Bowlby What’s the evidence?

Harlow’s Rheus Monkey Harlow & Zimmerman (1959) found in their study of infant monkeys that when they were distressed they preferred to cling to a soft model rather than a wire mesh model which did provide food. The supply of food was not enough for attachment to develop.

Evaluating Bowlby Task: Download word document ‘Research into Deprivation’ and add a Point and Explain to each piece of evidence. See next slide for an example

Evaluation Skills Point - A study that supports Bowlby’s theory of attachment is Harlow’s (1959) study of rhesus monkeys. Evidence - Harlow separated infant rhesus monkeys from their mothers and raised them in isolation. He created two artificial wire mothers that resembled monkeys. One had a feeding bottle attached and the other was wrapped in soft cloth but offered no food. The monkeys spent most of their time clinging to the cloth mother, especially in times of distress. Explain - This provides evidence for Bowlby’s concept of an attachment being a safe base attachment because the contact comfort was more important in the formation of an attachment than food. Furthermore emphasising the innate, biological instinct we have to form an attachment as opposed to attachments being learnt from our environment (argued by the learning theories).

Bowlby’s 44 Juvenile Thieves: Aim & Procedure AIM: To explain the causes of delinquency PROCEDURE (METHOD): Between 1936 and 1939 an opportunity sample of 88 children was selected from the clinic where Bowlby worked - he literally picked suitable children from consecutive referrals. Of these, 44 were juvenile thieves and had been referred to him because of their stealing. The other 44 ‘controls’ had been referred to him due to emotional problems - though they did not display anti-social behaviour. Half the children in each group were aged 5-11; the other half 12-16. The 2 groups were roughly matched for aged and IQ. There were 31 boys and 13 girls in the ‘theft group’ and 34 boys and 10 girls in the control group. Of the ‘theft group’, 24 were referred by their school, 8 by parents, 3 by the court and 9 by the Probation Service. 15 of the thieves were under 9 years old and half were under 11; only one under 11 had been charged. In 22 cases there was chronic and serious stealing, mainly over a long time. In 7 cases the stealing had lasted more than 3 years. 8 of the thieves had been involved in only a few thefts while 4 had only been involved in one.

Results Bowlby found that some of the children had experienced “early and prolonged separation from their mothers”. He diagnosed 32% (14) of the thieves as ‘affectionless psychopaths’, but none of the controls were. Of the thieves diagnosed with Affectionless Psychopathy, 86% (12) had experienced a long period of maternal separation before the age of 5 years. (They had spent most of their early years in residential homes or hospitals and were not often visited by their families. They had been undemonstrative and unresponsive since infancy.

Conclusions * Bowlby concluded that maternal separation/deprivation in the child’s early life caused permanent emotional damage. He diagnosed this as a condition and called it Affectionless Psychopathy. According to Bowlby, this condition involves a lack of emotional development, characterised by a lack of concern for others, lack of guilt and inability to form meaningful and lasting relationships. Bowlby reasoned that the thieves could steal precisely because they didn’t care for others. Bowlby claimed that once the attachment bond was broken, the negative effects could not be reversed or undone.

Implications of maternal deprivation hypothesis on society? He thought that the affectionless character was depressive at an earlier stage in life and had suffered total loss of mother or foster mother during infancy and early childhood. Write a conclusion to describe the implications on mothers at work

Bowlby – 44 Juvenile Thieves (1946) - summary Bowlby (1946) - a study of 44 juvenile thieves and a group of 44 controls who had not committed crimes but who were emotionally maladjusted. Methodology included interviews with the children and their families to build up retrospective and current case histories. Bowlby found that 86% of those children diagnosed as affectionless psychopaths (lacking in normal affection and guilt) had experienced separations from their mothers; many had been in foster homes or hospitals before the age of two.

Infant attachment study in Glasgow Schaffer & Emerson (1964) Infant attachment study in Glasgow Findings Procedures The results of the study indicated that multiple attachments were most likely to form with those who responded accurately to the baby's signals. Schaffer and Emerson called this sensitive responsiveness. Conducted an important study observing the development of attachments in 60 infants who came largely from working class home in Glasgow. The infants were observed at monthly intervals for the first 18 months of life (This is known as a longitudinal study). The children were all studied in their own home. Behaviour observed: Separation anxiety Stranger distress Interviewed carers http://www.simplypsychology.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/attachment.html

Short-term effects of deprivation PPD model – Robertson and Bowlby (1952)

Evaluation Supportive evidence Mediating factors can lead reduce these effects Environment Length of separation Nature of separation Individual differences Assess the short-term effects of deprivation (8)

Can the effects of deprivation be reduced? Jane, Lucy, Thomas & Kate – Robertson and Robertson Describe how the negative effects of separation can be reduced – Complete the application exam question

Long-term effects of deprivation What evidence suggests that the absence of substitute emotional care can disrupt the long-term attachment between infant and main caregiver? (6) Use at least two pieces of evidence to answer this question