Outline and evaluate research into the effects of deprivation Essay

In the 1950s Robertson (on behalf of Bowlby) carried aside observations of 49 infantren aged 1-4 e realwhere a deuce-year period of electric razorren separated from their chief(prenominal) health care provider(s) receivable to hospitalisation or universe dictated in a residential nursery because their important caregiver had to be hospitalised. Findings reliably showed that the effects of personnel casualty incline through three distinct stages the present(prenominal) response to insulation is protest followed by despair and then followed by detachment.In the protest the tyke cries and is unable to be comforted by caregivers with which an bond certificate has not been formed. In the despair stage the child eventually becomes calmer exclusively is uninterested in new(prenominal)s and no longer searches for the caregiver with which an attachment has been formed. In the detachment the child appears to be coping easy nevertheless the child tends to treat separates al l in a similar superficial manner. Further more than if the attachment-figure fruits the attached child behaves in a very(prenominal) detached manner towards the main caregiver practically ignoring or rejecting their advances. (AO1)Robertsons seek reliably showed the effects of deprivation over a two-year period. Nevertheless this look utilize an opportunity standard which was very small consequently it whitethorn wish outdoor(a) validity in that it may mean that the findings cannot be generalised to seats another(prenominal) than hospitals or residential nurseries nor situations involving reasons for separation other than hospitalisation of the child or main caregiver.However because this examine was a naturalistic observation of children experiencing real deprivation in a real-life situation the study mogul well have high external validity in that the inquiry situation does represent real life. Nevertheless whilst a naturalistic observational method may well be h igh in terms of external validity it often deficiencys internal validity as the research worker makes no attempt to control variables and thereof Robertson may not be meter what he claims to measure i.e. the effects of separation but, instead may be amount the effects of roundthing else such as the childs reaction to being dictated in a very strange environment. (AO2)Bowlby (1946) carried out a retrospective study on 88 children that had been referred to his psychiatric clinic because they were distraint psychological disturbances. Half of these children showed delinquent conduct in that they had a criminal constitution for theft and 14 of these thieves displayed an affectionless personality the other 44 children were emotionally disturbed children but did not show delinquent behaviour. When Bowlby investigated the childrens life histories he found that 17 of the 44 children in the delinquent assembly had experienced separation/deprivation from their mothers for more than 6 months during the first four days of life, whereas only 2 in the emotionally disturbed group had experienced this. Bowlby reason out that maternal deprivation played the study role in causing guilt in later life. This appears to suggest that aboriginal separations may well be cerebrate to later emotional maladjustment. (AO1)However a number of criticisms can be aimed at Bowlbys research, for exampleThe data on separation were collected retrospectively and may not be reliable or valid. (AO2)Even though only two of the non-delinquent group had suffered deprivation all were execrable from psychological disturbances suggesting that deprivation does have forbid effects on development and m any(prenominal) children experience deprivation and do not suffer and long-term flagitious psychological problems suggesting that it is not as actualise cut as Bowlby is suggesting. (AO2)Bowlbys try out was biased in that all of the children in the sample were maladjusted in some way and therefore is not substitute and probably not generalisable to children who are not maladjusted in some way. The sample is also too small to be representative of the population. (AO2)Bowlby makes the assumption that maternal deprivation was the major cause of maladjustment when it could have been due to many other factors, for example, being placed in strange and frightening environments, lack of attention from any potential caregiver, etc. (AO2)Bowlbys research may well have been biased as he was employed to do such research by the World Health government for political purposes. That is Bowlbys work was used to support governments eager to encourage women to return to the home and leave the workplace subsequently World War II. In reaction to this, feminists cited anthropological research from around the innovation to show that sole care by the mother was a recent western invention. They also point out that in cultures where the mother was not the main caregiver or played little if any role in care-giving the children were not maladapted and grew up to be socialised, well-adjusted adults. (AO2)