Discuss research into the disruption of attachments.(12 marks)

Discuss research into the disruption of attachments. (12 marks)

According to Bowlby, if an infant experiences disruption to an attachment then it would suffer both emotionally and socially later in life. This is called the maternal deprivation hypothesis. Bowlby supported his theory with his own research on juvenile delinquents. He found that of the juvenile thieves reported to be `affectionless psychopaths` 86% had experienced early attachment disruption. For Bowlby, this was evidence that early disruption can lead to later problems. However, this research was correlational, so it is not proving that early disruption cause delinquency. Also, the data about early attachment was gathered retrospectively, so might not be reliable. Other research appears to contradict Bowlby’s hypothesis. For example, Freud and Dann studied the development of a group of six children rescued from a Nazi concentration camp. They all suffered attachment disruption but Freud and Dann reported that they…