Use learning theory to explain how Max became attached to his mother rather than to his father

Presentation on theme: "Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis"— Presentation transcript:

1 Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis

2 Exam focus: When Max was born, his mother gave up work to stay at home and look after him. Max’s father works long hours and does not have much to do with the day-to- day care of his son. Max is now nine months old and he seems to have a very close bond with his mother. Use learning theory to explain how Max became attached to his mother rather than to his father. (6 marks)

3 Answer Learning theory suggests attachment develops through classical and operant conditioning. According to classical conditioning food (UCS) produces pleasure (UCR). Max’s mother was associated with the food and becomes a conditioned stimulus. According to operant conditioning food satisfied Max’s hunger and made him feel comfortable again (drive reduction). Food was therefore a primary reinforcer. His mother was associated with food and became a secondary reinforcer. Max became attached to his mother because she was a source of reward. The explanation must be directly linked to Max and his mother. Answers which make no reference to Max and his mother maximum 3 marks.

4 MDH Many psychologists became interested in the effects of children being separated (deprivation) from their caregivers. From this Bowlby created the ‘Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis’.

5 Deprivation: Privation:
“It is better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all.” Before we look at Bowlby’s hypothesis it is useful to understand the difference between deprivation and privation. Deprivation: Loved and lost Deprivation occurs when the attachment bond is formed but is broken later on in life. Privation: Never to have loved (or been loved) at all Privation occurs when a child does not form any attachment at all.

6 So finally this is the theory!
Bowlby (1953) The Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis 1. “Mother love in infancy and childhood is as important for mental health as are vitamins and proteins for physical health” (1953) 2. if a child does not have a warm, intimate and continuous relationship with his or her mother (or mother-substitute) then they would have trouble forming relationships with others later on, and would be at risk of behavioural disorders such as affectionless psychopathy (see later) but also risk of intellectual problems e.g. low IQ. 3. If the separation occurs before the age of two and a half (without a substitute) the effects on the emotional well-being of the child are particularly severe, (critical period) 4. although the child is at risk of deprivation up to the age of five. 5. Bowlby identified circumstances in which maternal deprivation could occur, which included the mother being imprisoned, divorce or even the mother working full time.

7 Robertson and Bowlby (1952) believe that short-term separation from an attachment figure leads to distress (i.e., the PDD model). Children who are separated typically show three key behaviours, in the same order, which we can remember as PDD. P rotest The child cries, screams and protests angrily when the parent leaves. They will try to cling on to the parent to stop them leaving. D espair The child’s protesting begins to stop, and they appear to be calmer although still upset. The child refuses others’ attempts for comfort and often seems withdrawn and uninterested in anything. D etachment: If separation continues the child will start to engage with other people again. They will reject the caregiver on their return and show strong signs of anger.

8 As a child Sally's primary attachment figure was her mother however in the first two years of her life she worked away from home for long periods, sometimes not coming back for months on end. Her dad did his best to be a substitute for her mother. Sally is now five and about to start school. Task Sally is starting school, what would Bowlby predict would happen to Sally at school and why? Be creative and come up with real life examples e.g. Sally might start kicking kids in her class

9 Suggested answers… Deprivation during the critical period of 2 1/2 years No female substitute even if dad tried No internal working model Delinquency-trouble in school Low IQ-struggles with school work Affectionless psychopathy-little regards to the feeling of others, bullying, stealing, no guilt.

10 Evaluation of Bowlby’s maternal deprivation hypothesis
Deprivation versus separation Rutter (1976) claimed that Bowlby was actually mixing up the concepts of deprivation and privation. He claims Bowlby never made it clear whether the child’s attachment bond had actually even been there in the first place and that in fact the severe long-term damage that Bowlby associated with deprivation was more likely to be the result of privation.

11 Watch this clip of Rutter criticising Bowlby and note down how else he criticises the Maternal deprivation hypothesis.

12 Did you ever go into hospital as a child. What happened
Did you ever go into hospital as a child? What happened? Were you parents allowed with you? Before Bowlby this wasn’t the case.

13 Real world application
Bowlby’s theory and work by Robertson and himself had an enormous effect on childrearing and led to major social change in the way children were cared for in hospitals. Before the research parents were discouraged or even forbidden from visiting children who had to go into hospital but his research and footage showing how distressed these children became from Robertson changed this.

14 Individual differences
Do you think some children will be able to cope with separation better than others? Which type? Why? Barret (1997) reviewed various studies on separation and concluded that actually securely attached and more mature children may actually cope better and be less affected than insecurely attached children.

15 Bowlby’s theory based on study
Bowlby based his theory on a study called the 44 thieves that he carried out. You need to draw the 44 thieves as a flow diagram. You need two flows, one ending with affectionless psychopathy and one ending with the lack of this. What was the start of this flow? Where does maternal deprivation fit in? Add the numbers for the 44 thieves only of who should go in which flow. If there are any thieves who do not fit the pattern add them to the flow diagram but ring them and use arrows to indicate how they fit in.

16 Bowlby studied 88 children aged 5 to 16 who had been referred to a child guidance clinic where he worked. 44 were referred for stealing the other half were a control group; Bowlby diagnosed 16 of the 44 as affectionless psychopaths – shameless and conscienceless. The control group had been referred for other types of behaviour but none of them were diagnosed as affectionless psychopaths. Bowlby interviewed the children and their family to build a record of their early life experiences. Bowlby discovered that 86% of the affectionless psychopaths had experienced early and prolonged separation from their mothers; only 4% of the control group had experienced such separation. He concluded that the separation had caused affectionless psychopathy.

17 Bowlby’s theory based on study
On your tables can you evaluate the study. Remember to link it back to the theory i.e. all the negative points reduce the support for the theory. Here are some hints- sample? Researcher bias? Extraneous variables? Interviews?

18 Evaluation The experiment was correlational the results only show a relationship between early childhood experiences. We are unable to conclude that separation causes affectionless psychopathy. The use of interviews could have led to interviewer bias where the expectations of the interviewer affected the respondent’s behaviour. The participants were required to recall information from a long time ago (which is known as retrospective data collection). It is possible that some participants couldn’t remember the details accurately, or may have even changed some of the details.

How does learning theory explain attachment?

When Max was born his mother gave up work to stay home?

What is Bowlby's Monotropic theory of attachment?

How does classical conditioning explain attachment theory?