4) maternal dep, institutionalisation, influence of early ATTACHMENT on relationships

Bowlby’s maternal deprivation theory (1951)

Considered that a strong attachment to a mother figure was essential for the psychological, emotional and intellectual development of babies and toddlers. Loss of an existing attachment, 'maternal deprivation' could result in serious and long-lasting problems - even anectionless psychopathy. He argued that the first 2.5years of life, the critical period, were crucial it the child was separated from their primary attachment figure (often the mother) for an extended period of time and in the absence of substitute care, damage was inevitable. Brief separations do not have any long lasting effects, deprivation only occurs it the child is separated from the person they have made a primary attachment with for an extended period of time in the absence of substitute emotional care. Prolonged separation causes serious damage to a child's emotional and intellectual development.

Bowlby’s ideas on MD

1. Monotropy

2. Irreversibility - consequences cannot be reversed

3. Critical period (2.5y)

4. Consequences of MD = delinquency, affectionless psychopathy, low IQ

Effects of MD: intellectual developement

Bowlby - if children are deprived of maternal care for too long during critical period, they will suffer mental retardation characterised by a low IQ.

Effects of MD: emotional development

Bowlby identified those who had suffered maternal deprivation as having affectionless psychopathy, this is the inability to experience guilt or strong emotions for others. This prevents the person developing normal relationships and is associated with criminality; affectionless psychopaths cannot appreciate the feelings of victims, and so lack remorse for their actions.

Bowlby’s 44 thieves

Natural experiment. sample of 44 teenage delinquents accused of stealing and were interviewed for signs of affectionless psychopathy (AF). Families were also interviewed to establish if there was prolonged early separation from their mothers. Control group of 44 non-criminal teens with emotional problems to see how often MD occurred in non-stealing teens. Results - found that 14/44 had AF, 17/44 had maternal separation MD. Of the 14 AF, 12 also had separation for mum in first 2y of life. In control, 2/44 had MD, 0/44 had AF. He concluded that prolonged separation or deprivation caused affectionless psychopathy.

Bifulco (1992)

MD strength: found that women who had experienced separation from their mothers were more likely to experience depression or an anxiety disorder, compared to those who experienced no separation. Furthermore, mental health problems were worse in those who’s loss occurred before the age of six.

MD strength: application to child rearing practices

MD strength: before Bowlby, children were separated from their parents when they spent time in hospital, and were discouraged from visiting or even forbidden from seeing them. However, after Bowlby, parents encouraged to visit their children and there is greater flexibility in terms of visiting hours. So, such research is immensely valuable in practica terms.

MD limitation: flawed research

MD limitation: Bowlby carried out the assessments for AF and the family interviews himself, having knowledge of what he hoped to find (he knew the aim). This may have produced biased results.

MD strength: animal studies

MD strength: Levy et al. (2003) showed that separating baby rats from their mother for as little as a day had permanent effect for social development. Limitation - however, there is doubt to the extent of which we can generalise findings from animals to humans.

Hazan and Shaver (1987)

Love quiz: deigned to test the internal working model to assess if attachment type formed as an infant influences friendships and adult relationships. Was published in a local American newspaper and received 620 volunteer responses (205 male, 415 female). Found that 56% of respondents were classified as securely attached, 25% insecure-avoidant 19% insecure-resistant. A positive correlations was found between early attachment type and experiences in love with those who were securely attached being the most likely to have loving and lasting relationships. Respondents who r insecure avoidant attachment type were more likely to report feeling of dislike in relation to intimacy. Individuals with an insecure-resistant attachment type were more likely to have shorter relationships, approximately six years, compared to secure respondents with ten years or more, on average. Conclusion: indicates that specific attachment type behaviours are reflected in adult romantic relationships because of an internal working model formed in infancy to guide expectations.

Bailey et al. (2007)

Adulthood relationships: looked at the attachment type of nearly 100 mothers and their infants (assessed in the strange situation) with the relationships they had with their own mothers (established in an interview). It was found that a vast proportion of the women had the same attachment type to their infant as to their own mother, supporting the concept of the internal working model influencing parenting style. Likewise, findings from Harlow's study using non-human animals also mirror this pattern. Monkeys with poor or no attachments were seen to experience difficulties with parenting because of their early, formative experiences.

Kerns (1994)

Realtionships in childhood: Found that securely attached infants were more inclined to hav good quality peer relationships during childhood whilst infants with insecure attachment types are likely to have difficulties with making or maintaining relationships.

Sroufe et al. (2005)

Relationships in childhood: conducted the Minnesota child-parent study and found that infants who were rated high in social competence during childhood were more empathetic, popular and felt less isolated. These results can be easily understood by considering the role of the internal working model since infants who are securely attached will have positive expectations that others whom they relate to will be trustworthy and friendly in return, which provides the ideal platform for interacting with others during childhood.

Rutter

Sample: 165 Romanion children (previously lived in institutions) of these 111 adopted be the age of 2 and 54 adopted by the age of 4. They were compared to 52 British children adopted by the age of 6 months. The children were tested regularly for physical, social and cognitive development at the ages of 4,6,11,15. Findings: at the time of adoption, the Romanian children were behind the British children all three aspects. Cognitively they were classified as mentally retarded. The mean IQ those children adopted before the age of six months was 102, compared with 86 for the adopted between 6 months and 2 years and 77 for those adopted after two years. The differences remained at age 16 (Beckett et al, 2010). Many of the children adopted af the age of 6 months showed disinhibited attachment and had difficulties with peer relationships.

Disinhibited attachment

The child doesn’t seem to prefer their parent over other people, even strangers. The child seeks comfort and attention from virtually anyone, without distinction.

Mental retardation

Refers to the substantial limitations in present functioning. It is characterised by significantly sub-average intellectual functioning, existing concurrently with related limitations in 2 or more of the following adaptive skills: communication, self care, home living, social skills, community-use, self direction, health and safety, functional academics, leisure and work. Mental retardation manifests before the age of 18 (Heward, 2003).

Zeanah eat al. (2005)

The Bucharest Early Invention Project. Assessed attachment in 95 children aged between 12-31 months who had spent (average) 90% of their lives in an institution and compared them to a control group who hadn’t been institutionalised. Attachment type was measure using SS. Findings: 74% of control were securely attached, but only 19% institutionalised group were. 65% of this group were classified as disorganised attachment. Disinhibited attachment applied to 44% of institutionalised children as opposed to less than 20% in control.

Kern

IWM: the quality of a child’s first attachment is crucial because ur provides a template that will defect the nature of their future relationships.

Myron-Wilson and Smith (1998)

IWM: Secure infants form better friendships and are less likely to bully. Using standard questionnaires and 196 children aged 7-11 from London, found that securely attached children were very unlikely to be involved in bullying, insecure-voidant were most likely to be the victims, insecure-resistant mst likely to be the bullies.

McCarthy

IWM: attchemttn type affects the type of romantic relationship. Assessed 40 women who ads infants had their attachment types assessed. Found that securely attached had the best adult friendships and romantic relationships. Insecure-resistant had problems maintaining relationships. Insecure-avoidant struggled with intimacy in romantic relationships.