Academic Writing for Social Work Proofreading Practice Key

Although Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation has been largely discredited, Mary Ainsworth (1978) built on Bowlby’s ideas about exploratory bases and separation anxiety in her now widely used ‘Strange Situation’ experiment.

Findings based on the Strange Situation would appear to support Bowlby and the idea that child-care is undesirable (citation: author surname(s) and year(s) of publication). However, there are criticisms of conclusions drawn from the Strange Situation.

Clarke-Stewart (citation: year of publication) argues that the Strange Situation does not take into account how far the mother and child were used to being separated. Cultures such as Japan and the USA vary in how much they value independence in children and so each would interpret the results of the Strange Situation very differently (Super and Harkness 1981).

One of the difficulties in evaluating research based on Bowlby’s theories has been in finding valid comparisons. Most research tends to be based on USA mothers from families under economic and social stress, and who are not representative of all mothers (Burman 1994).

One useful comparison group for day-care children would be children whose temperaments prevented their mothers from going to work, and whose mothers became depressed. It has been found that mothers at home with two children under five are more likely to be depressed (citation: author surname(s) and year(s) of publication).

Depression in mothers has also been linked with delinquency in children (citation: author(s) surname and year(s) of publication). This suggests that day-care might benefit both mother and child.

Cree, V. (ed. ) (2003) Becoming a Social Worker. London: Routledge Cree, V. (ed.) (2003) Becoming a Social Worker. London: Routledge. BOOK TITLE Dominelli, L. (1997) ‘Feminist Theory’. In M. Davies (ed.) The Blackwell Companion to Social Work. 2nd edn. Oxford: Blackwell. CHAPTER FROM A BOOK DSS (1999) Opportunity for All: Tackling Poverty and Social Exclusion. Cm 4445 The Stationery Office. OFFICIAL DOCUMENT Fisher, J. (1974) Is casework effective? A review. Social Work 1: pp.107-10.

Phillips, M. (1993) An oppressive urge to end oppression Phillips, M. (1993) An oppressive urge to end oppression. Observer 1 August. NEWSPAPER ARTICLE Scott, M.J., Stradling, S.J. and Dryden, W. (1995) Developing Cognitive-behavioural Counselling. London: Sage. BOOK TITLE Wardman, G. (1977) Social work: a communist view. Marxism Today. January, pp.29-32. MAGAZINE ARTICLE