John Bowlby

John Bowlby

Report by Craig Holland

The first theorist I will be studying and completing a report on is John Bowlby. John Bowlby was born in 1907 in London and died in 1990 making him 83 when he past away in Skye. He was a very well-known theorist for attachment between mother and baby. His work on the 44 juvenile thieves was carried out in London after world war 2 was finished. At a very young age Bowlby was sent to a boarding school then went on to study psychology at Trinity College in Cambridge he also worked with delinquent children. He then went on to University College Hospital to study medicine. During world war 2 Bowlby served in the Royal Army medicine corps, when war ended he became director of the “Tavistock Clinic” and then in 1950 he became a Mental Health Consultant in the World Health Organisation.
Bowlby carried out his work on his theory of attachment as he had a big interest in child development and his early work with delinquent children lead him to research why children acted in certain ways. He also believed that the bond between the mother and the baby was essential and would affect the childs life and mental health. He based some of his research on the bond between the mother and the baby as he believed that there was no other bond as strong and unique. Bowlby mainly focused on his research of the 44 juvenile thieves as he wanted to find out the emotional and social effects of long term loss.
Bowlby collected findings from other research to bring together his theory for example case studies on spitz (1945) and spitz and wolf (1946). Also longitudinal studies on Goldfarb and observational work on Joyce and James Robertson. Through case studies, longitudinal studies and observations Bowlby gathered a lot of essential information which created his study. Bowlbys study on the 44 juvenile thieves found that more than half the children had been separated from their mothers for more than 6 months during the first 5 years. He showed that 32% young...

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