Bowlby (1944)

Bowlby (1944)

1. Aim: To investigate into whether prolonged separation between a child and his/her mother could explain 'habitual delinquency'

2. Procedures

   • The sample consisted of 44 children for whom stealing was a problem and who has been referred to a Child Guidance Clinic
     • 31 Boys and 13 Girls
   • 44 children from the same clinic who had not stolen were chosen for the control group
   • The controls were of a similar age, intelligence and economic status as the experimental group
   • The average IQ for both groups was higher than average for the population
   • The children were given tests to assess their intelligence and their emotional attitude
   • The child was then interviewed by a psychiatrist
   • The mothers of the children also held discussions with the psychiatrist
   • All the information was then pooled together for diagnosis
   • The children were characterised into six groups based on their character type
   • Weekly assessments took place, carrying on for several months in many cases

3. Findings and Conclusions

   • Only 2 of the 44 thieves were diagnosed as normal but even these two possessed characteristics which showed instability. It was believed that without treatment, the other 42 would develop neurotic or psychotic symptoms
   • The most common character type in the experimental group was 'affectionless', described as 'children who lack normal affection, shame or sense of responsibility'
   • There were no affectionless characters amongst the control group, this absence is statistically significant and demonstrates the strong association between affectionless characters and stealing
   • 13 of 23 children in the grade 4 group were diagnosed with the 'affectionless' character type
   • There are 3 main suggested causes for the child's behaviour present in this study - genetic factors, early home environment and traumatic experiences during later childhood
     • These factors were present in 40-50% of the cases
   • Early home environment - 40% of the thieves had experienced prolonged separation from their mothers compared with only 5% of the control subjects
     • 12 of 14 affectionless thieves had experienced a prolonged separation early in their lives
   • There is a high degree of association between affectionless character and history of mother-child separation
     • Only 7 out of the 27 cases where there was no mother-child separation had mothers who were fairly normal
   • Traumatic experiences during late childhood - there are 11 cases in which a recent traumatic event precipitates stealing, varying from a death of a close relative to jealousy at the birth of a new baby
     • In most of these cases, the stealing was part of a wider syndrome of depression, brought about by the traumatic event
   • It can be concluded that, had it not been for certain factors inhibiting the development of the ability to form relationships, it is highly possible that these children would not have become offenders
   • These findings confirm the general psychoanalytic assumption that the early years are of great importance in character development
     • However, juvenile crime is not just a psychological problem, it is a social and economic problem as well
   • Psycho-analytical treatment can often be slow and difficult, the main reason for this is that in most cases, the condition has been present in the child for several years and is therefore an established part of their psychology
     • Attempts should be made to diagnose and treat children at a much earlier age, when treatment is more influential
   • Nevertheless, if all those who are involved in the upbringing and care of small children were aware of the appalling damage which prolonged separations have on the development of a child's character, a greater effort would be made to avoid them and many cases of criminal behaviour could be prevented
   • Certain factors, such as death and the psychological effects that come with it cannot be prevented

4. Evaluation

   • Did he get valid consent? it is unknown if he has informed them that he's publishing their data. May have no parental consent
   • Confidentiality - he used their real names, majorly violates confidentiality
   • Privacy - exposed a lot of their private information
   • Cannot generalise - very small sample and all in a psychiatric hospital so results are disturbed
   • Matched pairs - good control
   • Biased - did a study to prove his own theory. Bowlby came up as an affectionless character himself so interviews could be biased
   • Has provided a lot of detail on why young children steal
   • Interviews make it unreliable and possibly innacurate
   • Some questions are retrospective, could also cause social desirability bias
   • Always remained objective - the IV has not been manipulated
   • Cannot infer cause and effect - too many other factors and individual differences
   • Some children were left for such a short period of time it does not explain them having such large problems
   • Does not prove much

5. Ethical Implications

   • Bowlby majorly violated the confidentiality of the 44 participants as he used the participant's real names in his study when explaining their personal stories (e.g. Claud W in case 1). Additionally, other personal details were stated such as their age
   • Due to the exposure the parents and children were going to experience, i.e. their personal information and identification being published, participants may have altered their answers, giving more socially desirable ones. Therefore, reliability is affected in this study. Instead of publishing their real names, he should have used initials or fake names
   • In this study, the individuals privacy was also invaded. Very personal and traumatic information about the individuals were exposed, such as the story of Alan E's brother being run over at a young age and the emotional and mental effects this had on him and each member of his family. Similarly, on arrival at the clinic each child had their IQ tested and emotional attitudes towards the tests were noted, this could be seen as an infringement on their privacy
   • We must question whether Bowlby contained consent from the participants. Furthermore, we are unsure if the participants were aware of the extent to which their personal information would be exposed i.e. they may not have known that their personal stories were going to be published and made easily obtained by the public
   • Parental consent would have also been required as the participants are under the age of 16, however, during the study the parents were interviewed by a social worker on the details of their child's early life. This suggests that the parents were aware of the conditions and were willing to provide consent
     • Despite this we are aware that some of the participants are not mentally healthy so ethical issues are raised as to whether they were in the right state of mind to give valid conent
   • The right to withdraw should have been made clear to the participants before, during and after the study. Bowlby should have especially assured the children that they were not obligated to take part in the study as young children sometimes feel pressurised into these situations as they are worried about being told off
   • It is necessary to provide the participants with a debrief at the end of the study. We are unsure as to whether Bowlby gave this to the children

6. Social Implications

   • In this study, only 44 participants were involved. Due to this small sample size, we are unable to generalise the results. Therefore this study lacks validity, providing society with useless data/information.
   • Additionally, there are many extraneous variables present in this study, so cause and effect cannot be inferred.
   • This study was also based on one researchers data. Therefore, his perceptions may have been biased by his own beliefs