Psychology Case Study Genie

729 Words2 Pages

Genie, a wild child, at the time of her finding was a thirteen year old girl who was found under extraordinary abusive circumstances. She was found strapped to a potty chair in a room with very little to look at. It was concluded that she had very little human contact or outside world experience. She was also extremely malnourished. Upon her finding it was noticed that Genie had no use of language and her motor skills were not strong. Due to Genie not having the ability of language the question of whether language is learned or embedded in us came to question. Nature versus nurture will be explored.
The importance of the discovery of Genie was extreme. It was extreme not only because now an outstanding abusive circumstance was brought to light …show more content…

Direct effects are how one individual effects another. It’s an one on one interaction. For example, heredity, how the individual effects itself or parenting style, how the parent affects the child, a one on one effect. Indirect is how outside sources affect the individual unit. Stress is a prime example of indirect effect, if a parent is stressed about a job promotion that stress may translate onto the child even though the child has nothing to with the job. Some direct effects that have hindered Genie’s development of language was how abusive her parents were to her, or the restriction of social contact. An indirect effect could be the mother’s fear of the father that didn’t allow her to be loving towards Genie. Another could be that her father thought she was mentally impaired and deemed her unwanted because of what he thought society’s view of the mentally challenged was. On a positive twist, after being found a direct effect that helped Genie develop language was how she was taken away from the abusive environment. Her relationship with her psychologist and other team members that were studying her. The amount of time that individuals spent with her showing her love and care. An indirect effect that was beneficial was the grants received to help fund the research that helped her learn to speak. Other research as well, such as the wild child

Open Document