Long-term effects of institutional care

Tutors, examiners, researchers and textbook writers all tell us how important it is to be active in our learning. Here, Paul Humphreys gives some useful activities that will consolidate and enhance the article you have just read.

Given the limits on studies into deprivation in humans, what are your thoughts on such studies in primates?

paTrIcK LanDMann/SpL

This article and the one written by Ian Stuart-Hamilton on attachment theory (PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW, Vol. 16, No. 3) explore two of the most critical questions in all of psychology: ‘What are the effects of deprivation?’ and ‘What are the effects of institutional care?’ These two questions are often interlinked as poor institutional care is often associated with deprivation/privation and a child’s ability to form a secure attachment. An important point to make, however, is that institutional care, full time or part time, is by no means always characterised by poor substitute parenting.

1 In order to see the big picture, read or re-read Ian Stuart-Hamilton’s article ‘Attachment theory’, PSYCHOLOGY REVIEW, Vol. 16, No. 3. If you do not have access to the magazine itself, see the Online Archive. Make sure you can explain the difference between deprivation and privation.