Bowlby maternal deprivation

Question 1

What did Bowlby believe?

Answer 1

• maternal care was necessary
  -for emotional development of children
• as vitamins were to physical health

Question 2

Maternal deprivation theory

Answer 2

• separation or loss of mother without adequate substitute
• continual presence of nurture from mother is essential
• for psychology, intellectual and emotional development of infants

Question 3

critical period maternal deprivation

Answer 3

• first 2.5 years crucial
• prolonged separation leads to deprivation of emotional care
  -bond irreversibly broken
• leading to severe emotional, social intellectual consequences

Question 4

consequences

Answer 4

• intellectual retardation characterised by low IQ
• affectionless psychopathy
• depression
• aggressiveness, dwarfism, dependency, social maladjustment

Question 5

bowlby study aim

Answer 5

• establish if frequent separations contributed to affectional psychopathy

Question 6

procedure

Answer 6

• 44 criminal teens and families
• interviewed on early life to see signs of affectionless psychopathy
• compared to control group of non criminals

Question 7

findings

Answer 7

• 86% affectionless psychopath thieves had prolonged separation from mothers
• 17% other thieves experienced separation too
• 4% control group experienced same

Question 8

internal working model

Answer 8

• maternal deprivation could lead to poor parenting

Question 9

continuity hypothesis

Answer 9

• prolonged separations could lead to adulthood issues

Question 10

strength +

Answer 10

• real life implication
• established importance of emotional care for psychological dev
• changed the way children treated in hospital

Question 11

limitation - flawed

Answer 11

• bowlby’s study is flawed
• bowlby himself carried out both interviews and assessments
• open to researcher bias

Question 12

limitation - unreliable

Answer 12

• relied on recollections of mothers only
• not counting if there was a substitute mother during prolonged periods