making history
D
1.12
Bowlby’s study of forty-four juvenile thieves (1944)
Study in detail: To understand why young people became thieves
Aim
To study teenage criminals with affectionless psychopathy (a lack of normal affection, shame or sense of responsibility) to see if they are more likely to have had an early separation than those that did not display signs of affectionless psychopathy. Bowlby believed there would be a relationship, based on the belief that prolonged separation from the primary caregiver would have a negative impact on social, behavioural, emotional and intellectual development.
Procedure
The sample group consisted of 44 teenagers who were referred to the Child Guidance Clinic in London, where Bowlby worked, who had been involved in stealing. The entire sample lived with their biological parents. Bowlby used a small number of subjects because of the depth of data he wanted to gather.
A variety of assessments were made of each child when they first went to the clinic. A psychologist would assess their intelligence by mental tests, and made an assessment of the child’s emotional attitude towards the tests. A social worker took a preliminary psychiatric history. After receiving the reports from the psychologists and sociologist, Bowlby, as the psychiatrist, interviewed the children and mothers separately.
He interviewed the juveniles firstly to identify their individual characters. He believed that there were three types of delinquent: those who had been unstable for years, those who had a sudden shock such as bereavement, and those who had behaved in an unusual manner. Bowlby diagnosed affectionless psychopathy where there was a lack of affection to others, or a lack of guilt or shame at their actions, and empathy for their victims. As the teenagers would have been on their ‘best behaviour’ and hiding what they didn’t want to share, the character reports came also from discussions with families and reports from schools. The
1.12
Bowlby’s study of forty-four juvenile thieves (1944)
Study in detail: To understand why young people became thieves
Aim
To study teenage criminals with affectionless psychopathy (a lack of normal affection, shame or sense of responsibility) to see if they are more likely to have had an early separation than those that did not display signs of affectionless psychopathy. Bowlby believed there would be a relationship, based on the belief that prolonged separation from the primary caregiver would have a negative impact on social, behavioural, emotional and intellectual development.
Procedure
The sample group consisted of 44 teenagers who were referred to the Child Guidance Clinic in London, where Bowlby worked, who had been involved in stealing. The entire sample lived with their biological parents. Bowlby used a small number of subjects because of the depth of data he wanted to gather.
A variety of assessments were made of each child when they first went to the clinic. A psychologist would assess their intelligence by mental tests, and made an assessment of the child’s emotional attitude towards the tests. A social worker took a preliminary psychiatric history. After receiving the reports from the psychologists and sociologist, Bowlby, as the psychiatrist, interviewed the children and mothers separately.
He interviewed the juveniles firstly to identify their individual characters. He believed that there were three types of delinquent: those who had been unstable for years, those who had a sudden shock such as bereavement, and those who had behaved in an unusual manner. Bowlby diagnosed affectionless psychopathy where there was a lack of affection to others, or a lack of guilt or shame at their actions, and empathy for their victims. As the teenagers would have been on their ‘best behaviour’ and hiding what they didn’t want to share, the character reports came also from discussions with families and reports from schools. The