Bowlby

’s Deprivation Essay, Research Paper

In his hypothesis, Bowlby believed that an infant.s failure to attach to a

primary caregiver would have long term effects. This essay will attempt to

evaluate Bowlby.s deprivation hypothesis. Firstly, the terms .attachment.

and .deprivation. will be defined. Following that, a full definition of the

hypothesis will be made, and then an attempt will be made to describe and

understand the studies and period of history that lead to Bowlby.s ideas and

the influence they generated. A full evaluation will be made of his deprivation

hypothesis, including detailed criticisms of his theory. Finally, conclusions

will be drawn to show if Bowlby.s deprivation hypothesis can still retain any

credibility. The first task is to define the terms attachment and deprivation.

In 1973 the leading attachment psychologist, Mary Ainsworth, pointed out that

.Attachment is an affectional tie that one person forms to another person,

binding them together in space, and enduring over time.. Deprivation can occur

when there is insufficient opportunity for interaction with a mother figure

(privation), when there is insufficient interaction with mother (masked

deprivation), or when there are repeated breaches of ties with mother figures.

In 1949, the World Health Organisation became concerned about the number of

homeless children, or children who were growing up in institutions as a result

of the war years. They commissioned Bowlby to look into this matter, and to

report to them whether these children were likely to be suffering from their

experiences, and what the best kind of upbringing for such children was. Bowlby

concluded that a warm intimate and continuing relationship with a mother figure

is an essential precondition for mental health. Maternal deprivation or a

disturbed emotional attachment between mother and child was said to cause

irreparable damage, not only to the child but also to society as a whole. He

stated (1951) .deprived children, whether in their own homes or not, are a

source of social infection as real and serious as are carriers of diphtheria and

typhoid.. Bowlby.s report to the WHO had a great deal of influence among

health care officials, social workers, and parents. But the conclusions he came

to were very controversial and caused arguments right from the very beginning.

Contrary to behaviourists and Freudians, who thought that physical comfort was a

caregiver.s primary concern, Bowlby (1951) suggested that emotional care was

at least equally important. He states that .maternal attachment is as

essential for healthy psychological development as vitamins and minerals are for

physical health.. Bowlby (1951) also proposed the concept of monotropy, that

is the need for one central caregiver, usually the mother, but alternatively the

father or another person. Finally, Bowlby (1951) felt that there was a critical

period in the formation of attachments. He believed that children who experience

maternal deprivation below the age of four will suffer permanent damage. Three

landmark studies conducted in the 1950s supported his views. In 1946, Bowlby

looked at the life histories of eighty-eight children who had been referred to

his psychiatric clinic, half of whom had a criminal record for theft. Fourteen

of the .thieves. displayed an .affectionless. character, that is, a lack

of normal affection, shame or sense of responsibility. Almost all of these

affectionless children (eighty-six per cent of them) had suffered .early and

prolonged separations from their mothers.. In practice, this meant that, at

least before the age of two, these children had continually or repeatedly been

in foster homes or hospitals, often not visited by their families. Of the

remaining seventy-four children who were not affectionless, only seven (one per

cent) had been separated. This appears to be strong evidence in support of

Bowlby’. hypothesis, but the data was retrospective and, more importantly,

correlational. It can not be assumed whether the maladjustment was caused by the

separations themselves or if there was a third factor responsible for both

maladjustment and separations, for example general family discord could be cause

of both. This was one of Rutter.s criticisms, which will be discussed later,

in further detail. More support for Bowlby.s views came from a piece of

classic research conducted by Lorenz (1935). In this study, Lorenz became

.mother.. to a brood of goslings. It was already known that many birds

attach themselves to the first figure they see upon hatching and persist in this

attachment, and Lorenz.s work confirmed this. The phenomenon is called

imprinting, an ethological concept taken from embryology. During pre-natal

development, there are short periods when an individual is especially

vulnerable. These times are called .critical periods., and the effect

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