Attachment: Bowbly's Maternal Deprivation Flashcards
Separation Definition In Context To MD
- Separation: The child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figures. Only becomes an issue for development if the child is deprived.
The Critical Period In Context To MD.
- Bowlby saw the first 30 months of life as a critical period for psychological development.
- Deprivation of the mothers emotional care for an extended period during this critical time will inevitably lead to psychological damage.
Maternal Deprivation Definition.
- The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother.
- Bowlby proposed that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychologic development and that prolonged separations from this adult causes serious damage to emotional and intellectual development.
How Is The Intellectual Development Affected By MD?
- Intellectual Development: Intellectual delayed characterised by abnormally low IQ.
How Is The Emotional Development Affected By MD?
- Emotional Development: Affectionless psychopathy - the inability to experience guilt or strong emotions for others. This prevent the person developing normal relationships.
Bowlby’s 44 Thieves Study (1944).
Aim: If there is relationship between likelihood of committing a crime and affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation.
Procedure: Sample of 44 criminal teenagers. All of the thieves were interviewed for a the trait of affectionless psychopathy. Families were also interviewed to establish any long term separation the thieves had from their mothers in childhood. Control group of non-criminal but emotionally disturbed young people used.
Findings: 14/44 thieves showed personality and behavioural characteristics that could be classified as affectionless psychopathy. 12/14 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers during infancy. Control group - 2/44 had experienced early separation.
Evaluation: Limitation - Evidence Is Poor.
- The evidence supporting Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation is poor.
- Bowlby drew on various sources of evidence, including studies of orphans during the second world war, those growing up in poor orphanages and his 44 thieves study.
- These are flawed evidence, orphans from the war and living in a poor orphanage are likely to traumatised and experiencing poor after-care.
- Therefore these other factors might have been the cause of developmental difficulties.
- This would suggests that the evidence behind MD does not actually support Bowlby’s theory of MD.
Evaluation: Limitation - Counter-evidence.
- There is counter-evidence that does not support Bowlby’s findings.
- Lewis (1954) partially replicated Bowlby’s 44 thieves study with 500 young people.
- It was found that that a history of early prolonged separation did not predict criminality.
- This is a problem for the theory of maternal deprivation because it suggests that other factors may affect the outcome of early MD.
Evaluation: Limitation - Sensitive Period Rather Than Critical.
- Bowlby originally used the term critical period however it is actually more of a sensitive period.
- Koluchova (1970) reported a set of twins who were locked in a cupboard from 18 months to 7 years fully recovered after were looked after by 2 loving adults.
- This case of very severe deprivation has had a good outcome as the child has been provided with some social interaction and good aftercare.
- This research suggests that the damage done is not critical, counter-arguing a key assumption from Bowlby’s theory.
Evaluation: Strength - Animal Studies.
- There are animal studies to support the theory of MD.
- Levy et al (2003) showed that separating baby rats from their mother had a permanent effect on their social development.
- This evidence supports the idea that maternal deprivation can have a long-term effect on development.
Evaluation: Limitation - Privation Over Deprivation.
- Bowlby fails to distinguish between and privation.
- Rutter (1981) states that deprivation is the loss of the primary attachment figure whereas privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place.
- Rutter would therefore suggests that the long term damage is likely to be result of privation rather than deprivation.
Evaluation: Limitation - Causation Of Affectionless Psychopathy.
- Another limitation to Bowlby’s theory is that it cannot be definitively concluded that separation was the cause of affectionless psychopathy.
- Bowlby found a relationship between early separation and affectionless psychopathy.
- There may have been third unidentified variable that accounted for the delinquency/affectionless psychopathy.
- It cannot be stated that affectionless psychopathy is caused by early separation.
