Will Hunting Sociology

Will Hunting was a twenty year old Caucasian guy who lived in Boston. He was an orphan who used to be abused as a child by his foster parents at Boston. He worked at Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a Janitor; his work was to clean classrooms. Abused as a child, Will accused himself for his unfortunate childhood background and turns his self-hatred into aggressiveness, and mistrust. His life revolved around hanging out with friends, doing low-skilled jobs and fighting or doing minor crimes. He also did not seem to be ambitious. But despite all that, Will was also a mathematical genius who loved solving math problems written down on the board by an MIT professor named Lambeau. Due to his aggressive behavior, Will Hunting was arrested

for fighting with a man who had beaten him when Will was in kindergarten. He was later referred to a psychotherapist Dr.Sean McGuire for therapy because of his anger and abandonment issues. Will refuses to show his true feelings, but Dr.Sean repeatedly attempts to get Will to open up and in one of his counseling sessions Will breaks down and tell Dr.Sean about his abusive past. Also later in the movie, Will starts getting involved with Skyler, who has decided to move to California for her Medical School and wants Will to go with her, but Will is afraid to become emotionally close to another person.
So what is Child Abuse and how does it influence child’s development? As defined by WHO “Child abuse is all forms of physical and/or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect or negligent treatment or commercial or other exploitation, resulting in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power”. (Alexander Butchart, 2006) It has been reported in many studies that children who experience abuse or neglect in their early life are more likely to show aggressive or pessimistic behavior that carries forward into adult life, with multiple ongoing problems such as emotional regulation, understanding of self, social skills, difficulties in coping up with peers and delinquency. (Gateway, 2008) (Caffo E, 2005) (Meltzer H, 2009) Every individual has a psychological history that begins in early experiences with family or caregivers during childhood and patterns of behavior in early adulthood are an outcome of that early experience. (Tyson, 2014) In the same way, Will Hunting despite of his intellectual genius has emotional and behavioral issues because of being a victim of violence by his foster parents in childhood, which transformed him into a guy with long criminal history and no career ambitions at all. In this paper, I would like to talk about how abuse by foster parents affected Will’s cognitive, moral, social, emotional development during early childhood and what was the impact of all these factors on Will’s early adulthood.
Early childhood is a human developmental stage that generally includes toddlerhood and some time afterward.

(Early childhood) Normally in early childhood, children move towards maintaining attachment, exploring the world and the self, doing things on their own and improving their skill. “A child’s growing self-awareness and knowledge is paralleled by growing awareness of how the world—her family, immediate environment and, implicitly, her culture—is organized.” (Davies, 2010) On the other hand, children at Foster care undergo a variety of challenges that extend beyond the typical challenges presented to children such as poverty, neglect and abuse; this makes a bad impact on their healthy development. (Davido Durpee, 2002) Will Hunting also underwent similar challenges and had a dysfunctional childhood with his foster parents who used to beat him up and put cigarettes on his skin, but Will was too young to fight back. However his experiences as a child had an unhealthy impact on him, he never learned to trust his caregivers and believed that this violence is socially acceptable and he turned into an aggressive guy with a long criminal

history.
Moving forward, during early childhood, secure attachment as the emotional connection between a child and their caregiver promotes social competence, and the development of autonomy.

(Davies, 2010) As suggested in Attachment theory, attachments formed with caregivers at an early age are helpful in forming healthy relationships throughout one’s life. (Groze, 1993) Failure to form a secure attachment may lead to emotional or behavior disorders as children age.
Subsequently, study shows that due to neglect or abuse in early childhood attachment becomes dysfunctional and therefore as needs of the child is not acknowledged by the caregiver a damaged concept of self develops. (Mitchell, 2007) Correspondingly, Will Hunting being raised into violence experienced insecure attachment with his foster parents and overwhelming feelings of worthlessness and

shame.
In addition to providing an emotional connection, the attachment relationship takes on other new functions in supporting the child’s development. Firstly, secure Attachment is consistent in helping the child feel secure, cope with situations that arouse anxiety, and appraise situations that may be dangerous. Children who have secure attachments with both parents show more positive affects, better frustration tolerance, and better problem-solving abilities. (Davies, 2010) On the other hand, insecurely attached children who are not consoled by their caregivers and are not able to explore their environments, do not demonstrate attachment or sense of trust with their adults. (Cassidy, 1994) In the same way, Will had only friends were among a group of young men of his own age as he could not develop a sense of trust with others. Secondly, children with poorly secured attachment will likely develop numerous behavior problems. Will was very aggressive and could not master his primitive emotions as if a person was in a disagreement with him he would assault him either verbally or physically. Thirdly, securely attached children grow up to be more empathic, and have an understanding of inner-self, and are more likely to form friendships. (Meyers) Will on the other hand, apart from his close friends, had no empathy for people and was unable to open up easily in front of others.