Throughout the set up, the infants were judged on an intensity scale of 1-7 (1 being the lowest and 7 the highest) which described their behaviour. This was Ainsworth’s quantitative data, though some of the method was qualitative. When the mother left the room and returned, with the effect of the stranger, the infants’ behaviour showed that the infants could fall into 3 types of behaviour. Type B is ‘secure attachment’; this is when the infants found it stressful and unsettling when their mother left the room. They did not care about the stranger attempting to give the comfort.
This supports Bowlby's theory of sensitive period. There was another study conducted by Stout, Stout conducted a study of Romanian orphans who had experienced severe conditions and found that they later suffered permanent psychological damage, including no ability to interact with people and increased aggression. Psychologists successfully showed the impacts of institutionalisation; a strength of Hodges and Tizards study was that it was longitudinal so the researchers were able to see how the institution affected the children over many years. However a weakness of this longitudinal method involves attrition, where many of the children may have left the study because they were well adjusted, therefore resulting in a biased remaining sample - children with pleasant behaviour are more likely to be adopted. Some research suggests that individuals who do not form a primary attachment within the early sensitive period are unable to recover, however, in the study of romanian orphans, one third recovered well therefore privation alone cannot explain negative outcomes.
This shows that privation had an effect on the children and had affected their ability to form attachments. Hodges and Tizard’s study suggests that privation has negative effects on people in later life; however there may be other factors that affect people. Privation is only one of these numerous factors and other studies have proven that children can recover from privation to form attachments in later life. Privation is more likely to cause damage when paired with other factors and therefore privation cannot be solely to blame for the inability to form attachments. In addition to this, the Hodges and Tizard study did not follow the participants into later life.
This is where the baby for one special attachment to their main caregiver, which is generally (but not always) the mother. Bowlby also suggested that due to this late relationships may develop which would be beneficial. Another thing Bowlby suggested was that babies had a sensitive period. Bowlby believed that this sensitive period should develop between 3 and 6 months, which is the rough age for crawling. Bowlby then went on to suggest that if the baby did not develop during this time then there would be catastrophic consequences.
The body starts going through hormonal changes and can bring about changes in personality and behavior. The child is in need of many things from those they depend on the most; their parents. In the world today, many children are being raised with the absence of one parent due to divorce, death, or abandonment. What kind of a negative impact will this absence have on the adolescent? What psychological impact will the absence of a mother have on her daughter?
Outline and Evaluate Research into Privation (12) Bowlby’s theory of attachment led him to believe that there was a critical period for attachment formation. If a separation occurs between mother and infant within the first few years of the child’s life, the bond would be irreversibly broken, leading to severe emotional consequences for the infant in later life. He referred to this disruption of the bond with the mother as maternal deprivation. A study that supports this is Genie, Bowlby saw that separation experiences in infancy and early childhood were the cause of affectionless psychopathy and delinquency, Rutter has argued that these are more likely the results of deprivation. Hodges and Tizard used a longitudinal approach to study, the effects of early experiences and later development.
This hypothesis suggests that having the attachment removed at an early age can negatively affect the emotional and social development of the infant. This essay will aim to examine the factors influencing infant-mother attachment whilst focusing on non maternal day care. It will be vital to look at studies carried out based
Bowlby noted the apparent distress in children separated from their mothers in unusual circumstances e.g. hospitalisation. In studying the more abnormal and distressing situations he attempted to shed light on an understanding of normal emotional attachment development, and how a disruption could prove damaging to the child emotionally and through to adult maturation. Bowlby suggested that the presence of the mother was just as crucial to the baby as being supplied basic needs such as food. His conclusions led him to postulate that the distress at separation from the mother was universal in babies.
Scientists are finding ways to figure out more and more about children before they are born, such as the sex of the child or whether or not the child is diseased with a mental disability. The issue with this is that many parents are finding out the child is mentally challenged or the child is the opposite sex as they wanted, the parents are opting to abort the baby. Scientists have also found away to find the errors pre-born babies, and are now able to fix it. The problem is that by interfering with the babies before they are born could cause complications and affect the child in a poor way in the future. If you were to leave the issue alone no babies could be risked to be harmed or risk being aborted by their parents solely based on their gender.
This stresses the importance of attachment, and therefore the negative impact long term deprivation has on children. Richards (1987) theorised that the experience of divorce seems to affect children more than a parent’s death. This may be due to several factors such as little or no contact if one parent leaves the home; stress of family reordering; or the child may blame themselves for the divorce. However, this was a case study which cannot be generalised as the children’s situations are unique, and therefore different to others. Moreover, death could seem to have a less affect on children depending on their upbringing and nature of the situation.