Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis evaluation

Question 1

Name one evaluation point for his theory

Answer 1

There is support for the critical theory
Antonia Bulfico et al in 1992 studied a group of women who had experiences separation from their mother either because of maternal death or temporary separation for more than a year. Bulfico found that about 25% later experienced depression or anxiety disorder compared with 15% who had experienced who had no separation. The mental health problems were much greater in those women whose loss occurred before the age of 6. This supports Bowlby’s notion of a critical period as early childhood deprivation can lead to vulnerability for depression and many other disorders

Question 2

Name a second evaluation point for his theory

Answer 2

Real world application

Before Bowlby’s experiment, children in hospitals usually remained in isolation with hospitals encouraging parents to never visit or rarely visit
However after his experiment things began to shift and his 44 juveniles experimented impacted social care and the treatment of children
His friend James Robertson in 1956 conducted an experiment on a two year old called Laura of which, during her 8 day period stay, was filled with distress and continuously begged to go home
Bowlby’s findings have cultivated and influenced children in attachment.

Question 3

name a third evaluation point for his theory

Answer 3

Individual differences
Barret et al in 1997 studied cases of attachment and found that securely attached children were more likely to cope better than insecurely attached people
In 1956 Bowlby conducted an experiment of which he studied 60 infants who were in hospital due TB
They were only visited once a week
Bowlby’s research found that 63% of infants assessed in adolescence became maladjusted
This supports the idea that individual differences are an important factor in the experience of maternal deprivation.

Question 4

Name a final evaluation point

Answer 4

Physical and emotional separation
Marian Madekeyellow in 1985 Conducted an experiment of which she reviewed depressed participants and pinned them against non depressed participants
She found that depressed participants - 55% were more likely to raise insecurely attached children rather than the non depressed participants of 29% who raise insecurely attached children
This shows that deprivation may not just ultimately be up to lack of physical but lack of emotional care.

Question 5

Name a final evaluation point

Answer 5

Rutter in 1981 criticised Bowlby’s view of deprivation. Rutter claimed that Bowlby did not make clear whether the child’s attachment bond had been broken of if it had every formed in the first place. Rutter’s views on attachment were different claiming that a lack of attachment bond would have far more serious consequences than the loss of an attachment. He coined the term privation to refer to situations where a child fails to form an attachment figure and deprivation of a loss of an attachment figure. The lack of clarity in Bowlby’s definitions may negatively affect the validity of his study’s