Attachment, deprivation and privation

What is meant by an internal working model?

• 1st attachment acts as a template (in the mind) for all future relationships

• Having one primary caregiver

• Must have an attachment during a certain period of time or else the child will suffer from long term irreversible social development issues

What is meant by a critical period?

• 1st attachment acts as a template (in the mind) for all future relationships

• Having one primary caregiver

• Must have an attachment during a certain period of time or else the child will suffer from long term irreversible social development issues

What is meant by maternal deprivation?

• Child has attachment but then is is disrupted e.g. mum goes to prison.

• Child never has the chance to for a meaningful bond e.g. raised in an institutional care home

Main long term consequences of experiencing maternal deprivation based on Bowlby´s theory

• Criminality

• Low IQ

• Problems with relationships

• Affectionless Psychopathy

How did Rutter challenge Bowlby?

• Bowlby didn't distinguish between different privation and deprivation

• 
  Bowlby did not take into account that there were many other factors which might explain why the early separation were associated to later affectionless psychopathy

• All of Bowlby's sample were female (gynocentric) so can't generalise to males

2 ways to criticise Bowlby's findings from the 44 juvenile thieves study

• Results are only show a possible correlation. Criminality could have caused by something else e.g. poverty

• Possible researcher bias as Bowlby was responsible for deciding if any the participants were affectionless psychopaths

• It could be arguing that the child was not protected from harm and was deliberately put in a stressful situation to examine his/her response

• It is ethnocentric

What is meant by monotropy?

• Need to form one main primary attachment bond to act as a secure base

• Need to have just one partner

• An emotional bond between two people

One study to support Bowlby's theory of maternal deprivation

• Harlow - privation study. those who were privated for 6+ mths went on to be rejecting/abusive mums, psy disturbed and couldn't interact

• Dollar and Miller study- The Learning Theory of attachment

• Rutter (1981)- Privation study

Which theory suggests that attachment develops through a process of conditioning and reinforcement?

• Learning theory

• Bowlby's maternal deprivation hypothesis

• Ainsworth's work on attachment

Which attachment type is characterized by the child's ability to explore the environment while feeling secure in the presence of the caregiver?

• Insecure-avoidant attachment

• Secure attachment

• Insecure-resistant attachment