6. Disruption to attachment - the MDH

who created the MDH?

• Bowlby.

What does the MDH stand for, and what does it say?

• After conducting research into attachment, Bowlby proposed the Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis.

• This states that breaking the maternal bond in the early years of life will result in serious effects on intellectual, social and emotional development.

• This would be permanent and irreversible.

• Aggressiveness.

• Depression.

• Delinquency.

• Dependency anxiety (‘‘clinging’’).

• Dwarfism (retarded growth).

• Affectionless psychopathy (showing no feelings for others).

• Intellectual retardation.

• Social maladjustment.

What are the 2 important studies that demonstrate the effects of long term deprivation?

• Goldfarb et al (1943).

• Bowlby - the 44 thieves (1944).

What is Goldfarb’s (1943) research?

• Investigate the effects of deprivation on institutionalised children compared to children fostered straight from their mother.

• The 15 children in each group were matched on maternal education and occupation, and studied from the age of around 6 months to 3 years old.

• At 3 years old the children who remained in the institution were intellectually and socially behind the fostered group.

• In adolescence they maintained this development lag and showed problems with relationship formation (Goldfarb 1947).

• It is clear that such research would seem to strongly suggest that early deprivation can have long-term consequences on social, emotional and intellectual development.

• Longitudinal research.

• However, the unstimulating environment could be the cause and not the separation.

• Supports the MDH.

What is Bowlby’s 44 thieves (1944) research?

• Bowlby interviewed 44 children who had been referred because of juvenile delinquency and theft (the 44 juvenile thieves) and 44 children referred because of emotional problems but not stealing (control group).

• Along with a social worker, they interviewed each child and parent and made psychiatric assessments of the children’s behaviour.

• Bowlby classed 14 of the juvenile thieves as having an ‘affectionless character’, as they seemed to lack affection for others and experienced no guilt, responsibility or shame for their crimes.

• None of the children in the control group was classified as having affectionless character.

• Of the 44 juvenile thieves, 17 had experienced prolonged periods of separation from the primary caregiver of more than 6 months before the age of 6 years, compared to only 2 of the control group.

• Of the 17 juvenile thieves who has experienced maternal deprivation, 12 of them were classified as affectionless characters.

• This was the most important finding as it suggested that the long-term consequences of maternal deprivation were a lack of empathy and guilt and later the development of delinquent behaviour.

How can the studies be a weakness in terms of relationship not causality?

• A03

• We don’t know whether the early disruption of an attachment was the cause of the social and emotional difficulties, due to there being many variables we cannot control for such as the environment.

• Environments at the time were unstimulating and clinical so it may be the cause for their issues or possible that social and emotional issues may be the cause for the maternal deprivation.

How are the studies being natural experiments both a strength and a weakness?

• A03

• It has high ecological validity and mundane realism, natural environment and natural behaviour.

• With a natural experiment we can ethically test the effects as the conditions have occurred naturally so no guidelines are broken in that case.

• Low internal validity as we cannot control for extraneous variables so we do not know if the IV is directly affecting the DV.

• Difficult to replicate.

What is a weakness of the studies in terms of deprivation or privation?

• A03

• Studies as those we have looked at have a combination of deprivation and privation.

• For example, Goldfarb’s longitudinal study followed children who were institutionalised from birth therefore they probably did not have an attachment to the mother in the first place.

• According to Rutter (1981) many studies involve institutionalised children who might not have been ‘attached’ at all - privation.

• Therefore the children who were institutionalised may have suffered more severe affects because they actually experienced privation not deprivation.

• Effects may have been more severe as it was actually privation which is more severe, lowering the validity of the theory.

Summarise Robertson and Robertson’s research and implications for a child’s development in terms of deprivation

• Robertson and Robertson found that a substitute caregiver that provides emotional and social support in a stable way can reverse the effects of early separation/deprivation.

What happened with the Czech twins - Koluchova

How does is suggest that the MDH is not correct?

• A03

• Koluchova (1972) studied a pair of twins in Czechoslovakia.

• She documented their case and also returned to it later.

• She used the case study method and a lot of data was gathered.

• The twins were brought up in an institution for a year and then by an aunt for 6 months.

• So for the first 18 months they had a reasonably normal upbringing.

• Then their father remarried and they returned to their home life.

• Their stepmom mistreated them badly, locked them in a room and beat them - this continued for over 5 years.

• When found at the age of 6, they had bone disease and were small for their age.

• Very poor language development, couldn’t recognise pictures and were not able to undergo an IQ test.

• Frightened of other people and their stage of development was about that of a 3 year old.

• The boys went through various schools starting in a school for children with severe learning difficulties.

• They were adopted by two sisters who gave them special attention and over time they began to catch up and went to a normal school.

• At 11 their speech was normal for their age and at 15 their IQ was normal for their age.

• Koluchova documented in 1991 that both were married with children - they were happy and stable, had warm relationships with their families.

• Shows the effects of maternal deprivation can be reversed if they have stable substitute caregivers.

• Critiques the MDH.

What is Freud and Dann - The Bulldogs Bank 6 research?

How does it suggest that the MDH is not correct?

• A03

• Anna Freud and Sophie Dann (1951) studied and cared for 6 children raised in a concentration camp in Theresienstadt.

• Having lost their parents during the Nazi occupation, the children were raised together by prisoners at the concentration camp, but this care was infrequent and the ability to form attachments was made difficult by the nature of the environment.

• These children became known as the Bulldogs Bank children.

• They were seen by a clinic for treatment at around the age of 3 years after enduring appalling conditions.

• Initially aggressive towards staff and having formed intense bonds with each other, the children began to form attachments with staff at the clinic.

• Although one was later known to have sought psychiatric care as a an adult, the remaining children seemed to have developed normal adult behaviours.

• Critiques the MDH because the effects of their deprivation was seen to be reversed/reduced.

Why does this hypothesis create a potential for ‘self-fulfilling prophecies’?

• Because you are labelling children.

• May create a self-fulfilling prophecy because any maternal deprivation they suffered as a child will have an effect on the relationships they develop as an adult - and behave accordingly to this.