AQA Key Study: Long-term effects of deprivation

AQA (A) Key Study: Long-term effects of deprivation

Bowlby (1944) forty four juvenile thieves

Aims

To test the maternal deprivation hypothesis by looking at possible causes of habitual delinquency. Individuals who are delinquent (thieves) lack a social conscious, which may be due to early experiences of separation that would damage a child’s emotional development.

Procedures

Children and parents attending a child guidance clinic were interviewed about the child’s early experiences. The group consisted of 44 thieves or delinquents who had been referred to a child guidance clinic because they had been involved in stealing. The study also involved a controlled group of 44 emotionally disturbed teenagers seen at the clinic. The ages ranged from 5 to 16. It as presumed that the thieves lacked a social conscious, where as the controlled group where disturbed but remained emotionally functional.

Findings

There were two distinct features of the children studied:

Some displayed an affectionless character, lack of shame or sense of responsibility

Many of the affectionless children (86%) had before the age of two been in foster homes or hospitals, often not visited by their families.

Conclusions

Bowlby termed this disaffected state “affectionless psychopathy” and concluded that it was caused by attachment bonds being disturbed in early life. This supports the maternal deprivation Hypothesis.

Criticisms

The data was collected retrospectively, which means people may have not recollected past event accurately. The evidence is also correlational, we can’t be certain that the cause of affectionless psychopathy was maternal separation.