Bowlby: Maternal deprivation Flashcards
What is maternal deprivation ?
Emotional and intellectual consequence of prolonged separation between child and primary care-giver. A loss of care.
What did Bowlby think about the care from a mother ?
‘continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development’
What does the critical period have in relation to maternal deprivation ?
If separated and without an appropriate substitute caregiver, the infant may be deprived of emotional care.
Bowlby thought that psychological damage was inevitable
What are the two impacts of deprivation on development ?
- intellectual
- emotional
What is the intellectual deprivation ?
- low IQ
- mental retardation
What is the emotional deprivation ?
- affectionless psychopathy
What was the aim of Bowlby’s 44 thieves experiment ?
- to examine the link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation
- The sample included 44 teenagers accused of stealing
- Bowlby had a control group of non-criminals but emotionally disturbed young people
What was the method of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study ?
- conducted interviews the the participants and their families
- All thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
- Characterised by lack of affection, lack of guilt about action, lack of empathy for the victim
- Families interviewed about prolonged separation from the mother
What were the findings of Bowlby’s 44 thieves study ?
- 14/44 thieves could be described as affcetionless psychopaths
- out of the 14, 12 experienced separation from heir mother in the first 2 years
- only 5/30 remaining had experienced long periods of seperation
What is a strength + limitation’s of Bowlby’s 44 thieves experiment ?
Limitation = Poor quality of evidence
Bowlby conducted the interview himself. This left him open to a bias because he already knew the expected behaviours of these teenagers and the behaviour of psychopathy
Strength = Research support
Harlow - his longitudinal study looks at dysfunctional monkeys and the way that this affects relationships and personality later
Limitation = the critical period
The evidence to suggest in many cases that good quality parenting and care after separation can prevent most of the long-term damage.