Institutionalisation
Outline and evaluate psychological research into institutionalisation
Hodges and Tizard conducted a study to explore the importance of early attachment by studying institutionalised children who hadn’t been with their parents for a significant amount of time (if any). The two questions they wanted answered were: Does institutionalisation affect later relationships and can the effect of institutionalisation be reversed. To find this out, they studied 65 children from a children’s home until they were around 4 years of age, and revisited them with their new family at the ages of 8 and 16.
They found out that at the age of 8, ex-institutionalised children had formed close relationships with their parents and teachers said that they were needier and less popular than their peers, but didn’t lack cognitive abilities. At the age of 16, only 34 of the 65 children participated in the follow-up (11 restored and 23 adopted), as well as a control group. They found out that adopted children were just as closely attached with their parents as the comparison group, whereas restored children tended to have less close relationships with their parents and were less affectionate. They also found out that all ex-institutionalised children were less likely to have a best friend or maintain peer relationships. They were also more adult-orientated than the control group, with restored children more likely to seek adult attention in aggressive ways.
This study has high ecological validity, due to it being conducted in a non-artificial setting. Another strength of this study is that individual differences are reduced due to the moderately large sample size, which also makes it more generalizable. It is a longitudinal study – which means that the results are collected over a long period of time. There are advantages and disadvantages of this, an advantage includes the fact that it enables you to look at changes over time. Some disadvantages of this are that they can take a long time to
Hodges and Tizard conducted a study to explore the importance of early attachment by studying institutionalised children who hadn’t been with their parents for a significant amount of time (if any). The two questions they wanted answered were: Does institutionalisation affect later relationships and can the effect of institutionalisation be reversed. To find this out, they studied 65 children from a children’s home until they were around 4 years of age, and revisited them with their new family at the ages of 8 and 16.
They found out that at the age of 8, ex-institutionalised children had formed close relationships with their parents and teachers said that they were needier and less popular than their peers, but didn’t lack cognitive abilities. At the age of 16, only 34 of the 65 children participated in the follow-up (11 restored and 23 adopted), as well as a control group. They found out that adopted children were just as closely attached with their parents as the comparison group, whereas restored children tended to have less close relationships with their parents and were less affectionate. They also found out that all ex-institutionalised children were less likely to have a best friend or maintain peer relationships. They were also more adult-orientated than the control group, with restored children more likely to seek adult attention in aggressive ways.
This study has high ecological validity, due to it being conducted in a non-artificial setting. Another strength of this study is that individual differences are reduced due to the moderately large sample size, which also makes it more generalizable. It is a longitudinal study – which means that the results are collected over a long period of time. There are advantages and disadvantages of this, an advantage includes the fact that it enables you to look at changes over time. Some disadvantages of this are that they can take a long time to