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Privation. www.psychlotron.org.uk. What are the effects? Can the effects be reversed? Is there a critical period for the development of some abilities? Sociability Language. Privation. www.psychlotron.org.uk. Hodges & Tizard (1989)
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Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk • What are the effects? • Can the effects be reversed? • Is there a critical period for the development of some abilities? • Sociability • Language
Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk • Hodges & Tizard (1989) • Social and emotional effects of privation through institutionalisation • Key questions were about reversibility of effects
Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk • 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
Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk
Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk • 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
Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk • 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
Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk • 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
Privation www.psychlotron.org.uk • 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
Privation - conclusions www.psychlotron.org.uk • 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
Privation - conclusions www.psychlotron.org.uk • 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