Developmental Psychology

Discuss potential effects of deprivation or trauma in childhood

on later development6.2

deprivation or trauma in childhood

O Can you give any examples?

Examples of deprivation or trauma in childhood

O Deprivation: neglect of basic needs (physical, emotional, social), poverty, institutionalisation, parental problems

O Trauma: severe shock or experience (divorce, death of a parent, physical or sexual abuse, war, natural disasters) Deprivation can also be traumatizing.

Feral child "raised by dogs”

O Malaya was born in Ukrainian and probably suffered from a developmental disorder. She was neglected by her alcoholic parents at an early age.

O As a toddler, Malaya was allegedly left outside

by her parents. She crawled into the kennel of her parents' semi-stray dogs where she stayed. This led to her developing many dog-like behaviours such as barking and sniffing things, which stunted her abilities in language, normal human social and emotional skills.

O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93HymGXC_wM

Another example of deprivation: famous and controversial

O Harry Frederick Harlow (1905- 1981) was an American psychologist best known for his maternal-separation, dependency needs, and social isolation experiments on rhesus monkeys, which demonstrated the importance of care-giving and companionship in social and cognitive development.

O Harlow's experiments were controversial; they included rearing infant macaques in isolation chambers for up to 24 months, from which they emerged severely disturb

O http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O60TYAIgC4

ResilienceO Some children are resilientO Reslience refers to the ability to

recover or bounce back from stressful events

O Why do some children manage and some develop psychopathalogy or become criminals?

Potential effects of deprivation in childhood on later development

O Rutter et al. 2001 conducted a longidudinal study on a group of Romanian children from an institution who were adopted into the UK

O They compared them to children who were raised in UK institutions then adopted.

ResultsO Rutter found that there were

significant differences in three areas:O 1. Romanian children had

attachment problems (go with stranger)

O Difference in overactivity and cognitive impairment

O Romanien children showed near autistic features

O The age of adoption was important, the older the more problems

O Normally functioning by the age of sixO Negative life event such as physical and

sexual abuse have been assoicated with a wide range of psychiatric disorders.

O Rutter’s findings show that it is possible to recover from a deprived childhood.

O The degree of resilience in some children was remarkle

Koluchova 1971, 1991O Read the case study on p. 202 and

answer the two questions

One potential effect of trauma: PTSD

O Remember the LO from the biological level of analysis that could be used here as well?

O Also info from the option: abnormal psychology can be used

SummaryO Deprivation and trauma can effect a child’s

development (in line with Bowlby’s theory – how the caregiver acts) Rutter et al., Carion et al., Bremner et al. 2003, Olweus, Kidscape (human relationships)

O However, research shows that a lot of children will recover (it is not fixed), Koluchova, Rutter et al.

O Although, even children who are exposed to deprivation may eventually develop normally (resilience)

O Can also use: Rosenzweig and Bennet (1972) Brain Plasticity