Bowlby's maternal deprivation

• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

  Continuous emotional care from a mother or mother substitute is necessary for normal emotional and intellectual development. Bowlby believed that mother love in infancy is 'as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health'.

  • Separation - child not physically in the presence of the primary attachment figure
  • Deprivation - 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
• Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

  If a child is separated from their mother for an extended time during the first 2 1/2 years, then psychological damage is inevitable and can lead to mental retardation. There is a continuing risk up to the age of 5. Goldfarb found lower IQ in children from institutions compared to foster children. Lack of emotional care may also lead to affectionless psychopathy - the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others. This prevents the person developing normal relationships.
• Bowlby's 44 thieves study procedure


  Procedure - the sample was 44 delinquent teenagers accused of stealing. All were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy characterised by a lack of affection, guilt and empathy. Families were also interviewed to establish any prolonged separations from mothers.
• Bowlby's 44 thieves study findings

  Findings - 14 of the 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths. 12 of these had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first two years of their lives. In contrast only 5 of the remaining 30 thieves had experienced separations. This suggests prolonged early separation / depravation caused affectionless psychopathy.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is that sources of evidence for maternal deprivation are flawed. The 44 theives study is flawed due to open bias as Bowlby himself assessed both deprivation and psychopathy, knowing what he hoped to find. Also, Goldfarb's study of wartime orphans is flawed as he used traumatised participants who lacked good aftercare. This introduced confounding variables. This means that Bowlby originally had no solid evidence on which to base his theory of maternal deprivation.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is Bowlby confused deprivation and privation. Rutter made the distinction between deprivation and privation. Privation has more serious effects. The children |Bowlby studies and others he based his ideas on may have been prived rather than deprived. This means that Bowlby probably exaggerated the effects of deprivation on development.
• Evaluation

  One limitation is conflicting evidence. Replications of Bowlby's 44 thieves study have generally failed to reproduce his findings on psychopathy. However, some more recent research has found links between poor maternal care and adult psychopathy. This means the link between maternal deprivation and psychopathy are unclear.