Attachment - maternal deprivation

Question 1

what is maternal deprivation

Answer 1

• emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and mother / mother substitute

Question 2

what is separation

Answer 2

child not being in the presence of their primary attachment figure

Question 3

what is deprivation

Answer 3

extended separation that can cause harm

Question 4

what is the critical period

Answer 4

• first 2 1/2 years of life
• deprived of emotional care during the critical period then psychological damage is inevitable

Question 5

how does intellectual development affects development

Answer 5

• children deprived for too long in critical period they would have delayed intellectual development - low IQ
• Goldfarb - lower IQ in children who were in institutions

Question 6

how does emotional development affect development

Answer 6

• affectionless psychopathy
• inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others
• associated with criminality
• lack remorse for their actions

Question 7

what was Bowlby’s research

Answer 7

• 1944
• 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
• all interviewed for affectionless psychopathy
• families interviewed to establish if the thieves had prolonged early separation from their mothers
• compared to a control group of 44 non criminals but emotionally disturbed

Question 8

what did Bowlby find

Answer 8

• 14/44 thieves were AP
• 12 had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers
• 5 of the other 30 had separations
• 2/44 in the control group had prolonged separations
• early separation and deprivation caused AP

Question 9

what are the strengths of maternal deprivation

Answer 9

• can help to explain why maternally deprived children become criminals
• maternal deprivation can have long term effects

Question 10

what are the limitations of maternal deprivation

Answer 10

Flawed evidence
- Bowlby himself carried out the interviews
- open to bias , knew which teenagers would have AP

Rutter (1981)
- created privation - failure to form any attachment in the first place
- severe long term damage Bowlby said was deprivation may be privation

Critical versus Sensitive periods
- case of the Czech twins
- severe physical and emotional abuse until 18 months
- excellent care in their teens and recovered fully
- lasting harm isn’t inevitable even in cases of privation
- critical period is more of a sensitive period