Essay For many years scientist wondered about the effects from limited limited social contact. Harry Harlow was a Psychologist who provided a new understanding of human behavior and development through studies of social behavior of rhesus monkeys. His research showed enormous amount of details that contribute to knowing more about clinical illnesses. Contact or touch is vital to attachment, learning, and emotional well-being. Genie a feral child showed that Harlow’s experiment was correct.
For instance, Harlow’s research developed an enormous amount of detail that contributes to understanding important clinical illnesses by using monkeys. He proved that the universal needs contact. Harlow used a wire/cloth mother monkey which showed
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Young kids that are exposed to abuse, trauma, and neglect have a higher risk for psychological disorders and health promises. They also showed signs of disturbed from trouble eating, to rocking back and forth, and self mutilation. How a child is raised early on can have a huge effect on how they view the world.
In this case, Genie was considered a feral child because of the abuse she underwent. At only twenty months, her father locked her up in a bedroom with a cage like crib and a potty chair that had restraints because he thought she was mentally challenged. If she made a noise, her father would hit her with a wooden board. Since she never had a lot of human contact, she never learned to speak. When they found her she had the cognitive skills of a baby and she had the weight of a six year old. Since Genie didn’t get the human contact she needed as a baby it affected her learning. She had nobody to show her how to walk, talk, eat and many other skills that are vital to learning basic needs.
In conclusion, the world needs contact or touch to be able to learn basic needs that everyone needs to know. Henry’s experiment showed that humans and animals can’t handle being isolated and alone. Genie the feral child also proved that without contact humans can’t do basic things. Humans survive on human contact that is how they learn and if they don’t learn the basic needs than they don’t function
The cost, in this experiment, was the separation of a baby monkey from its mother. Also, it was forced to endure inhumane conditions by being frightened, not knowing what it did to deserve such treatment. I understand the positive implications that can result from experiments on animals, but only the tests that are absolutely necessary should be performed. In saying this, Harry Harlow crossed the line when he caused the baby monkeys psychological scarring. He had already collected definitive data from the previous wire and cloth mother tests, so this extra step was not called
Harry F. Harlow was an American Psychologist who studied human behavior and development through studies of social behavior of monkeys. Harlow got his BA and PhD of Psychology from Stanford University. Then, later on got a job and did his studies at the University of Wisconsin. Harlow’s experiment consisted of young monkeys being separated from their mother right after birth. Then, the monkeys were raised in the laboratories which had mothers that were made up of wired mesh and another with wood and a terry cloth. When the infant monkeys were placed in the cage with only one mother was equipped with a nipple which was the wired mesh mother. It was placed so the infant monkey could nurse. Even though the wired monkey had nourishment, the young monkey would most often cling to the terry cloth mother. Harlow would place a monkey inside a cage. Then, began to make loud noises against the cage or play recordings that made the monkey feel insecure. The monkey always seemed to go toward the terry cloth mother as it began to get scared. The infant monkey would go for comfort, but eventually would get nourishment from the wired mother.
There are many feral children that we know of, and Genie is one of the greatest discussed today. Genie was born in 1957 in Arcadia, California. Almost from the time of birth, Genie wasn't treated very well. There are reports done from different psychologists, police officers, and welfare authorities that all report she was being abused, neglected, and isolated socially from outside communications. Genie was reported to L.A. Child Welfare around 1970.
Naturally, as human beings we need socialization to function. It has been stated that solitary confinement is inhumane because of the isolation one experiences. Albeit, the human races’ ability to socialize can be an asset as well as a hindrance. Being that humans have an innate capability to do positive but also negative things in the world, with no surprise socialization can turn out be a good thing or a bad thing. This can be seen in the three movies: “The Wild Child,” “The
A question was brought up during the film; was genie damaged from her years of abuse or retarded from birth? Genie’s father believed from an early age that Genie was retarded and therefore needed to be kept in isolation. However, this was his own bias. For 13 years, Genie grew up detached from people, there was no concern in her upbringing nor did she have any significant life experiences. Genie was not given the freedom of opening herself up to the world around her, this was unjustifiable as a child relies on their surroundings in order to learn, grow and prosper. Socialization is the process in which an individual interacts with others in turn allowing them to become more aware of themselves. George Herbert Mead outlined that “the self” is not there from birth, it develops through social experience. It was apparent that Genie did not have a sense of self, due to the lack of interaction between others and her environment. Mead also developed the idea of significant others, which are people that play an important role in the early stages of a child’s social development. Genie did not have that figure, as her mother and father were both dis-engaged from her life. They did not support Genie, and teach her the fundamental basic skills that are needed in order for a child to fit into the basic norms of society. Genie did not take part in secondary socialization, as she was not given the opportunity to go to school. Therefore, she acted much younger than a normal thirteen-year-old, and did not receive the proper care a young girl was obliged to
However, the most clear and abundant effect of childhood trauma appeared to be behavioral problems. This was also the issue that often got covered up the most with “he/she is just a bad kid.” Like what was mentioned before, no kid is a bad kid. However, because the behavioral problems are what normally catches everybody’s eyes its normally what is caught first. Then you have the learning and emotional problems. Many people will often say that the child is slow or that they are sensitive, but many times there is so much more to the problem. There is a much larger problem lying in the background that often causes all the rest of the problems and it is not something that can just be brushed away with words like “lazy, slow, and sensitive.” The main problem must be directed head on that way we can potentially stop these negative effects and labeling that come from childhood
Selvon, Mike. "Child Abuse and Neglect Results in Devastating Effects." EzineArticles Submission - Submit Your Best Quality Original Articles For Massive Exposure, Ezine Publishers Get 25 Free Article Reprints. Web. 22 Jan. 2011. .
The number one questions the surrounds the case of Genie Wiley is whether she was born mentally retarded or was this a result of her ten years in isolation from birth? This question can receive two different answers based on how you choose to perceive the nature or the nurture of another person. Genie did have the capacity to grow, just as Victor did in a similar study years ago in France. Once their isolation was removed, they began to civilize, which leads myself to believe that nurture took more part in the development in Genies behavior rather than a genetic disorder that her father seemed to believe she had.
When a child is growing up it is essential to experience love and affection. If instead they are receiving the opposite, their behavior will change drastically. Not all children who experience child abuse will have behavioral problems but as a group the chances are very likely (Long Term Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect). There are many problems that can occur over a child’s lifespan. For example, difficulties during adolescence, juvenile delinquency, adult criminality, alcohol, drug abuse, and other abusive behaviors. Poor mental health and emotional health are what causes most of the problems listed above. Some physiological problems are PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), panic disorder, depression, anger, and reactive attachment
The long-term impacts of child abuse and neglect can be detrimental. The victims of child abuse usually have a continuous pattern of mental disorders. These can include PTSD, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, unhealthy relationships, lack of empathy, and even promiscuity. Not every victim of child abuse becomes an attacker, but most attackers tend to have been abused as children.
Berne discusses the role of social intercourse as a primitive form of behavior. As infants, humans learn to beckon the attention of others by engaging in attention engaging behaviors (i.e., crying). Once we have gained the attention of others, more often than not our basic human needs are satisfied and the cycle repeats when necessary. Biologically speaking, this type of distress response served an evolutionary purpose; the needs of a growing infant are met, thus ensuring the infant’s healthy development. Having a healthy infant usually translates into having a healthy adult which will in turn procreate and preserve the existence of the species.
Social isolation is one of the most severe punishments known to man. However, for one innocent girl, known as Genie, social isolation was all she knew. Genie was a nickname given to a feral 13-year-old girl who had been a victim of being severely abused and neglected by her parents, in her own house in Arcadia, California. Prior to Genie being discovered in 1970 by Los Angeles child welfare authorities, much of her life consisted of being locked alone in her room strapped to a potty chair or a crib resulting in her being immobile (Reynolds & Fletcher-Janzen, 2004). While Genie was locked away in her room she was never exposed to speech and would get beat for any noises she would make. Her father, Clark Wiley only interacted with her through barking and growling at her; as a result of this extreme isolation Genie missed the critical period to acquire language (Curtiss et al., 1974; Reynolds & Fletcher-Janzen, 2004). Immediately after Genie had been found she became a new subject for researchers to study and examine the theories of critical periods on humans to learn and understand language. Unfortunately, soon after Genie turned 18, her mother forbid any of the scientists from anymore testing and observations, which ultimately decreased any and all process Genie had made towards learning and understanding language.
Some years after I'd abandoned this line of thinking, resigned to the fact that the experiment could probably never be carried out in an ethically acceptable way, a college professor encouraged me to read Jerzy Kosinski's novel Being There. In this novel's main character, Chance, I found, after a fashion, an approximation of the very project I'd been dreaming about all those years: a human being raised in a static and unexciting environment, with very few other human influences.
Abuse in child can differ from physical, emotional, mental, sexual and neglect. The effects of child abuse vary between children these effects can be long lasting. Some of these problems can be psychological such as anxiety, depression, academic problems in school, withdrawn and difficulty connecting with others, and can even experience flashbacks and post-traumatic stress. They also have physical effects such as bruises, sprains, fractures, poor hygiene and inappropriate dress. Children living in an environment that is full of fear and violence develop poor coping skill some of these coping skills can be eating disorders, drug use risky sexual decision and self-harm. Some children fall into a cycle of abuse and become abusers themselves. Each child can experience one or more
When Genie the world’s most famous “feral child” was discovered, she didn’t how to speak, had no understanding of cultural norms or taboos, and was thought to be mentally handicapped. Until she was thirteen, Genie was raised in almost complete