Privation's Effects on a Child

Privation's Effects on a Child

The definition of privation is; "the lack of any attachments as

distinct from the loss of attachments".

Some psychologists have assumed that all experiences of deprivation

were the same however there are some key differences, and in

conclusion Rutter explained the main difference between deprivation

and privation was that;

Deprivationoccurs when a child has already formed an attachment and is

then and is then taken away from them, In contrast;

Privationoccurs when a child has never formed an important attachment.

Many psychologists have done different research into the effects of

privation, some support the idea that children can recover from early

privation, others say they can't.

Bowlby has stated that without an early attachment, a child will never

be able to attach later on in life, so you would expect this to have

an adverse effect on future relationships. Bowlby (1964) did a study

on juveniles who had been separated from their mothers at an early age

and showed that those showing signs of affectionless psychopathy (for

example, an inability to experience guilt) were likely to have been

caused through privation rather than deprivation.

Dennis (1960) did a study on Iranian orphans and concluded that there

is a critical stage for intellectual development before the age of

two. Children adopted from the orphan after the age of two never

gained the same IQ as a normal child whereas children adopted earlier

could. This research supports Bowlby's theory and would suggest that

there is a crucial period in which it is possible to reverse the

effects of early privation. Clarke and Clark...

... middle of paper ...

...they were flown to England

and were found to not have yet developed speech, were badly

underweight and showed great hostility towards adults. However they

were greatly attached to each other and became very upset when they

were separated even for just a few moments. As time went by the

children became very attached to their adult carers, developed rapidly

at social and language skills and its is hard to say whether there

early experiences have had any long-term effects.

In conclusion, the majority of evidence suggests that early

experiences of deprivation and privation can be reversed, and that

children are more resilient than Bowlby first believed. However we

must take into account the fact that these studies are all very small

(except for Tizard's longitudinal study) and it may be hard to

generalise them.