Maternal Deprivation

Question 1

Did Bowlby’s material deprivation theory come before or after his theory of attachment?

Answer 1

before

Question 2

What is maternal deprivation?

Answer 2

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

Question 3

What is separation?

Answer 3

• Child is not in presence of PAF
• Brief separations, where child is left with substitute caregiver who can provide emotional care & is not significant for development

Question 4

What is deprivation?

Answer 4

loss of emotional care from a PAF or substitute caregiver

Question 5

What is privation?

Answer 5

Failure to form an attachment in the first place

Question 6

What did Bowlby say the critical period was for psychological development?

Answer 6

2 and a half years

Question 7

What happens if child is separated from their mother for an extended duration during the critical period?

Answer 7

deprived of emotional care so psychological damage is inevitable

Question 8

What two effects does extended deprivation have on a child?

Answer 8

Effects their intellectual development and emotional development

Question 9

What effects does extended deprivation have on child’s intellectual development?

Answer 9

abnormally low IQ

Question 10

Whose adoption study supports low IQ because of maternal deprivation and what did they find?

Answer 10

Goldfarb (1947) - found low IQ in children who had remained in institutions compared to those who were fostered

Question 11

What effects does extended deprivation have on a child’s emotional development?

Answer 11

affectionless psychopathy >inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others

Question 12

What did Bowlby’s 44 thieves study (1944) examine?

Answer 12

the link between maternal deprivation and affectionless psychopathy

Question 13

Who were the two groups in Bowlby’s study?

Answer 13

• 44 teens referred for stealing
• compared to a control group of non criminal emotionally disturbed teen

Question 14

What did Bowlby find about the thieves?

Answer 14

14/44 thieves - affectionless psychopaths
12/44 had experienced prolonged separation

Question 15

What did Bowlby find about the control group?

Answer 15

2/44 experienced long separations
0/44 were affectionless psychopaths

Question 16

What can be concluded from Bowlby’s thieves study?

Answer 16

Prolonged separation/deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Question 17

What is a limitation of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis to do with evidence?

Answer 17

• theory is based on poor quality evidence
• Bowlby’s 44 thieves study flawed because it was Bowlby himself who carried out both the family interviews and the assessments for affectionless psychopathy.
• This left him open to bias because he knew in advance which teenagers he expected to show signs of psychopathy.
• Bowbly was also influenced by findings of Goldfarb’s (1943) research on the development of deprived children in wartime orphanages. Which had problems of confounding variables as children experienced early trauma and institutional care as well as prolonged separation from their primary caregivers.
• Bowlby’s original sources of evidence for maternal deprivation had serious flaws and would not be taken seriously as evidence nowadays.

Question 18

What is another limitation of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation to do with his distinction of early experiences?

Answer 18

• one limitation is his confusion between different types of early experience.
• Rutter drew an important distinction between two types of early negative experience. Deprivation strictly refers to the loss of the primary attachment figure after attachment has developed.
• privation is the failure to form any attachment in the first place
• Rutter pointed out that the severe long-term damage Bowlby associated with deprivation is actually more likely to be the result of privation.
• children studied by Goldfarb may actually have been ‘prived’ rather than deprived.
  Similarly, many of the children in the 44 thieves study had disrupted early lives (e.g. spells in hospital) and may never have formed strong attachments.
• Bowlby may have overestimated the seriousness of the effects of deprivation in children’s development.

Question 19

What is a further limitation of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis?

Answer 19

• a further limitation of the theory is Bowlby’s idea of a critical period.
• Bowbly assumed that damage was inevitable if a child had not formed an attachment in the first two-and-a-half years of life. ‘Critical period’
• However, there is evidence to suggest that in many cases good quality aftercare can prevent most or all of this damage.
• eg Koluchová (1976) reported the case of the Czech Twins.
• Twins. The twins experienced very severe physical and emotional abuse from the age of 18 months up until they were seven years old.
• Although they were severely damaged emotionally by their experience they received excellent care and by their teens they had recovered fully.
• This means that lasting harm is not inevitable even in cases of severe privation.
• the critical period should be seen as sensitive period