The film Genie: the secret of the wild child is a documentary which shows the process of a girl learning to reconnect with the society after 10 years of living in isolation. During the film, some of the sociological concepts can be identified and captured. In the paper, the film is going to be interpreted specifically with the concept of the development of the self, the idea of resocialization as well as the moral question regarding research ethics. Famous sociologist George Herbert Mead proposed the idea that there are two aspects for the self of every individual; the subjective self, which is “present from birth”, and the objective self, which is later established “as people communicate symbolically and learn to take the role of the other”.(Brym …show more content…
These ethics refer to the principle used in the determination of whether the research procedure is permissible or not. (Brym et al.2016, 44) For the research on Genie, even though the intention of the research might be to help Genie adopt to the society more quickly and fluently, there were researchers in the research team who viewed Genie as the stepping stone to their success. As mentioned in the documentary, one of the researchers had walked around in the room, repeating “[Genie] is going to make me famous!” Genie was constantly given the same experiments rather than new tests that might actually benefit Genie. The overexposure of Genie to the public also affected Genie negatively as well by drawing too much spotlight and public attention on her. The fact that videos of Genie being examined were available publicly has entirely violated the principle of anonymity, which refers to the action that researchers chose not to make a connection between respondents to evidence. As the story of Genie being widely spread to the public, people were able to recognize Genie and her disabilities. Every time when Genie was recognized as the “wild child”, this recognition caused further harm for Genie as she was constantly being reminded that she was abnormal, or even retarded as her father claimed. The film Genie: the secret of the wild child is a documentary which presented one of the most extreme cases of child isolation as indicated in the video. Throughout the film, multiple sociological concepts can be captured, which this paper will look closely into the development of the self, the occurrence of resocialization and the concerns with research
While different in theory, both Mead and Freud were trying very hard to explain the complexities of what is known as the human existence. Meads theory states that we have more freedom and choice in our human development; while Freud theorizes we are slaves to our instinctual nature. After analyzing the differences between the two theories I came to the conclusion Mead’s theory of self, more accurately depicts my life and its experiences. Both Mead and Freud created great debate topics for the world of Sociology, and the world of Psychology alike.
“Babies”. Is a documentary made by the Thomas Balmés. It offers a window on the lives of four infants in four completely different cultures. This is not a usual kind of documentary; there are no narration, no subtitles and actual dialogue was very minimal. The film explores childhood rituals, enculturation, socialization and parenthood. I will try to explore each of these themes and try to make the case that behaviors, values and fears are learned not something congenital. It has, in my opinion, comparative perspectives and different methods in rearing children in different societies. It achieves this by cutting the scenes in certain ways to show the differences between these different children. For example, in one part of the film, both Bayarjargal (the Mongolian child) and Mari (the Japanese child) were playing with their pet cats and then the two scenes were edited to a shot of Ponijo (the Namibian child) looking interested in flies. The four children developed in somewhat similar ways. However, there are differences in their behaviors due to the enculturation by seeing their parents or siblings who were doing what they thought to be the norms and the obvious landscape in which they are brought up. Two of the kids were born in rural areas (Namibia and Mongolia) and two were born in urban areas (the United States and Japan). The mothers of these infants were interviewed and chosen to be in the film
In this essay I am going to show my understanding of a child's early emotional development based on the psychoanalytical view of child development. I will show how emotional skills gained in the early years can be of a significant relevance to later life. I will show my understanding by illustrating it with the clinical material. Although I am focusing on the psychoanalytical approach to child development I believe that it is beneficial to present also some general background knowledge of child development.
However, despite all of the analysis and vast literature on the topic of selfhood there are still no completely agreed upon definitions of the self. Several scholars argue that it can never be given one simple, consistent description. The majority of authors are inclined to avoid the ‘unanswerable’ question of what self is and their constructions are based more on implicit understandings than clear-cut descriptions. As with the idea of consciousness, the self is catalogued amid those notions that are
Mead believes that we have two parts to our life the I- the internal part of ourselfves and the Me- the me is created by ?
Mead’s most significant contributions to the discipline of social psychology, was the way in which he distinguish between the “Self,”
From society to family to media, external influences never seem to disappear from everyday life. These outward forces tend to leave a lasting impression on us for as long as we live. Because they are so prevalent in our daily lives, exterior factors will have a significant influence on us, specifically our sense of self and happiness. When defining our sense of self, it eventually comes down to how we interpret our individual self-image. In most cases, we do not truly know who we are from our own mindset. Therefore, we take into account the reactions that those around us have an influence on our actions and decisions. From these external effects, we create the persona of who we are. In his article, Immune to Reality, Daniel Gilbert explains
Self as a concept was described by Professor Roy Baumeister as ‘the individual 's belief about himself or herself, including the person 's attributes and who and what the self-is’ . Baumeister created this description of self as a concept due to Dr Michael Lewis’s idea that the concept of self has two parts. The Existential self and the Categorical self. The existential self-stage starts when a child
Utilizing case of demonstrating how it can rationally influence a woman for a lifetime because of the certainty of required a moms care and love. Likewise demonstrating how it influences a child’s way in turning into a mother themselves. I agree with the author and his points throughout the article, demonstrating a motherless child is obscure of the untrue love that is originated from men, in both the period of the composed play furthermore present. The article and composed play successfully go together hand in hand as an inseparable unit demonstrating points of interest on how it is ideal to have a mother in a child’s
...ter care home somewhere in southern California. Her present condition is debated. One individual hired an investigator in 2000 and supposedly found her to be happy. Another person, this time a psychiatrist, who visited her found her to be silent, depressed, and chronically institutionalized. After watching this documentary, I truly was appreciative to the family care and environment I was born into. The importance of human contact became very evident through the heartbreaking discussion of Genie. I was able to develop successfully though Erikson’s stages as I had a basic trust, a will to do things myself, an initiative to create plans, and a sense of competence. Genie on the other hand has been deprived of happiness, a sense of safety, love needs, human contact, opportunities to learn, and many other factors that makes a healthy, normal, happy human in society.
Genie’s abuse and social isolation was mainly a result of her father’s decision and justification that Genie was severely mentally retarded and believed hiding her from the world was the best option for everyone (Curtiss, 1988). The only visual stimuli that Genie could interact with were her potty chair, crib, carpet, and plain empty walls. Genie’s severe neglect and abuse in her childhood ultimately lead her t...
A child’s life is can be characterized by both qualitative and quantitative growth and in terms of how nature and nurture can shape and define the life of a child. Careful evaluation of these qualities can provide insight to the physical transformation of the body and to the maturing of the mind in both mental and emotional processing. Equally intriguing is the pace of this growth which is unique on an individual level but can be assessed on a categorical level. This philosophy, taking into account the various stages of growth in both qualitative and quantitative terms, the roles of nature and nurture influencing the growth,
Humans are designed to act with self-awareness, apply self-control, illustrate conscience, guiltiness, and make decisions based on some symbol of what they are, what they have been, as well as what they desire to be. Development of self has numerous descriptions including the development of physical or motor self to that of the mind. In the center of this all, three sociologists, including Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Jean Piaget offer varying views on the development of self. The varying theories offered by these and other sociologists means that there is no universally accepted concept of development of self or how people come to aware of themselves. In fact, each individual has their own answer when it comes to answering
This paper will discuss the extreme cases of feral children. Feral children known as wild child, are children who has lived in an isolated environment from human contact from a very young age. This leaves the child vulnerable with little or no experience with the basic needs to socialize or survive in society. This information on feral children allows us to see their point of view on how humans will behave if culture doesn’t exist. These children are normally taken in by animals living in the wilderness. Feral children don’t have to be raised by animals. Therefore, there have been severe cases where parents will confine their children from the world. When parents abandon their child from an early age, this
Truth of oneself makes it visible when faced with absurd events in life where all ethical issues fade away. One cannot always pinpoint to a specific trait or what the core essence they discover, but it is often described as “finding one’s self”. In religious context, the essential self would be regarded as soul. Whereas, for some there is no such concept as self that exists since they believe that humans are just animals caught in the mechanistic world. However, modern philosophy sheds a positive light and tries to prove the existence of a self. Modern philosophers, Descartes and Hume in particular, draw upon the notion of the transcendental self, thinking self, and the empirical self, self of public life. Hume’s bundle theory serves as a distinction between these two notions here and even when both of these conception in their distinction make valid points, neither of them is more accurate.