Romanian Orphanges

Question 1

Institutionalisation

Answer 1

• The effects of living in an institutional setting such as a hospital or orphanage where children lived for long period of time. In these places there was little emotional care provided.

Question 2

What did Rutter do?

Answer 2

assessed a group of 165 Romanian Orphans adopted in Britain to test to what extent good care could make up for poor early experiences in institutions. Physical, cognitive and emotional development has been assessed at ages 4,6,11 and compared with a control group with British adopted children around the same time

Question 3

What did Rutter find?

Answer 3

the Romanian adoptees at age 11 showed different rates of recovery and this was dependent upon their age of adoption.

• The mean IQ of children who had been adopted before the age of 6 months was 102, compared with 86 for those adopted after two years.
• They found children who were adopted after 6 months showed disinhibited attachment with symptoms such as attention seeking or clinginess.

Question 4

What is a strength of studying Romanian orphans?

Answer 4

is that it has enhanced our understanding of institutionalisation and led to improvements in the way children are looked after in cared institutions

Question 5

How has our understanding of institutionalisation led to real life application?

Answer 5

children’s homes and orphanages now avoid having large numbers of caregivers for each child and instead ensure only key workers play a central role for the child. This means children are able to develop normal attachment and helps avoid disinhibited attachment

Question 6

Why is enhanced understanding of institutionalisation a strength?

Answer 6

showed Rutter’s research having immense practical value and can be applied to real life policies and situations

Question 7

What is a limitation of Romanian orphans?

Answer 7

although useful data about institutionalisation has been informative, Romanian orphanages were not typical

Question 8

Why is Romanian orphanages atypical an issue?

Answer 8

It is possible that conditions were so bad that Rutters findings may not be applicable to our understanding of the impact of better quality institutional care or any situation where children experience deprivation

Question 9

Examples of atypical conditions in the Romanian orphanages

Answer 9

had poor standard of care and extremely low levels of intellectual stimulation

Question 10

Why is the Romanian orphans a weakness overall?

Answer 10

as the unusual situational variables mean the studies may not be generalisable to the wider population.