bowlby maternal deprivation hypothesis

• Affectionless Psychopathy-

  Lack of empathy feel no remorse for the harm they may have caused others.
• Deprivation

  The loss of emotional care that is normally provided by a primary caregiver.
• In the 1950s, Bowlby proposed that prolonged emotional deprivation would have long term consequences in terms of the child's emotional development. he called this his maternal deprivation hypothesis. His ideas were informed by his study of children he was treating at the Child Guidance Clinic
• Bowlby (1944) analysed the case histories of 88 maladjusted children attending the child guidance clinic in london.

  Half of these children had been caught stealing (the 44 thieves), the other half formed the control group. bowbly classified 14 out of the 44 thieves as affectionless psychopaths - they lacked normal signs of affection, shame or sense of responsibility
• He found that 85% of the affectionless thieves had experienced early frequent separations from their mothers compared to 17% of the other thieves. Almost none of the control participants experienced early deprivation whereas 39% of all the thieves had experienced early separations. Reasons for separations included continual and repeated stays in foster homes or hospital with few visits from family.
• He concluded that the long term consequences of deprivation was emotional maladjustment and even mental health problems such as depression.
• Bowly argued a 'warm, intimate and continuous relationship' with a mother (or permanent mother-substitute) is vital for mental health. This is supported by Radke-Yarrow et al. (1985) who studied severely depressed mothers who were physically present but unable to provide suitable emotional care. 55% of the children (mean age 32 months) were insecurely attached compared with 29% of children with non-depressed mothers. This suggests that deprivation can result from psychological separation.
• The importance of the critical period.

  Bowlby argued separation from the primary caregiver will only lead to emotional disturbance if it occurs before the age of about two and a half years (Bowlby, later extended this to five years of age), and if there is no mother-substitute available. This makes the 'mother role extremely important and holds economic implications e.g. mothers may be discouraged from seeking employment until their child is over five years of age.
• the effects of maternal deprivation can be considered in terms of vunerability. experiencing early maternal deprivation does not always results in negative outcomes. instead it creates an increased likelihood. Bifulco et al found 25% women who had experienced seperation from their mothers due to maternal death or temporary seperation of more than a year later experienced depression or anxiety compared to 15% who had no experience of seperation. the mental health problems were much greater in those women whose loss occurred before the age of six supporting Bowblys notion of a critical period
• bowlbys study and theory had an enormous impact on post war thinking about childbearing and also on how children were looked after in hospitals. before bowlbys research, children were seperated from parents when they spent time in hospital. visiting was discouraged. one of Bowlbys colleagues, Robertson filmed a two year old girl during an eight day stay in hospital. she was distressed and wanted to go home. Bowlby and Robertsons work led to a major social change in the way that children were cared for in hospitals