Real world applications
Type: Strength
- Enormous impact on post-war thinking of childrearing and children in hospitals
- Prior, children were separated from parents when spending time in hospital with visiting discouraged
- In his study, Robertson filmed a 2-year-old girl in hospital for 8 days, showing her distressed and begging to go home
- This led to major social change in the way children were cared for in hospitals
Low internal validity
Type: Limitation
Study: Rutter (1981)
- Bowlby’s definition of ‘deprivation’ was too simplistic
- Does not take into account whether the child’s attachment bond had been formed but broken, or never existed in the first place
- Argues that if never formed, the lack of emotional bond would have amplified consequences
- Matters due to a key distinction between privation and deprivation; a lack of clarity may affect the validity of the results
Support for long-term effects
Type: Strength
Study: Bifulco et al. (1992)
- Found women that had experienced separation from their mothers were more likely to experience depression or an anxiety disorder, compared to those who had no experience
- Furthermore, the mental health problems were much greater in those women whose loss occurred before the age of six
- Supports Bowlby’s idea of a critical period, suggesting that early childhood deprivation can lead to later vulnerability for depression and anxiety disorders
Individual differences
Type: Limitation
- Not all children are affected by emotional disruption in the same wway
- Barrett (1997) reviewed various studies on separation and found that
- Securely attached children cope reasonably well
- Insecurely attached children become especially distressed
- Suggests the effects of maternal depravation are not experienced in the same way and do not affect children uniformly