Privation

• What are the effects?• Can the effects be reversed?• Is there a critical period for the

development of some abilities?• Sociability• Language

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Privation

• Hodges & Tizard (1989)• Social and emotional effects of

privation through institutionalisation• Key questions were about reversibility

of effects

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Privation

• Hodges & Tizard (1989)• Compared institutionalised children

with a control sample• 65 children placed in care before 4

months; controls raised at home• Longitudinal study (16 years)• Measures of social & emotional

competence at 4, 8 & 16 years

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Privation

Adopted Restored

4 years

No attachment No attachment

8 years

Normal attachment

Poor attachment

16 years

Normal attachment

Only 50% ‘deeply attached’

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Privation

• Mixed evidence for reversibility• Adopted group developed apparently

normal attachments• Restored group had poor attachments

and often presented behavioural problems

• Both groups had problems outside the family:• Poorer peer relationships than controls• Attention seeking from adults

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Privation

• Curtiss (1989) – ‘Genie’• Extreme privation & abuse• Intense rehabilitative effort• Limited success – some attachments, some

language

• Many problems:• Possibly not developmentally normal • Questions about rehabilitation techniques

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Privation

• Koluchova (1976) – ‘Czech twins’• Locked in cellar until 7yrs, beaten• No language, gestural communication,

severe developmental delay• Adopted at 9yrs, developmentally

normal by 14 yrs

• Some problems:• Twins had opportunity to attach to each

other – possible protective effect

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Privation

• Freud & Dann (1951)• Child survivors of Nazi death camps• Hostile to adults, limited language• Adopted at 6yrs, formed attachments

to carers eventually• Emotional problems (e.g. depression)

persisted

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Privation - conclusions

• Effects of privation are more reversible than Bowlby believed

• The longer the period of privation the harder to reverse the effects

• Loving relationships & high quality care are necessary to reverse privation effects

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Privation - conclusions

• Research studies in this area suffer from many problems including:• Difficulty generalising from single

cases or small samples• Difficulty separating effects of

privation, abuse, malnutrition, other trauma or congenital abnormality

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