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How Did The 44 Thieves Study

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How Did The 44 Thieves Study
44 Thieves study
John Bowlby believed that disruption of the primary relationship in the critical period could lead to an increase in chances of the child having long term consequences, he proved this theory with his “44 Thieves Study”. To test his hypothesis, he studied 44 adolescent juvenile delinquents. The aim of this study was to investigate the long term effects of maternal deprivation and to see if this will have serious effects on their social, intellectual and emotional development.
To do this he took a sample of 88 children from the clinic where he worked, 44 of which were juvenile thieves and the other 44 was the control group. Each child had their IQ tested and their attitudes towards the tests assessed. A social worker also interviewed the parents of the children to get a record and an understanding of the child's early life. More than half of the juvenile thieves had suffered from maternal deprivation for longer than six months during the critical period. In the control group only two had suffered maternal deprivation. 32% of the thieves showed ‘Affectionless Psychopathy’ and none of the control group showed these symptoms.
Bowlby concluded from his study that maternal deprivation or separation during the critical period resulted in permanent emotional damage. Children suffering from “Affectionless …show more content…
The study relied on asking the participants to look back and recall their memories, some may argue this may not be accurate or some things may be exaggerated. Another problem with the 44 thieves study was that Bowlby didn't take into account other external factors that could have been responsible for causing “Affectionless Psychopathy”. This undermines the validity of the
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