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ. Goldfarb found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and so would have had a higher standard of emotional care.
• Effects on emotional development:

  Maternal deprivation can cause affectionless psychopathy (the inability to experience guilt/strong emotion). Affectionless psychopathy prevents a person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality.
• Bowlby’s 44 thieves study:

  44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy (Lack of empathy for their victims). Their families were also interviewed to establish if the teenagers had prolonged early separations from their mothers. The sample was compared to 44 non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people.
• Bowlbys 44 thieves study— Findings:

  Bowlby found 14 of the 44 thieves were affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separations from their mothers in the first two years of their lives. In contrast only 5 of the remaining 30 thieves had experienced early prolonged separations from their mothers and only 2 from the control group of 44 had experienced prolonged separations. Bowlby therefore concluded prolonged early separation caused affectionless psychopathy.
• Bowlby carried out both the family interviews and assessments himself. This left him open to bias because he knew which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy. Bowlby was also influenced by the findings from Goldfarb‘s research, who had problems of confounding variables as the children in his study had experienced early trauma and institutional care as well as prolonged separation. This means Bowlby's original sources of evidence for maternal deprivation had serious flaws and would not be taken seriously as evidence nowadays.
• However, there is some research that supports the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects. Lévy showed that separating baby rats from their mothers for as little as a day had a permanent effecton their social development though not other aspects of development. Therefore there are sources to support Bowlby’s theory.
• Privation= failure to form any attachment to a primary caregiver in the first place.
• Rutter drew an important distinction between deprivation and privation. Deprivation is the loss of the primary attachment figure after the attachment has been made. Privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place. Rutter pointed out that the severe long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely to be the result of privation. This means Bowlby may have overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation in children’s development.
• There is evidence to suggest good quality aftercare can prevent damage if a child doesn’t form an attachment during the critical period (e.g the Czech twins). This means everlasting harm is not always inevitable and the ‘critical period’ is therefore better seen as a ‘sensitive period’.
• The Czech twins:


  Koluchová reported the case of the Czech twins who experienced severe physical and emotional abuse from the age of 18 months until they were seven. They experienced excellent care and by their teens they had recovered fully.
• Bowlby proposed the theory of maternal deprivation - the idea that the continual presence of care from a mother or mother-substitute is essential for normal psychological development in babies and toddlers
• There is an important distinction between separation and deprivation. Separation simply means the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure. This only becomes a problem if the child becomes deprived of emotional care (which can happen even if the mother is present).