Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• continuous emotional (maternal) care from a mother or mother-substitute is necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development.
• separation from mother may lead to maternal deprivation

  bowlby believed that mother-love in infancy is 'as important for mental health as vitamins and proteins are for physical health'.
• separation is different from deprivation

  • separation means the child not being physically in the presence of the primary attachment figure
  • deprivation means losing emotional care as a result of the separation
  • deprivation can be avoided if alternative emotional care is offered thus separation doesn't always cause deprivation.
• critical period of 30 months

  if a child is separated from their other (without substitute emotional care) for an extended time during the first 30 months, then psychological damage is inevitable.
• intellectual development: deprivation lowers IQ

  if a child is deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they will suffer mental retardation and abnormally low IQ. goldfarb found lower IQs in children from institutions compared to fostered children.
• emotional development: deprivation leads to affection less psychopathy

  lack of emotional care may also lead to affectionless psychopthy- the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others. this prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality.
• procedure of bowlby: 44 thieves study

  • the sample in this study was 44 delinquent teenagers accused of stealing
  • families were also interviewed to establish any prolonged separation from mothers
  • all 'thieves' were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy characterised by a lack of affection, guilt and empathy.
• findings & conclusions of bowlby: 44 thieves study

  • 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affection less psychopaths.
  • of these, 12 had experiences prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives.
  • in contrast, only 5 of the remaining 30 'thieves' had experiences separations. this suggests prolonged early separation/deprivation cause affection less psychopathy.
• limitation: latter research suggests the critical period is more of a sensitive period

  koluchova's case study of Czech twin boys isolated from 18 months (locked in a cupboard). later they were looked after by two loving adults and appeared to recover fully. shows that severe deprivation can have positive outcomes provided the child has some social interaction and good aftercare. cases like the Czech twins show that the period identified by bowlby may be a 'sensitive' one but it cannot be critical.
• strength: animal studies have demonstrated maternal deprivation

  most psychologists are critical of the maternal deprivation theory, but one line of research supports the idea that maternal deprivation can have long-term affects. levy et al. shows that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day has a permanent effect on social development. however, there is always some doubt over the extent to which animal studies like this can be generalised to human behaviour.
• limitation: bowlby didn't distinguish between deprivation and privation

  rutter distinguished between deprivation (the loss of primary attachment figure after attachment has developed) and privation (failure to form any attachment at all). rutter argued that the severe long-term damage bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely to be the result of privation. many of the 44 thieves in bowlby's study had moved from home to home during childhood so may have never formed attachments at all. this could be the cause of their affection less psychopathy rather than deprivation.
• limitation: there is counter-evidence that doesn't support

  lewis partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people. early prolonged maternal separation did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships. this is a limitation of bowlby's theory because it suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early maternal separation