Bowlby’s Maternal deprivation hypothesis

Prep 9 Romanian orphans for next lesson. • Prep 10 adult relationship for the lesson after • Start revising everything for the mini-mock – w/c 11th of Feb Bowlby’s Maternal deprivation hypothesis Privation = attachment bond never formed Deprivation = attachment bond broken.

In Bowlby’s 44 thieves study……. Question time What did he find? 14/44thieves he diagnosed as what? Affectionless psychopaths! How many children were in his total sample? 88 So what did he conclude caused this psychopathy? The separation from the mother How many of the control group did he diagnose as affectionless psychopaths? 0 Where did he gather this sample from? His child guidance clinic Spitz and Wolf (1945) also concluded this about children that they visited where? Institutions and orphanages in south America He then worked out what % of the control group and the 14 affectionless psychopaths had been separated from their mothers-What were these %? 86%and only 4% of the control group! His then split this sample in to 2, how did he do this? Control group and those referred for stealing

So, Bowlby’s 44 thieves study should be pretty easy to remember 4 1 Only 4% of control group separation from mother, whereas 86% of affectionless psychopaths did. 44Theives 44 non-Theives 14 of the 44 thieves = affectionless psychopaths

How can we summarise this in sentences Sample + Method Bowlby studies 88 children who were patients at the Child Guidance Clinic in London. All of the children were emotionally maladjusted. 44 of the children were ‘thieves’ the other 44 had no history of stealing and were used as a control group. Findings Bowlby found that 14 of the thieves showed little sign of affection, shame or a sense of responsibility – a group he called ‘affectionless psychopaths’. Bowlby found that 12 out of 14 (86%) affectionless psychopaths had experienced frequent separation from their mothers, in comparison to just 17 % of the other 30 thieves, and 4% of the control group. Conclusions These findings suggest that early childhood separations are linked to affectionless psychopathy.

10 seconds silent thinking then I’ll ask you for the answer to….. Today we will learn about Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis A prediction of what you expect to happen….. What is a hypothesis? So what do you think maternal deprivation means? Being separated or the bond broken from your mum or main female carer? So the Maternal deprivation hypothesis is then?........ a prediction of the short and long term effects for a child of being separated from their female primary care-giver. List all of the reasons that a child may be separated from a primary caregiver. Death, divorce, going out to work, hospitalisation, prison

What would Bowlby’s Monotropic theory suggest would happen if a child was separated from their mother? Use the CR.i.i.m.p.s to fully detail your answer / flow diagram. If in the critical period before 2 or even until 5 leads to…. Monotropy- a special bond with mother or female so a break in this…. This is very similar to his hypothesis A negative impact on their internal working model and a child’s relationships

So finally this is the Maternal deprivation hypothesis (1953)(in your pack page 23) These Severe emotional effects are permanent and irreversible Children need to have a warm, continuous and intimate relationship with their mother or female If this bond is broken before 2 ½ and no substitute then a severe impact but child is still at risk up till 5 years old The severe emotional effects would be….. Problems forming relationships (internal working model effected) Risk of intellectual problems so low IQ, would struggle in exams and academically Behavioural disorders- so may get in trouble at school, be hard to control, maybe get in trouble with police. A specific behavioural disorder mentioned was affectionless psychopathy (you know this from the prep)

Smaller group activity using ALL boards You are going to write a scenario for a possible exam question on the maternal deprivation hypothesis that your classmates are going to answer. In it you must write a scenario about your own child, including details of how they have been deprived, for how long-severe or less severe? the effects it has had on them, you can’t write “they have behavioural problems” or “ they were deprivated for 2 years” you have to put subtle info in the scenario that will help you classmates to work this out! The question they will answer is-Referring to the maternal deprivation hypothesis explain _______ behaviour (6 marks)

Referring to the maternal deprivation hypothesis explain _______ behaviour (6 marks) Now you must go to another board in the room, go, go, go!!! 1. On their answer underline the details from the scenario and annotate it by linking to key terms. 2. explain ________ behaviour in full sentences on the big board. Now let’s hear about your children, I want to hear the example from the scenario AND then the bit of the theory it links to!

Now move to another board and mark it out of 3 P-Bowlby in part based his maternal deprivation hypothesis on his 44 thieves study. E-However the sample were children who had all been referred to his clinic for issues with their behavior so we can’t generalize these results to all children, what about children without issues that were separated would the impact be the same? E-Also Bowlby carried out this research, came up with the term affectionless psychopaths and decided who fitted into each group so there is an issue with objectivity here and potential researcher bias. L-The fact that his hypothesis may be based on research that was biased by Bowlby, with findings that can’t be generalized to all childrenreduces the support it gives to Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis and questions the accuracy and usefulness of the hypothesis. To get 3/3 the link needs to be good!

Evaluation of Bowlby’s Maternal deprivation hypothesis For nest 2 lessons you will need the final prep. Adult relationships

List the errors with a correction. You should find 9 Bowlby proposed that prolonged emotional deprivation would have short term consequences on physical development. Bowlby places an important emphasis on paternal care and believed that infants and children need ‘a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with a mother (or mother substitute ) for normal mental health. Furthermore according to Bowlby early childhood separation will only have an effect if it takes place during the critical period of development – before the age of 3 ½ years old. Therefore, the potential damage can be avoided if suitable emotional care is provided by a mother substitute. The short term consequences of a maternal separation include a complete inability to form relationships due to developing a good internal working model. A high IQ and behavioural difficulties – specifically the higher risk of affectionless psychopathy. These consequences were considered permanent and reversible.

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis Bowlby proposed that prolonged emotional deprivation would have long term consequences on emotional development. Bowlby places an important emphasis on maternal care and believed that infants and children need ‘a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with a mother (or mother substitute ) for normal mental health. Furthermore according to Bowlby early childhood separation will only have an effect if it takes place during the critical period of development – before the age of 2 ½ years old. Therefore, the potential damage can be avoided if suitable emotional care is provided by a mother substitute. The long term consequences of a maternal separation include difficulty forming relationships due to developing a poor internal working model. A lower IQ and behavioural difficulties – specifically the higher risk of affectionless psychopathy. These consequences were considered permanent and irreversible.

Evaluation of Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis Bowlby used his 44 thieves study to support his Maternal Deprivation hypothesis. Why might this be a problem? (Discuss in pairs) Consider the following in your discussion: How did Bowlby select the children he interviewed? Why might this be a problem? Now, in pairs, on MWBs, see if you can write a PEEL statement based on this point How was affectionless psychopathy decided? Why might this be a problem? The research was retrospective. What does this mean and why doe is matter? Now pass your board to another pair and award a mark out of three using the guidance on the next slide

Evaluation of Bowlby’s Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis P:Bowlby, in part, based his maternal deprivation hypothesis on his 44 thieves study, which can be considered a flawed piece of research E: This is because the study is retrospective, meaning that Bowlby has identified a link between affectionless psychopathy and maternal deprivation after it has occurred, meaning that he is not able to say what percentage of children who suffer maternal deprivation go on to develop affectionless psychopathy. This may be a very small proportion of the whole, and therefore his research may exaggerate the effects of maternal deprivation E:Furthermore his conclusions may be confounded by the clinical sample he used, in which all children were already referred for maladjusted behaviour and thus have other reasons for their later development. Finally as Bowlby is using his own research to support his theory it could be argued that he has constructed the research in such a way that he is likely to gain that support e.g. his classification of who was deemed an affectionless psychopath. L: The evidence upon which the maternal deprivation theory is based has so many flaws that the theory itself loses credibility. This paragraph is FULL ON! Summarise your own version for your notes.

It is argued by some psychologists (like Rutter) that Bowlby and Spitz had incorrectly claimed these children were deprived. “Many of Bowlby’s juvenile delinquents had experienced several changes of home/principle caregiver during their early childhood, before the separation from the mother even began” Spitz (1945) visited several orphanages and other institutions in South America. Children in these orphanages received very little warmth or attention from the staff and had become apathetic. Very important evaluation point! alert On your tables look at the evidence to the right and see if you can work out why.

“Many of Bowlby’s juvenile delinquents had experienced several changes of home/principle caregiver during their early childhood, before the separation from the mother even began” Spitz (1945) visited several orphanages and other institutions in South America. Children in these orphanages received very little warmth or attention from the staff and had become apathetic. I If the “delinquents” had several changes of caregiver then it may be that they never actually formed a bond in the first place. Did you work it out? If orphaned then we don’t know if you had a bond before the orphanage and it looks like no bonds were formed with staff in orphanage.

So what does this potential error mean for the maternal deprivation hypothesis? Does anybody know? Can you work it out? If all this is true then the children suffered Privationnot Deprivation. The severe effects that were found may have been caused not by maternal separation but by never having made a bond in the first place! So if your mum goes out to work or goes into hospital then with good substitute care, there probably are no long term effects!! This is the L bit of your PEEL This seriously questions the validity of Bowlby’s whole hypothesis.

Bowlby’s deprivation research has been successfully applied to real life though, because of footage he filmed (see below) parents are allowed to stay with their children in hospital. This is a significant and important application!

Pregnancy and childcare in prison https://www.gov.uk/life-in-prison/pregnancy-and-childcare-in-prison • Pregnancy and childcare in prison • Women who give birth in prison can keep their baby for the first 18 months in a mother and baby unit. • A prisoner with a child under 18 months old can apply to bring their child to prison with them. • Social Services arrange for children over 18 months to be cared for, eg by the prisoner’s parents, or fostering.

Summarise both evaluative paragraphs by answering each question. Privation not deprivation P: Strength or weakness? E: Describe the early life experiences of the children in his research. E: What does the mean for Bowlby's conclusions about deprivation? Has he made an accurate distinction? L: does this affects the validity or the reliability of his theory? APPLICATION P: Strength or weakness? E: What could children expect if in hospital pre-Bowlby? E: How have hospital changed since Bowlby’s work? And WHY will this benefit those children? L: What does this demonstrate about the ability to apply Bowlby’s theory to real life?

How could you PEEL this? P:A Strength of Bowlby’s research are the applications to childrearing practices. E: Before Bowlby’s research children were separated from their parents when they spent time in hospital. Parents were discouraged from visiting or even forbidden from seeing their children as it was believed this would be less upsetting. E: However Bowlby’s work led to major changes in the way children are cared for in hospitals. E.g parents are encouraged to visit their children and there is greater flexibility in terms of visiting hours. E: This demonstrates the positive application of Bowlby's research to improving childrearing practices in hospitals.

Bowlby’s Maternal deprivation hypothesis