Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation

Question 1

Maternal deprivation:

Answer 1

The emotional and intellectual consequences of separation between a child and their mother. Continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development and prolonged separation leads to serious damage to emotional and intellectual development.

Question 2

Separation vs Deprivation:

Answer 2

1. Separation simply means the child not being in the presence of the PCG.
2. Deprivation means they lose an element of her emotional care.

Question 3

Critical Period:

Answer 3

1. First 30 months of life as the critical period.
2. If the child is separated from their mother in the absence of suitable substitute care and so is deprived from her care, psychological damage was inevitable.

Question 4

Intellectual development impact:

Answer 4

Delayed intellectual development, characterised by abnormally low IQ.

Question 5

Emotional development impact:

Answer 5

1. Identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt r strong emotion for others.
2. Prevents develop normal relationships and associated with criminality.

Question 6

Bowlby: Procedure

Answer 6

1. 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing.
2. They were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy: lack of affection, guilt and empathy.
3. Families were also interviewed in order to establish if they had experienced prolonged early separations from their mother.
4. Control group of non-criminal, but emotionally disturbed young people.

Question 7

Bowlby: Findings

Answer 7

1. 14 of 44 thieves could be described as affectionless psychopaths.
2. Of the 14, 12 had experienced prolonged separation from mother in the first years.
3. 5 of the remaining 30 had experienced separations.
4. Of the control group only 2 of 44 had experienced long separations.
5. Prolonged separation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Question 8

E: Evidence may be poor

Answer 8

1. Bowlby drew on a number of sources of evidence for maternal deprivation including studies of children orphaned during WW2.
2. Goldfarb used the above and found those who found lower IQ in those children who remained in institution as opposed to those who were fostered.
3. Flawed. War orphans were traumatised and often had poor after-care, there these factors might have been the causes of later developmental difficulties.
4. Children growing up from birth in poor quality institutions were deprived of many aspects of care, not just maternal care.
5. 44T had many major design flaws and bias. Bowlby carried out the assessments for affectionless psychopathy, knowing what he hoped to find.

Question 9

E: Counter-evidence

Answer 9

1. Lewis (1954) partially replicated the 44 thieves study on a larger scale, looking at 500 young people.
2. In her sample a history of early prolonged separation from the mother did not predict criminality or difficulty forming close relationships.
3. Other factors may affect the early maternal deprivation.

Question 10

E: Critical period is more of a sensitive period

Answer 10

1. Bowlby used the term critical period because he believed that prolonged separation inevitably caused damage it it took place within that period.
2. Some cases of severe deprivation have had good outcomes provided the child has some social interaction and good aftercare.
3. Koluchova (1976) reported the case of twin boys from Czechoslovakia who were isolated from the age of 18 motnhs until they were 7 (step-mum locked them in a cupboard).
4. They were then looked after they 2 loving adults and appeared to recover fully.
5. It is a sensitive one, but cannot be critical.

Question 11

E: Animal Studies

Answer 11

1. Many psychologists are very critical of the theory of maternal deprivation.
2. Levy et al showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had a permanent effect on their social development though not other aspects of development.

Question 12

E: Did not distingush between deprivation and privation

Answer 12

1. Rutter 1981 claimed that Bowlby was muddling two concepts when talking about deprivation.
2. Deprivation means the loss the primary attachment figured after attachment had development.
3. Privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place.
4. Rutter claimed that severe long term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely to be because of privation.