Outline and Evaluate Research Into Privation free essay sample

AO1 Privation is when a child has the right to form an attachment to a primary care giver taken away from them; the option to make these crucial attachments isn’t there. If Bowlby’s theory is correct, then because of this inability to form attachments, infants should grow up struggling to form relationships and attachments to anyone else. AO1 P: Evidence looking at the effects of privation comes from the case of Genie. E: She was 13 years old when she was found, after spending her entire life up until that point, locked in a room. Her father subjected her to this cruelty because he suspected she was retarded. When she was found she was unable to speak or stand properly. E: She never fully recovered socially after she was discovered and it was reported that she showed a disinterest in other people. This lack of recovery is support for Bowlby’s theory, in that because she failed to form attachments this affected her relationships and she grew up. We will write a custom essay sample on Outline and Evaluate Research Into Privation or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page AO2 P; Although this case study is high in ecological validity it is also low in population validity. E: This means that the findings from Genies case aren’t viable to be generalised to the entire population. Her circumstances were unique and other factors were involved such as her retardation. We don’t know whether genie was retarded before her father locked her away, but if she was, E: her condition would’ve meant her ability to form attachments may be different to others even if her upbringing had been normal and the primary attachment made. AO1 P: Another study that researches into privation is the Czech twins; however the results were different from that of Genie . E: The Czech twins spent the first 7 years of their lives locked up by their stepmother. When discovered they couldn’t talk but by the age of 14, spending 7 years in the care of someone else, they displayed near normal social and intellectual functioning. E: Like genie, the chance to form an attachment to a primary care giver was taken away, however the twins grew up to lead fairly normal lives with the ability to form attachments to others. AO2 P: The criticism for Bowlby’s theory in this study comes from that fact that the twins grew up to lead full lives with several attachments, even though they had missed the critical period. E: However, Bowlby argues that the only reason the twins were able to recover so successfully was because throughout their traumatic experience they had each other, whereas Genie was alone. : E: The twins formed their primary attachment to each other and therefore weren’t completely alone. AO1 P: One of the most well controlled studies into privation was the longitudinal study carried out by Hodges and Tizard. They assessed 65 children at regular intervals up until they were 16. E: The children had been institutionalized, during the critical period and did not have the opportunity to develop an attachment. These children showed problems with peers, they were more quarrelsome and more attention seeking. 70% of them showed an inability to care deeply for anyone. E: This supports Bowlby’s theory that the failure to form attachments during the critical period has AO2 P: It has been argued that a weakness in Hodge and Tizard’s study is difference between the rate of recovering from adopted children to those restored to their natural parents E: It has been suggested that the parents may not have invested as much emotional time into their children and this is why they did not develop a strong attachment. As the children were taken away from the parents there would have been abuse issues and that these may have caused the children to have difficulties later in life. E: It is difficult therefore to determine why children do not become attached and there may be various resource out-with being deprived of a primary care giver during childhood. AO1: P: Rutter et al also conducted an experiment into privation. A group of about 100 Romanian orphans were studied and assessed at the ages of 4, 6 and 11 years old. They were adopted by British families and showed normal emotional development; however after 6 months many of them showed disinhibited attachment (where infants can show overfriendliness and don’t discriminate between who they choose as attachment figures) and problems with peers. This supports Bowlby’s theory, because of the lack of a primary attachment figure and its effect on later relationships and attachments. However, when compared to an entire population its difficult to generalise these results and apply them as a general trend.