John Bowlby

John Bowlby is one of the most famous British Psychologists.  For Child Psychology you need to be able to describe and evaluate his theory of attachment including the Maternal Deprivation hypothesis.  You also should be able to describe and evaluate his 44 thieves study.

Click here for extra reading on his attachment theory and discussion of the work of Mary Ainsworth and the Robertsons.

Click here for the original text of his 44 thieves study.




This video clip is a good overview of Bowlby and his attachment research

According to Bowlby, the way in which our primary carer interacts with us contributes to the development of an internal working model of our attachment relationship with our primary carer.  This video clip shows an example of a 'still-face' study where a baby quickly gets distressed when its carer fails to respond to its proximity promoting behaviours.

The work of Harry Harlow supports Bowlby's Attachment Theory as he shows that the monkeys were able to use 'cloth mother' as a secure base to explore a strange environment, but were unable to do this with 'wire mother'