Privation psychology essay

Typically, research into privation uses the case study method to due to the obvious ethical issues of deliberately separating a child from their mother. When Genie was between 14 and 20 months of age and was just beginning to learn speech, a doctor told her family that she seemed to be developmentally delayed and possibly mildly retarded.

Privation - Failure to Form an Attachment. Bowlby used the term 'maternal deprivation' to refer to separation from an attached figure, loss of an attached figure and failure to develop an attachment to any figure. These each have different effects, argued Rutter. In particular Rutter distinguished between privation and deprivation.

Privation is the failure to form an attachment during the early development stage. If this occurs, then there is normally a lack in basic survival needs such as food and comfort. There are many effects of privation, due to the lack of attachment forming, such as late development and malnourishment.

These each have different effects, argued Rutter. In particular Rutter distinguished between privation and deprivation. Michael Rutter (1981) argued that if a child fails to develop an attachment this is privation, whereas deprivation refers to the loss of or damage to an attachment.