Bowlby's research – A Level Psychology Edexcel Revision

Bowlby’s research

John Bowlby proposed the Maternal Deprivation Hypothesis, asserting that continuous care from a mother is essential for normal psychological development.
Bowlby suggested that children have an innate need to form a strong bond with a caregiver, most often the mother, which is crucial for survival.
He emphasised the importance of a secure attachment in the early years, suggesting that the first two years of life constitute a critical period during which the attachment needs to be formed. If an attachment isn’t formed during this period, the child may struggle to form attachments later in life.

Bowlby conducted a study known as “44 Thieves” to test his theory of Maternal Deprivation. He investigated 44 adolescents who were referred to a child protection programme in London for stealing.
He compared them to a control group of non-thieves, but who possessed emotional problems. Bowlby found that more than half of the thieves had been separated from their mothers for a prolonged period before the age of five.
This led Bowlby to conclude that early separations from the mother-figure could lead to a condition he defined as Affectionless Psychopathy - a lack of emotional development, a lack of concern for others, an absence of guilt for antisocial behaviour, and a difficulty in forming relationships.

Bowlby’s research has been criticised as being biassed. He conducted the interviews himself and made the diagnosis of Affectionless Psychopathy, raising concerns about investigator effects.
His study lacked population validity as his sample was small and only involved children from a child protection programme in London, which means the findings cannot be generalised to other populations.
It was also criticised for its retrospective methodology, as Bowlby relied on participants’ memories of past events, which may not be accurate.