Attachment: Institutionalisation

Question 1

Institutionalisation Definition.

Answer 1

Institutionalisation: In context of attachment refers to the effects of growing up in an orphanage or children’s home. Children who are raised in these institutions often suffer from a lack of emotional care which means children are unable/find it difficult to form normal attachment.

Question 2

Effects Of Institutionalisation: Physical Underdevelopment.

Answer 2

• Children in institutional care are usually physically small.
• Research shows the lack of emotional care rather than poor nourishment is the cause of deprivation dwarfism.

Question 3

Effects Of Institutionalisation: Intellectual Underdevelopment Or Mental Retardation.

Answer 3

• Mental retardation is an intellectual disability that results in intellectual capabilities significantly below average.
• Mental retardation can interfere with learning the ability to care for oneself and the ability to meet general societal expectations about how to behave.
• In Rutter’s study most children showed signs of this when they arrived in Britain.
• Those adopted before 6 months caught up on intellect development.

Question 4

Effects Of Institutionalisation: Disinhibited Attachment.

Answer 4

• Children are equally friendly to strangers as they are to people they know well.
• An adaptation to living with multiple caregivers, unable to form secure attachment.

Question 5

Effects Of Institutionalisation: Poor Parenting.

Answer 5

• Harlow showed monkeys raised with surrogate mother became poor parents.
• Quinton compared women raised at home to those in an institution and found that ex-institutional women had extreme difficulties acting as parents leading to more of their children being in care as they have no schema of how attachments should be.

Question 6

Rutter et al (English And Romanian Adoptee Study).

Answer 6

Aim: Investigate what extent good care could make up for experiences in institutions.

Method: Followed a group of 165 Romanian orphans who were adopted in Britain. Physical, cognitive and emotional development were assessed at age 4, 6, 11, 15 years. Used a control group of 52 British adoptees.

Findings: The Romanian adoptees showed signs of delayed intellectual development on arrival to Britain. Children before the age of 6 months had 102 IQ, children between the age of 6 months and 2 years had 86 IQ, children after 2 years had 77 IQ. Children adopted after 6 months showed signs of disinhibited attachment whereas those adopted before the age of 6 months rarely showed signs.

Conclusion: Institutionalisation has an effect children’s attachment and intellect/disinhibited and mental retardation. The effects of institutionalisation is related to the age of adoption. If children are adopted before 6 months they are likely to develop normally. This supports the view that there is a sensitive period of around 6 months.

Question 7

What Were The Findings Of Rutter Et Al Study?

Answer 7

• The mean IQ of children before the age of 6 months was 102.
• The mean IQ of children between 6 months and 2 years was 86.
• The mean IQ of children after 2 years was 77.
• Children adopted after 6 months showed signs disinhibited attachment whereas those adopted before 6 months rarely showed signs of disinhibited attachment.

Question 8

Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEI Study).

Answer 8

Aim: Compare attachment types between Romanian children in institutionalised care and those who had not experienced institutionalised care.

Method: Used SS to assess attachment type in 95 children aged 12-31 months in Romania. Compared to a control group of 50 children who had never experienced institutional care.

Findings: 74% of the control group securely attached. 19% of institutional group securely attached. 65% of institutional group disorganised attachment.

Conclusion: Institutionalisation has an effect on children’s attachment. Children who have experienced it are more likely to experience disorganised attachment.

Question 9

What Were The Findings Of Bucharest Early Intervention Project?

Answer 9

• 74% of the control group were securely attached.
• 19% of institutional group were securely attached.
• 65% of institutional group were disorganised attached.

Question 10

Evaluation: Weakness - Generalisability.

Answer 10

• Conditions of the Romanian orphanages much worse than most institutional care.
• They had particularly poor standards of care due to lack of relationship/lack of intellectual stimuli.
• These unusual situational variables means that the studies lack generalisability - can’t compare effects to British orphanages as may be due to the awful experience rather than orphanage itself.

Question 11

Evaluation: Strength - Application.

Answer 11

• Romanian orphan studies have enhanced understanding of the effects of institutionalisation.
• This has led to improvements in the way children are looked after in institutionalisation - orphanages now avoid large numbers of caregivers for each child as children have a key worker.
• The studies are valuable in practical terms.

Question 12

Evaluation: Weakness - Validity.

Answer 12

• Studies prior to the Romanian orphan studies involved children experienced loss or trauma (neglect, abuse, bereavement) which is confounding participant variables.
• This makes it difficult to observe the effects of institutionalisation in isolation.
• Romanian orphan studies do not have these confounding variables and therefore have increased internal validity.
• However the conditions they lived in within the institutions were forms of trauma/neglect e.g poor nourishment which could be a confounding variable.

Question 13

Evaluation: Weakness - Long Term Effects.

Answer 13

• These studies don’t give a clear picture of the long term effects of Institutionalisation.
• They stopped assessing the children’s development in mid-teens.
• We don’t know if the effects improve with age or remain with the child into adulthood as brain continues to develop till 20s.