bowblys theory of maternal variation

Question 1

what is bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 1

the continued presence of care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development of babies both emotionally and intellectually

Question 2

what is the difference between separation and deprivation

Answer 2

• separation means the child is not in the presence of the primary attachment figure
• deprivation is prolonged separation and is a problem for child development

Question 3

what are the effects on intellectual development

Answer 3

• if children were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would experience delayed intellectual development characterized by abnormally low IQ
• Goldfarb (1947) found lower IQ in children who has remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered

Question 4

effects on emotional development

Answer 4

• affectionless psychopathy is the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion towards others this prevents a person developing fulfilling relationship and is associated with criminality

Question 5

when did bowlby conduct his 44 thieves study

Answer 5

1944

Question 6

what was the procedure of 44 thieves study (1944)

Answer 6

-44 criminal theft accused of stealing
- all interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
- families were also interviewed to establish whether the thieves had prolonged early separation form their mothers

Question 7

what were the findings of 44 thieves study (1944)

Answer 7

• 14 out of 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths
• 12 of them had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers in the first 2 years of life
• only 5 of the 30 remaining thieves had experienced separations
• concluded that prolonged early separation caused affectionless psychopathy

Question 8

limitation of the theory of maternal deprivation

Answer 8

1. flawed evidence
   - bobly carried out both the family interview and the assessment of the affectionless psychopathy
   - open to bias as the knew in advance what teenagers he expected to show the signs
   - additional influence of Goldfarbs (1943) has confounding variables as the children had experienced early trauma and prolonged separation
2. deprivation and privation
   - deprivation strictly refers to the loss of the primary figure after attachment has developed
   - privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place
   - rutte points out that the severe long term damage bowlby associated with deprivation is actually the result of privation
   - children in 44 thieves studies never formed strong connection due to disrupted early lies
   - bowlby may have overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation in children development
3. critical period vs sensitive period
   - evidence to show that in many cases good quality aftercare can prevent most of the damage of not forming an attachment
   - case of czech twins where they experienced very severe physical and emotional abuse from 18 months up until they were 7 years old
   - although they were severely damaged emotionally by their experiences, they received excellent care and by their teens had fully recovered
   - means that lasting hamr=s is not = inevitable even in case of severe privation