Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• Focused on the idea that the continual presence of nurture from a mother or mother substitutes is essential for normal psych dev of babies/toddlers

Separation vs deprivation

• Separation simply means the child not being in the presence of the primary attachment figure
• This only becomes an issue for dev if the child is deprived i.e, they lose an element of the mother's care
• Brief separations are not sig for dev but extended separations can lead to deprivation

The critical period

• Bowlby saw the first 30 months of life as the critical period for psych dev
• If a child is separated from their mother in the absensence of suitable substitute care and so deprived of her emotional care for an extended period during this critical period then psych damage was inevitable

Effects on development

• Intellectual development
  • Bowlby believed that if children were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period they would suffer delayed intellectual development, charcterised by abnormally low IQ
  • This has been demonstrated in studies of adoption
  • Goldfarb found lower IQ in children who had remained in institutions as opposed to those who were fostered and thus had a higher standard of emotional care
• Emotional devlopment
  • Bowlby identified affectionless psychopathy as the inability to experience guilt or strong emotion for others
  • This prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality
  • Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of their victims and so lack remorse for their actions

Bowlby's 44 thieves study

• Procedure
  • 44 criminal teenagers accused of stealing
  • All thieves were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy: lack…