A Look at Bowlby's Theory on Privation

Privation is when a child has the right to form an attachment to a primary care giver taken away from them; the option to make these crucial attachments isn’t there. If Bowlby’s theory is correct, then because of this inability to form attachments, infants should grow up struggling to form relationships and attachments to anyone else.
A case study that provided psychologists with evidence of the effects of privation comes from the case of Genie (Curtiss). She was 13 years old when she was found, after spending her entire life up until that point, locked in a room. Her father subjected her to this cruelty because he suspected she was mentally deficient. When she was found she was unable to speak or stand properly. She never fully recovered socially after she was discovered and it was reported that she showed a disinterest in other people. This lack of recovery is support for Bowlby’s theory, in that because she failed to form attachments this affected her relationships later in life.
Although this case study is high in ecological validity it is also low in population validity as the findings from Genies case aren’t viable to be generalised to the entire population. Her circumstances were unique and other factors were involved such as her possible mental deficiencies. We don’t know whether Genie was had any problems before her father locked her away, but if she was, her condition would’ve meant her ability to form attachments may be different to others even if her upbringing had been normal and the primary attachment made.
There were also ethical issues along with the treatment of Genie’s case: her mother thought that the psychologists were too intrusive and too emotionally invested in Genie, which led her mother to believe that t...

... middle of paper ...

...se may have caused the children to have difficulties later in life. This indicates that privation is not the only factor affecting social development and that it is more likely that damage only occurs when there are multiple risk factors such as privation followed by poor subsequent care, or insecure attachment with early separations and parental disharmony, as suggested by Turner and Lloyd (1995).
Another weakness is that although it is a longitudinal study: as it takes place over a large period of time, participants will likely drop out. This therefore may lead to sample bias as there may be only a certain type of person in the sample and therefore is no longer representative. Because of this, the research done by Hodges and Tizard cannot be generalised to the public and is weakened, along with low population validity due to only British children being studied.