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.
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...
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When Genie was found, she was thirteen years old, and was presumed to have been in her home since she was around the age of two. She had either been strapped to a child’s toilet, or tied to her bed with complete immobilization during this time, also never being shown any speech—never truly giving her a language to speak. It was discovered, that Genie’s father seemed to be the reason she was locked away (Newton). Although Genie was born through a C-Section, she had little to no problems at birth. She was born a normal healthy little girl. Her medical records all showed that she was growing at a normal rate. Doctor reports are stating that around about a year, Genie was alert and able to sit by herself, but was falling behind in her weight category. Researchers later discovered this may have been the beginning of the malnutrition. There was a problem that was later discovered, requiring Genie to wear a brace on her leg, slowing down the time she learned to walk. Psychologists believe it was this instance that led Genie’s father to believe she was mentally challenged. It is also shown that because of these thoughts, Genie’s father felt it was necessary to hide Genie from the public—whether because of embarrassment or protection. Most researchers will speculate that Genie’s father was a...
In the following essay I will be looking into the study conducted by Watson and Rayner (1920) on a small child known as ‘Little Albert’. The experiment was an adaptation of earlier studies on classical conditioning of stimulus response, one most common by Ivan Pavlov, depicting the conditioning of stimulus response in dogs. Watson and Rayner aimed to teach Albert to become fearful of a placid white rat, via the use of stimulus associations, testing Pavlov’s earlier theory of classical conditioning.
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Autism was first identified as a disorder in 1943 by Dr. Leo Kanner. It was widely accepted that a child’s autistic condition was the result of extremely, cold distant, rejecting and overly intellectual parenting. The child’s extreme withdrawal was viewed as a refusal to engage in social or physical contact, rather than inability. The assumption therefore was that the familial environment being hostile was the cause of the child’s refusal to become enga...
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On November 4, 1970 in Los Angeles, California Genie’s condition was brought to attention by a social worker. The worker discovered the 13-year old girl in a small, dimly lit, confined bedroom. An investigation by authorities exposed that the child had spent most of her life in this room and typically was tied to a potty chair. Genie was found in diapers because she was not potty trained. Her case is an example of extreme isolation from human contact, society, sunlight, and any other environments besides her room. The deprivation of attachment showed when she was timid to humans, almost afraid. Someone whose life was a developmental nightmare could not possibly be expected to have the basic trust that the world is trustworthy and predictable. The life she lived was incredibly horrifying as morals, and psychology portray just how severe the consequences were on Genie.
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Most people take it for granted that children will develop cognition, language and communication skills when they reach a certain stage in their life. In fact, various studies have been conducted regarding these aspects of human development. A common topic for debate is the issue of nature versus nurture, wherein some groups support the idea that language and cognitive development is as natural as breathing while other groups contend that external factors influence these characteristics of human progress. Researchers are given the opportunity to dig deeper into this issue through cases involving feral, isolated and confined children.