Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• maternal deprivation

  = the emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother.

  • Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development, and that prolonged separation from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development.
• separation vs deprivation

  separation= the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure. This only becomes a problem if a child becomes deprived of emotional care.

  -Extended separation can lead to deprivation which causes harm.
• critical period

  = Bowlby saw the first 2 and 1/2 years as a critical period for psychological development.

  • if a child is separated from their mothers and so is deprived of her emotional care for an extended period during the critical period then psychological damage was inevitable.
• Effects on development- intellectual

  intellectual development= Bowlby believed if children were deprived for too long during the critical period they would experience delayed intellectual development, characterised by a low IQ. -Goldfarb found a lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered (had a higher standard of emotional care)
• effects on development- emotional

  emotional development= Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others. Prevents a person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality, lack remorse for their actions or feelings for victims.
• Bowlby's research

  = 44 thieves study examined the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation

  • findings= 14/44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths and 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of their life.
  • only 5 of the remaining 30 thieves had experienced separations.
  • only 2 participants in the control group of 44 had experienced long separations.
  • Bowlby concluded that prolonged early separation caused affectionless psychopathy.
• Evaluation- flawed evidence

  limitation= poor quality of the evidence the theory is based on.

  • Bowlby's 44 thieves study= Bowlby carried out both the family interviews and the assessments for affectionless psychopathy.
  • This left him open to bias as he knew in advance which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy.
  • also influenced by Goldfarb's research on development of deprived children in wartime orphanages- it has confounding variables as children in this study had experienced early trauma and institutional care as well as prolonged separation from PCG.
• Evaluation- counterpoint

  = new research has provided some support for the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term effects.

  • separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effects on their social development though not other aspects of development.
  • although Bowlby relied on flawed evidence there are other sources of evidence for his ideas.
• Evaluation- deprivation and privation

  Limitation= confusion between different types of early experience.

  • Rutter drew a distinction between 2 types of early negative experience. - deprivation refers to the loss of the primary attachment figure after attachment had developed.
  • privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place- may take place when children are brought up in institutional care.
  • Rutter suggested severe long term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is more likely to be as a result of privation.
  • so Bowlby's and Goldfarb's children may have been prived.
• Evaluation- critical vs sensitive period

  For Bowlby damage was inevitable if a child had not formed an attachment in the first 2 and 1/2 years of life.

  • however evidence suggests that in many cases of good quality aftercare can prevent most of this damage.
  • Reported case of Czech twins- the twins experienced very severe physical+ emotional abuse from the age of 18 months- 7 years old. Although they were severely damaged emotionally by their experience they received excellent care and recovered fully.
  • so lasting harm is not inevitable even in cases of severe privation.