In his hypothesis, Bowlby believed that an infant's failure to attach to a primary caregiver would have long term effects. This essay will attempt to evaluate Bowlby's deprivation hypothesis. Firstly, the terms 'attachment' and 'deprivation' will be defined. Following that, a full definition of the hypothesis will be made, and then an attempt will be made to describe and understand the studies and period of history that lead to Bowlby's ideas and the influence they generated. A full evaluation will be made of his deprivation hypothesis, including detailed criticisms of his theory. Finally, conclusions will be drawn to show if Bowlby's deprivation hypothesis can still retain any credibility.

The first task is to define the terms attachment and deprivation. In 1973 the leading attachment psychologist, Mary Ainsworth, pointed out that "Attachment is an affectional tie that one person forms to another person, binding them together in space, and enduring over time". Deprivation can occur when there is insufficient opportunity for interaction with a mother figure (privation), when there is insufficient interaction with mother (masked deprivation), or when there are repeated breach

These findings suggest that Bowlby was correct in identifying the importance of attachment, but incorrect in overemphasising the single maternal role and the time factor for all children. Attachment, however is only one part of his theory. Another part relates to the effects of deprivation. Rutter (1981) felt that the main problem with the concept of maternal deprivation was that it muddled together a range of essentially different experiences. He felt that separation is not the crucial factor in emotional disturbance. Instead, it may be that general family discord underlies the emotional disturbances observed by Bowlby. It may also be that affectionless psychopathy is due to the initial failure to form attachments (privation) rather than attachment disruption (deprivation). Finally, situations where children experience deprivation, such as short hospital stays, may create emotional disturbance because of the strange and frightening environment as much as the separation and interference with attachments.

children, or children who were growing up in institutions as a result of the war years. They

More support for Bowlby's views came from a piece of classic research conducted by Lorenz (1935). In this study, Lorenz became 'mother'' to a brood of goslings. It was already known that many birds attach themselves to the first figure they see upon hatching and persist in this attachment, and Lorenz's work confirmed this. The phenomenon is called imprinting, an ethological concept taken from embryology. During pre-natal development, there are short periods when an individual is especially vulnerable. These times are called 'critical periods', and the effect is an imprint. Imprinting is an example of an instinct, an inherited behaviour pattern that predisposes an individual to certain forms of learning at critical times in development. Bowlby suggested that attachment behaviour is a kind of imprinting and is irreversible.

Three landmark studies conducted in the 1950s supported his views. In 1946, Bowlby looked at the life histories of eighty-eight children who had been referred to his psychiatric clinic, half of whom had a criminal record for theft. Fourteen of the 'thieves' displayed an 'affectionless' character, that is, a lack of normal affection, shame o

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Approximate Word count = 1542
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)