Bowlby stated that for a child to develop into a healthy adult, they require not only good quality physical care but also continuous emotional care from the attachment figure. He claimed that if the attachment is broken, or does not develop, during the first two and a half years (known as the critical period) long-term, irreversible consequences will occur.
The effects include:
- Delinquency and increased aggressiveness (social development)
- Reduced intelligence (cognitive development)
- Depression (psychological development)
- Affectionless psychopathy (emotional / psychological development)
Supportive research - use the links below to develop your knowledge and understanding of key evaluation points:
Criticisms -
Bowlby's TB research
Critics such as Rutter have accused Bowlby of not distinguishing between deprivation and privation – the complete lack of an attachment bond, rather than its loss. Rutter stresses that the quality of the attachment bond is the most important factor, rather than just deprivation in the critical period.
Rutter also stated that much of the supportive research only showed a correlation and not cause and effect. For example, the 44 Thieves Study insinuates that affectionless psychopathy was caused by maternal deprivation. However, this was correlational data and as such only shows a relationship between these two variables. Indeed, other external variables, such as diet, parental income, education etc. may have affected the behaviour of the 44 thieves, and not, as concluded, the disruption of the attachment bond.
Use this information to answer the following essay question:
Outline and evaluate Bowlby's Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis (12 marks)
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