Introduction
Deprivation has been a subject of theory and research in psychology principally in the following forms: sensory, sleep, maternal, and social. Traditional psychology has focused on examining the physiological and psychological consequences of sensory and sleep deprivation. Another area of extensive study in psychoanalytic literature has been maternal deprivation (Bowlby, 1982). This understanding of deprivation has tended to focus on the role of biological and individual factors in understanding the adverse impact of failing to meet basic, innate needs. Many of the applications of this research have been aimed at removing risks posed by deprivation to individual well-being. However, the often acontextual nature of such investigation and presumption of value-free science (Prilleltensky 1997; Sarason 1981) has increased the risk of abusive uses of this knowledge. One example is the use of sensory deprivation in torture (McCoy, 2007).
The study of social deprivation or the...
References
Bowlby, J. (1982). Attachment and loss, vol. 1: Attachment (2nd ed.). New York: Basic Books. (Original work published 1969).
David, B. (1993). An overview of research regarding the effectiveness of restricted environmental stimulation therapy as a complementary treatment for a range of behavioral disorders. Neurobehavioral Health Services, 1, 1–3.
Evans, G. W. (2004). The environment of childhood poverty. American Psychologist, 59, 77–92.
Evans, G. W., & Kim, P. (2007). Childhood poverty and health: Cumulative risk exposure and stress dysregulation. Psychological Science, 18, 953–957.
McCoy, A. W. (2007). Science in Dachau’s shadow: Hebb, Beecher, and the development of CIA psychological torture and modern medical ethics. Journal of the History of Behavioral Sciences, 43(4), 401–417.
Prilleltensky, I. (1997). Values, assumptions, and practices: Assessing the moral implications of psychological discourse and action. American Psychologist, 52(5), 517–535.
Prilleltensky, I. (2008). The role of power in wellness, oppression, and liberation: The promise of psychopolitical validity. Journal of Community Psychology, 36, 116–136.
Prilleltensky, I., & Nelson, G. (2002). Doing psychology critically: Making a difference in diverse settings. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Rank, M. R. (2004). One nation, underprivileged: Why American poverty affects us all. New York: Oxford University Press.
Rogers, A., & Pilgrim, D. (2003). Mental health and inequality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Sarason, S. B. (1981). An asocial psychology and a misdirected clinical psychology. American Psychologist, 36, 827–836.
Sen, A. (1999). Development as freedom. New York: Anchor Books.
van der Horst, F. C. P., & van der Veer, R. (2010). The ontogeny of an idea: John Bowlby and contemporaries on mother-child separation. History of Psychology, 13(1), 25–45.
Vicedo, M. (2009). Mothers, machines, and morals: Harry Harlow’s work on primate love from lab to legend. Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences, 45(3), 193–218.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York
About this entry
Cite this entry
Gruba-McCallister, F. (2014). Deprivation, Overview. In: Teo, T. (eds) Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_662
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5583-7_662
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4614-5582-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-5583-7
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Sciences