Failure to Form Attachment

Privation
1. The Czech Twin spent the first seven years of their lives locked in a basement by their stepmother. When they were first discovered they couldn't speak but were then cared for by two loving sisters and by the age of fourteen had near normal social and intellectual functioning. By the age of twenty they were above average intelligence and had excellent relationships with members of their foster family. Koluchova suggests that they were discovered at a young enough age where recovery was possible
  1. As they were locked away together, some attachments may have been formed - this may be why they managed to recover so well
  2. Case studies are very hard to generalise as they only focus on individuals. We also have no control over EV's which makes it difficult to gauge the validity of the findings
    1. However, case studies offer a rare opportunity to study situations which would be unethical to artificially create and are our only insight into complete privation
2. The case of Genie is perhaps the most famous case of privation. She was locked in a room until the age of thirteen because her father though she was mentally retarded. When she was discovered she could not stand erect or speak. She has never fully been able to recover, socially or intellectually, and shows a disinterest in other people. Her lack of recovery may be due to her extreme emotional privation; this may be because she was discovered at such a late age and had exceeded the sensitive age for effective attachment
  1. Genie may have been mentally retarded from birth and this may have contributed to her lack of recovery
Institutionalisation
1. Hodges and Tizard conducted a longitudinal natural experiment on privation. They followed a group of 65 British children who were placed into an institution when they were less than four months old (they had not yet formed attachments) from early life to adolescence. The policy of the care home prevented the caretakers from forming any kind of attachment with the children. An early study found 70% were described as 'unable to care deeply about anyone', suggesting most of these children had experienced emotional privation
  1. They were assessed at regular intervals up to the age of 16. Some children remained in the institution but most had left, either through adoption or back to their original families. Adopted children developed close attachment to their parents; those children who went back to their families were less likely to form attachments with their mothers. Both groups of children had problems with peers and were more likely to be bullies. This suggests that early privation has a negative effect on the ability to form relationships, even when given good subsequent emotional care
  2. A good range of research methods were used to collect information including; in-depth interviews, questionnaires and other self-report measures
  3. Participant attrition: at each stage of the research P's dropped out (right to withdraw). originally 65 children but only 51 were studied at age 8, therefore may not be a representative group
  4. Ethical Issues: it is a sensitive area of family relationships and the researchers needed to make sure that the P's were under no pressure to continue to participate. They also had to respond in a sensitive way to follow-up interviews
  5. Supported by Rutter's study of a Romanian orphanage. 100 orphans were assessed at 4, 6 and 11. If they were adopted before 6 months they had 'normal' social and emotional development. If they were adopted after 6 months they had disinhibited attachments (did not discriminate between attachment figures) and problems with peers
The Effects of Privation and Institutionalisation
1. Attachment Disorder: recognised as a psychiatric condition in the DSM. There are two types: 1. Reactive or Inhibited - shy and withdrawn, unable to cope with most social situations. 2. Disinhibited - over friendly and attention-seeking
2. Poor Parenting: research has shown that those who experienced some form of privation (e.g. institutionalisation) went on to become poor parents themselves
  1. Supported by Harlow - the baby monkey's with surrogate mothers went on to become poor parents
3. Deprivation Dwarfism: children in institutional care are usually physically small. This may be due to the fact the lack of emotional care may affect the production of growth hormones which would explain the link between emotional deprivation and dwarfism (Gardener)

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Failure to Form Attachment

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	Created by Lilia about 9 years ago

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