Outline Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation.

A key tenet of Bowlby's Attachment Theory was the idea of monotropy: that a child has an innate need and drive to attach to his/her primary caregiver, usually the mother. Bowlby posited that monotropy was so essential for a child's healthy development that maternal deprivation (i.e. insufficient psychological contact with the mother, either due to separation or failure to form an attachment) could result in long-term social, cognitive and emotional deficits such as deliquency, lower intelligence, aggressive behaviour, depression or affectionless psychopathy (where the child shows little regard for the consequences of their actions and the feelings of others).

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