Studied by 1 person
Privation
Where a child has never had an attachment to its mother or caregiver
Deprivation
Where an attachment was once formed but is now broken
What did Rutter (1981) claim in his case study of privation?
He claimed that the effects of maternal privation are more likely to be serious than the effects of maternal deprivation. Evidence for this comes from case studies of children who have suffered through difficult conditions or cruel treatment
What did Curtiss (1977) find in the case of Genie?
This reported the case of a girl who suffered extreme cruelty from her parents and never formed any attachments. Her father kept her strapped to a high chair with a potty in the seat for most of her childhood. She was beaten if she made any sounds and didn’t have the chance to play with toys or with other children
She was finally discovered when she was 13 years old. She was physically underdeveloped and could only speak with animal-like sounds. After a lot of help, she later learned some language, but her social and intellectual skills never seemed to develop fully
What method did Rutter et al (2007) use
in their longitudinal study of Romanian orphans?
111 Romanian orphans who were adopted by British families were compared with a group of 52 UK adoptees and followed over a prolonged period. Some of the orphans were adopted before they were 6 months old and some were older than 6 months. Each child was accessed at ages 4,6 and 11
What were the results of Rutter et al’s (2007) longitudinal study of Romanian orphans?
The children who were younger than 6 months when they were adopted had the same level of emotional development as other UK children who were adopted at the same age. However, the Romanian orphans who were older than 6 months at adoption showed signs of insecure attachments and social problems. The UK children who were older than 6 months at adoption didn’t show the same problems
What was the conclusion of Rutter et al’s (2007) longitudinal study of Romanian orphans?
The effects of privation can be reversed if an attachment starts to form before the age of 6 months. Long-term effects are more permanent if attachment doesn’t start to occur within 6 months. Maternal deprivation on its own doesn’t cause permanent effects because the UK adopted children had been separated but didn’t show any problems
What was the evaluation of Rutter et al’s (2007) longitudinal study of Romanian orphans?
The results with the older children may be due to a lack of stimulation in the orphanage. As a longitudinal study, Rutter was able to investigate the children over a long period of time, meaning the results provide a better insight into the long-term effects of privation. However, they collect mainly qualitative data which, although detailed, makes it more difficult to create generalised laws or theories from
What was the method of Hodges and Tizard’s (1989) study of children raised in institutions?
This was a longitudinal (long-term) study of 65 children who had been placed in a residential nursery before they were 4 months old. They hadn’t had the opportunity to form close attachments with any of their caregivers. By the age of 4, some of the children had returned to their birth mothers, some had been adopted, and some had stayed in the nursery
What were the results of Hodges and Tizard’s (1989) study of children raised in institutions?
At 16 years old, the adopted group had strong family relationships, although compared to a control group of children from a ‘normal’ home environment, they had weaker peer relationships. Those who stayed in the nursery or who returned to their mothers showed poorer relationships with family and peers than those who were adopted
What was the conclusion of Hodges and Tizard’s (1989) study of children raised in institutions?
Children can recover from early maternal privation if they are in a good quality, loving environment, although their social development may not be as good as children who have suffered privation
What was the evaluation of of Hodges and Tizard’s (1989) study of children raised in institutions?
This was a natural experiment, so it had high ecological validity. However, the sample was quite small and more than 20 of the children couldn’t be found at the end of the study, so it’s hard to generalise the results. Because lots of institutional children are unfortunately often underfed and malnourished, with a lack of stimulation, it could be these factors that influenced their behaviour, rather than a lack of attachment itself
What is a long-term effect of disrupted attachments seen in the 44 Juvenile thieves study?
Affectionless psychopathy
What is anaclitic depression which is a long-term effect of disrupted attachments?
It involves appetite loss, sleeplessness and impaired social and intellectual development
What is deprivation of dwarfism which is a long-term effect of disrupted attachments?
Infants are physically underdeveloped due to emotional deprivation
What is delinquency which is a long-term effect of disrupted attachments?
Minor crimes committed by youth
What is reduced intelligence which is a long-term effect of disrupted attachments?
Infants don’t develop intellectually as fast as their peers
