Observing Precious

600 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The effects of child abuse and neglect

Traumatic experience using ecological model “The core concept of an ecological model is that behavior has multiple levels of influences, often including intrapersonal (biological, psychological), interpersonal (social, cultural), organizational, community, physical environmental, and policy. Ecological models are believed to provide comprehensive frameworks for understanding the multiple and interacting determinants of health behaviors” ("Health Behavior and Health Education | Part Five, Chapter Twenty," n.d.). According to Briere and Jordan “abuse and neglect effects are multidetermined in etiology and multivariate in their ultimate presentation” ("Childhood Maltreatment, Intervening Variables, and Adult Psychological Difficulties in Women," …show more content…

On an environmental level Precious comes from a low socioeconomic status. Precious and her mother reside in Harlem, NYC which at the time of the movie (1987) it was a predominantly African American/Black community. Precious reside in the project in low income housing. Her neighborhoods is gang invested with heavy drug and crime activities. During a scene Precious was physically assaulted in her neighborhood on her way home from school. Observing the trauma on social level we see how the welfare system dehumanize her because of her social economic status. Culturally, Precious came from an African American family where the family appeared to be closed family system. Within the family system Precious was parentified as she was obligated to care for her mother. She is responsible for cooking, cleaning, buying her mother's cigarettes and even sexually gratifying her parents. Indirectly, Precious provides her mother with financial assistance given that her mother receives public assistance/welfare for her and for Precious’ special needs daughter who suffers with down syndrome. With this family system the culture is “what happens in this home, stays in the

Show More
Related

  • Effects Of Complex Trauma

    1706 Words  | 4 Pages

    Trauma is an overwhelming experience that causes injury to a person's psychological state of mind. Complex trauma, on the other hand, is a term used by the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN). In which an increased emphasis is placed on the impact of multiple traumatizing events that occur during child development stages. As well as an increase in sensitivity of those traumas involving close personal relationships, such as caregivers and siblings (Forkey 3). Children exposed to complex trauma suffer from detrimental short-term and long-term effects on every aspect of their child development. These effects significantly impact their overall "quality of life," specifically affecting areas of cognitive functioning, neurobiological

    Read More

  • Unequal Childhoods Chapter Summary

    1058 Words  | 3 Pages

    Annette Lareau opens her book with two chapters to give the reader an idea of what the examples she gives will detail. One of the chapters introduces the different parenting styles she researches, while the other breaks down the social structure and daily life. She then separates the book into three parts: the organization of daily life, language use, and families and institutions. For such families, “sustaining children’s natural growth is viewed as an accomplishment” (Lareau 34).

    Read More

  • Precious Movie Analysis

    990 Words  | 2 Pages

    Lee Daniel’s Precious is a movie centered around Precious Jones, a 16-year-old overweight black girl living in Harlem, New York. The movie begins when she is in public school pregnant with her second child by her father. Because Precious is pregnant, the principle recommends an alternative school for her. At home, Precious is a servant to her mother, Mary, who is physically, emotionally, verbally, and sexually abusing her. Mary constantly tells Precious that she is not good enough and that no one will ever want her. At times of distress, Precious tends to dissociate and fantasize about another life where she is a blonde white girl. She wants to be famous and loved by all. Precious arrives at the alternative school hardly knowing how to read or write. She gets placed in a class of girls with a dedicated teacher, Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain asks each student to write in a journal every day, and she will write back to their letters. This is the first time in the movie when Precious feels very

    Read More

  • The Lesson by Toni Cade Bambara

    1307 Words  | 3 Pages

    Toni Cade Bambara addresses how knowledge is the means by which one can escape out of poverty in her story The Lesson. In her story she identifies with race, economic inequality, and literary epiphany during the early 1970’s. In this story children of African American progeny come face to face with their own poverty and reality. This realism of society’s social standard was made known to them on a sunny afternoon field trip to a toy store on Fifth Avenue. Through the use of an African American protagonist Miss Moore and antagonist Sylvia who later becomes the sub protagonist and White society the antagonist “the lesson” was ironically taught. Sylvia belong to a lower economic class, which affects her views of herself within highlights the economic difference created by classism.

    Read More

  • From Abuse to Empowerment: The Transformation of Precious

    1413 Words  | 3 Pages

    Family Living in the ghetto of New York City: Harlem, the family relied on public assistance and welfare to survive. Precious endures physical, mental, and sexual abuse by both parents regularly. She lives with her mother, and her father allegedly has another family across town. He only comes to visit when she wants sexual favors from Precious and money from her mother.

    Read More

  • Precious Movie Psychology

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    The movie Precious is a movie about a sixteen year old girl nicknamed Precious. The movie shows her difficult life as she lives with her mother. Precious is a teen mother expecting her second child, who is also her father’s child due to him raping her. She is verbally and physically abused constantly by her mother and lives in a very unhealthy environment overall. She takes care of herself and her mother and is told what to do everyday. In the movie she begins to turn her life around when a teacher has faith in her and she begins to get an education, and learns she is not what her mother thinks she is.

    Read More

  • Australian Social Workers Must Uphold Ethics and Values

    2031 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...atly, was undoubtedly ruined by the diet and stress she experienced as a result of forcible removal by welfare workers not dissimilar to myself. Yet, this inescapable dilemma only reinforces my striving to achieve the ideals demonstrated by my profession. These ethics, complex and often at conflict with the reality of welfare are the light that guides my professional practice through the perils of historic white shame.

    Read More

  • Precious Lee Daniels

    1807 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the movie “ Precious “ by Lee Daniels, Gabourey Sidibe plays a sixteen years old, illiterate and overweight girl name Precious, who lives in Harlem, New York. She lives with her mother Mary Jones, who was entropic and abusive to her. The abuse and oppression was so traumatic for Precious, she would often dissociate herself from the situation and pretend to be someone else. Losing track of time, her situation and herself was her coping mechanism; throughout the movie it appeared that she would have these dreaming episodes where she would be another person in a much better situation. Precious become pregnant twice from her biological father, who had abandoned the family and infected both she and her mother with the HIV virus. She suffered long-term physical, emotional, sexual, and verbal abuse from her from her parents; symptoms from her personal oppression were depressive and withdrawn attitude. Often she was very quiet and appeared unengaged and inattentive in class.

    Read More

  • Coming of Age in Mississippi

    891 Words  | 2 Pages

    Growing up as the young child of sharecroppers in Mississippi, Essie Mae Moody experienced and observed the social and economic deprivation of Southern Blacks. As a young girl Essie Mae and her family struggled to survive, often by the table scraps of the white families her mother worked for. Knowing little other than the squalor of their living conditions, she realizes this disparity while living in a two-room house off the Johnson’s property, whom her mother worked for, watching the white children play, “Here they were playing in a house that was nicer than any house I could have dreamed of”(p. 33). Additionally, the segregated school she attends was a “one room rotten wood building.” (p. 14), but Essie Mae manages to get straight A’s while caring for her younger sibli...

    Read More

  • Ruby Bridges

    384 Words  | 1 Pages

    Thanks to her good grades, Ruby is chosen to be a pioneer in breaking down the walls of segregation. Through her entire first school year with white children, this brave little black girl is escorted by four federal marshals through a crowd of angry white protestors in front of the school. Miss Henry, Ruby’s teacher from Boston, works with Ruby since none of the regular teachers will have anything to do with her. Through the hard work of the people who told Ruby to attend the white school and through the determination of Ruby, Miss Henry, and Mr. and Mrs. Bridges, Ruby overcame discrimination, racism, prejudice, stereotyping, and educational equalities.

    Read More

  • Toni Cade Bambara's The Lesson

    1252 Words  | 3 Pages

    Miss Moore climbed up against the odds in a time where it was almost unheard of for a black woman to go to college. She was a role model for the children who encourages them to get more out of life. This made Miss Moore an exceptional spectacle as most children would likely, “. . . go to the pool or to the show where is cool” (Bambara), however Sylvia and sugar were being forced to meet with Miss More by their parents. From the parent’s point of view, “. . . it was only right that she should take responsibility for the young ones’ education” (Bambara). The parents themselves realize this was very important for their children, but they did not necessarily take their own advice and at times failed to meet some of their own obligations for the children.—Parents who lived in poverty stricken neighborhoods were not always the best role models they could be for their children to discourage

    Read More

  • Psychology in Precious

    1032 Words  | 3 Pages

    .... Precious was finally proud of herself for doing well in school. In addition, her friends, her teacher, and her social worker were recognizing her efforts–these were some of her external esteem needs. Finally, at the very end of the movie, it is arguable that that she was self-actualized, even though this stage is never able to be satisfied because as one grows psychologically there are always new opportunities to continue to grow. However, for the time being, she was happy and free from her mother.

    Read More

  • The Effects of Domestic Violence on Children

    1461 Words  | 3 Pages

    When a child witnesses domestic abuse it can have many different effects on the child. From my research I found that one of the most common effects on the child were mental health problems. In one study, conducted in New Zealand, young people that reported high levels of exposure to inter-parental violence had elevated rates of mental health problems (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998, p.1). Some of the least severe mental health problems included anxiety, inability to focus, and nightmares (Brescoll & Graham-Bermann, 2000, p.2). But these problems, which appear to be less severe, can also be the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Brescoll & Graham-Bermann, 2000, p.2). In a study conducted in 2001 the results indicated that higher levels of symptoms indicative of post traumatic stress were associated with children who have witnessed domestic violence (Hill & Nabors & Reynolds & Wallace & Weist, 2001, p.1). ?Children who have witnessed domestic violence are more likely to develop symptoms associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; that is, high levels of an...

    Read More

  • Child Neglect Essay

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    ... exposed to abusive environments show delays or restrictions in their physical growth as well as in their mental development (Smith, 1975).

    Read More

  • The Sociological Criticism of Alice Walker

    1447 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this Alice Walker story, the reader meets a girl named Celie. In this novel, Walker takes the reader on a journey through much of Celie’s life. While taking the reader through this tale, Walker draws attention to a number of social aspects during this time period. Through Cilie’s life, Walker brings to light the abuse and mistreatment of African American women from 1910 through the 1940’s. “Women were also regarded as less important than men – both Black and white Black women double disadvantage.

    Read More

More about Observing Precious

Open Document