Maternal Deprivation

Level: AS Levels, A Level, GCSE – Exam Boards: Edexcel, AQA, OCR, WJEC, IB, Eduqas – Psychology Revision Notes

Maternal Deprivation

• Maternal deprivation – when bonds are broken, or attachment has not formed at all with the mother. Bowlby predicts that disruption to the attachment bond causes serious and permanent damage.

INSTITUTIONALISATION

• Childcare provided by orphanages and children’s homes

RUTTER ET AL (1998) – Development catchup study

Aim: – investigated whether love and care can make up for deprivation

Method: – this investigation was a longitudinal study, with the use of a quasi-experiment
– dependent variable = cognitive function of the infants
– independent variable = age the infant was adopted
– 111 Romanian orphans assessed on arrival to the UK, and again at 4

Results: – 50% were underdeveloped on arrival
– However, after 4 years, there were great improvements. Those adopted before 6
months had cognitive function of almost the same as typical British adopted
children

Conclusion: – the negative effects of institutionalisation can be overcome by sensitive and
nurturing care toward the infant

BOWLBY’S THEORY OF MATERNAL DEPRIVATION

• He suggests that the psychological development is dependent on attachments between infants and their mothers.
• Disruption in these bonds within the critical period have these consequences:
• Intellectual development – Bowlby believed that if a child were deprived of maternal care for too long during the critical period, they would suffer from long term deprivation characterised by divorce, imprisonment, death or adoption. This would result in the child having a lower IQ.
• Emotional development – long term deprivation can lead to the child possessing the inability to experience guilty or strong emotions for others. This can prevent the person from developing normal relationships and is often associated with criminality. Affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims and therefore suffer long term irreversible damage.
• Disinhibited attachment – behaviour of clinginess; may not know how to behave appropriately with strangers.
• Lack of IWM – difficulty to form strong relationships / friendships in the future.

BOWLBY’S 44 THIEVES STUDY

Aim: – This study examined the links between affectional psychopathy and maternal deprivation

Method: – used a sample of 44 teenage delinquents
– the participants were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy
– their families were also interviewed to establish if there was prolonged early separation from their mothers
– control group of 44 non-criminal teenagers, with emotional problems were assessed to see how often maternal deprivation occurred to the children who were not thieves

Results: – 14/44 were affectionless psychopaths and 17/44 had maternal deprivation
– out of the 14 that were affectional psychopaths, 12 had experiences prolonged separation in the first two years of life
– in the control group, 2/44 had maternal separation, but 0/44 were categorised as
affectionless psychopaths

Conclusion: – prolonged separation / deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Evaluation

EXAM QUESTIONS:

1. Discuss Bowlby’s theory of Maternal Deprivation. (16 marks)
2. Outline and evaluate research into the effects of institutionalism (16 marks)