The Religious and The Box theory

Are we being controlled by the religions? As people keep trying to state the rightfulness of their religions, there is no reason to believe that they are not. However, they choose to follow our Gods and to learn bibles so generally, they choose to be controlled by their most respectful ones. Hence, they might be seen to be controlled by religions but they have their free will to choose to be so.       

In the psychological point of view, religions help people to simplify their lives, which specifically, through the Box theory. The Box theory, which I would like to call, states that we should spend a place in our mind, which is considered as a “box”, for limited amounts of questions of our lives like where we come from or what our purposes of lives are and try to answer them all. The Box theory helps us stay out of distraction when we think about too many or too few things in life. In religious people’s “boxes”, all questions are easily linked to the existence of god. By that way, they don’t have to think hard about the answers. But that doesn’t mean they are lackadaisical. In other words, they just simply answer some of their questions quicker than people who aren’t religious. They also have to give great consideration to their decisions in life. On the other hand, people who aren’t religious would likely to have more various answers to a question as they have no particular reliance, which asks them to be more open-minded than the religious.

Eurus Thach.

A Report About "Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917"

   By the time “whiteness”, “manliness” and “civilization” united and became the popular, standard link in the society, the war of humanity was triggered. Bringing the echo of such dark time to modern life, Gail Bederman released her work "Manliness and Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender And Race In the United States, 1880-1917". The book investigates the connection between civilization and manliness in Victorian Era and Progressive Era, which was the “turn-of-century”, through the important, historical events and the life events of four main Americans: G. Stanley Hall, Theodore Roosevelt, Ida B. Wells, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman.  Back at that time, fighting for who we are was the battle that could hardly go out with the win. The difference of colors might remind people that many of us were born “losers”: “between 1980 and 1917 as white middle-class men actively worked to reinforce male power, their race became a factor which was crucial to their gender” (4).

    In 1910,  the public went outraged. The first reason was that Jim Jeffries, the “White Hope”, was defeated; and the man who won that historical battle was Jack Johnson, “the first African American world heavyweight boxing champion”. This victory, Bederman claimed, strengthened the masculinity of the African American, which challenged the notion of the whole “civilized”, "white" community (42). The notion of "manhood" did not consist of only "masculinity" but also of the “sexual self-restraint, a powerful will, a strong character”. Last but not least, the brighter skin a man had, the more possibilities he got the social recognition of being "manly" (18). In order to change the narrow view of "manhood", Johnson tried his best to be “too good”. He became a successful self-made man and dressed his wives in furs, jewels and “paraded them in front of the press” (18). However, his wish would never come true when “the horrified residents took steps to prevent him” (8). In Johnson’s case, the contradictions and inconsistencies were shaped purposely (24). 

    Another remarkable event in Bederman's book was the 1893 Columbian Exposition. This tribute was to appreciate the glorification of civilization by representing the “highest scientific, artistic, and technological achievements- Manufactures, Mines, Agriculture, Art, Administrations, Machinery, and Electricity” (31). Its aim was showing the world how right human civilization had been put on the track. However, it turned out not to be close to the humane perfection. In other words, the 1893 Columbian Exposition would have been more grateful to all human history if the borderline of racist and sexist had been hidden more carefully. According to Gail Bederman, “all were presented as the domain of civilized white men” (31). The women’s position, however, was not highlighted for this theme of “civilization”. Obviously, this position would be higher than any colored citizen. After “the seven huge buildings framing the Court of Honor”, there came the women’s work. Although the Lady Managers worked tirelessly to qualify women’s civilization to men’s, they finally had to end up understanding the message that “white women’s place in civilization might be marginal, but at least it was moral and safe” (36). Hence, the Columbian Exposition in 1893 is the milestone that creates  “an illusion of white male supremacy”.

    In order to support her view, Bederman presented Ida B. Wells’s work, pointed out the privileges in genders and races. By the time lynching was common, Ida B. Wells made an overturn on what society had defined as “civilization” and “manliness”. She brilliantly threatened white Northerners by stating that lynching was extremely harmful to “both American civilization and American manhood” (46). In response, the white Southerners claimed that lynching is a form of punishment for the African American and that they were in fact “patriarchs, avengers, righteous protectors” of the society (47). It was always tough at the beginning. After the hard battle, Wells's effort to put “the white man’s civilization on trial” was responded positively. This is when the discourses of manliness and civilization took place. Finally, the white men had no other choice but making the argument that the combination of savagery and civilization made an ideal man. 

    In conclusion, Gail Bederman successfully provided readers with closer views on the link between manliness and civilization from 1880 to 1917. Throughout history, the “manliness” and “civilization” identities were turned into messy concepts. From the work, we could see that Gail Bederman was trying to prove that because of the selfishness of the privileges, people even conflicted themselves.

Eurus Thach

Gail Bederman, Manliness & Civilization: A Cultural History of Gender and Race in the United States, 1880-1917, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995).

Sigmund Freud, Plato, Homer, and The Views of Civilization [Brief Summary]

Evolution of civilization has been developing throughout human history. In fact, Freud (n.d.) claims, that is the product of the development of guilt or shame: lying under our skin of civilization was a fire of instinctual satisfaction which was patiently waiting for the trigger of provocation to spread out. People have to bottle up their satisfaction for the common benefit of the community. Therefore, the more groups people are in, the more identities they have. If so, would morality likely to be a sense or a rule? Moreover, would it be right that “happiness is a matter of acting in society in particular ways”? To Homer, there is no morality. The moral sense is technically society’s standard acting (Ian, 1999). In his view, people avoid the shame of being a misfit due to society’s archetype. Homer’s theory does reflect our majority lately, people are afraid of standing out especially the young generation since the nervousness of being so different from others.

On the other hand, Plato’s theory states that social arrangements are made due to the agreement of people, which creates exchanges between people to build up common benefits. To Plato, society is built based on the harmony between people. This is familiar to Homeric theory, people have to put a limit on their instinctual satisfaction (Ian, 1999).

References:

Johnston, Ian. (June, 1999). On Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents. Retrieved from http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/lectures/freudlecture.htm.

Freud, Sigmund. (1930). Civilization and Its Discontents. Retrived from https://www.stephenhicks.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/FreudS-CIVILIZATION-AND-ITS-DISCONTENTS-text-final.pdf.

Phubbing

Thanks to the myriad advances of technology, we have chances to open our mind and reveal our thinking to the world. This benefit has brought the world closer to each other. We get to know people from around the world, know their cultures, their wonders, amazing stories and pieces of interesting information. All it takes are just a few touches on the screen. Sadly, that is also the reason people are turning their faces to their phones instead of each other’s faces.

If you have problem resist staring at your smartphone, congratulations, you are not alone! “Phubbing”, the behavior of focusing on digital devices like smartphones and ignoring others’ presence, is no longer an unfamiliar phenomenon around us. No matter we do it on purpose or it happens to be just an irresistible habit, we trading the attention on the surrounding to the exciting things appear on the “digital rectangles”.

Phubbing in a normal conversation with acquaintances costs us a bad reputation and poor social interaction. Phubbing in a conversation with the beloved one costs us a relationship. Obviously, no one wants to ignore the presence of the beloved ones. However, resistance is never the first decision that reaches our mind. Emma M. Seppälä (2017) shares the following:

There’s an irony in phubbing: When we’re staring at our phones, we’re often connecting with someone on social media or through texting. Sometimes, we’re flipping through our pictures the way we once turned the pages of photo albums, remembering moments with people we love. Unfortunately, however, this can severely disrupt our present-moment, in-person relationships, which also tend to be our most important ones. (para. 2)

The reason we are the phone at such level, Seppälä (2018) explains, is that we are properly “looking for inclusion”. However, the consequences can never be replaced once they happen. Conflicts and decreased satisfaction in a relationship, which phubbing leads to, are hard to avoid. People who are patient enough will gently remind us to put a limit on our addiction. Vice versa, people will just walk out of your life.

With such consequences, it might be time for us to reconsider our lifestyle. As long as we realize our inappropriate behavior, we can still change to be better. Imaging your time with the loved ones is limited, will it wiser to focusing on your digital devices or making memories with them? 

References:

Ducharme, J. (2018). ‘Phubbing’ Is Hurting Your Relationships. Here’s What It Is. Time. Retrieved from http://time.com/5216853/what-is-phubbing/.

Seppälä, E. (2017). Phubbing—The #1 Phone Habit to Drop For Better Relationships. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/feeling-it/201711/phubbing-the-1-phone-habit-drop-better-relationships.

People Act by Their Beliefs and Religion Choices

People act by their beliefs. We tend to be influenced by a particular individual when difficulties hit our lives. Now, what is the origin of belief? Imagine that at early ages, we learn things from the people we meet and interact without clear interpretations. With a lack of experience, a child can easily take what he or she learns as "gospel", especially things that satisfy his or her wants and help him or her overcome obstacles. For example, a child might believe that sweet treats can make his or her sickness better. Then we grow up, step out of the community where people have different notions and judgments, our “gospel” is then questioned. At that time, the beliefs we carry on in every situation in life are challenged. We can either choose to open our mind to correct the “gospel” or fight to protect it. If one chooses the second option, arguments will take place.

Morality is a product of one's belief. In case that a person chooses a religion to be his or her reliable core, morality is set up by the bible. They believe in the existence of heaven, the help they might get from the magic of God, etc. According to each religion, bibles are written differently and logically leads to differences in people’s moral senses. Throughout human history, there were religious wars which allows people to fight and supercharge their religious belief. However, it is a nightmare that sometimes charlatans are leaders with lethal aims that drown the followers in racist, sexist and phobia soup. In such situations, it is barely escapable for the followers.

Eurus Thach.

Philadelphia Convention in 1787

What is the best way to deal with a problematic nation? In 1787, to solve the national conflicts, the Philadelphia Convention was founded to improve the Articles of Confederation. In the beginning, the states’ delegates would submit a plan after the meetings. Later, they, who were also called Framers, realized the problems were so serious that a new constitution's creation was necessary. The Philadelphia Convention was an important step in the United States’ history since it solved conflicts that seemed to be never-ending.

The first conflict was the representation issue in the country. While the large states favoured proportional representation, which allowed the numbers of representatives in Congress based on the population of the state, the smaller states favoured equal representation. This is because the small states were afraid of being abused by the power of the larger ones. Consequently, they came up with the idea of the equal representation which allowed each state to have the same number of representatives in Congress. The conflict was getting greater when the Virginia Plan and the New Jersey Plan were created. The Virginia Plan favoured large, popular states by centring people, which was a way to support the proportional representation. Plus, it suggested there should be two houses that were based on the population. On the other hand, the New Jersey Plan favoured small states by giving one vote per state and claimed that there should only be one house. To solve the problem, the committee established the Great Compromise which answered some of the certain needs from two sides. The Great Compromise included two houses in Congress: the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives had the number of members based on the population and the Senate had two senators from each state who were elected by the state legislature.

The second conflict was the difference between the Northern and the Southern states. Northern states developed the manufacture, merchants and trades. Vice versa, the Southern states favoured the agriculture, imported goods and British tariffs in retaliation. When the Northern states wanted high tariffs to protect domestic industries, the Southern states disagreed. The slavery issue was also the main problem when the Southern states believed that it was a right to have slaves and the Northern states wanted to abolish slavery. The Southern states, in order to protect their belief, even threatened to leave the union. After a hard time debate, the Framers came up with a compromise which was called the Three-fifths Compromise. The significance of this compromise was that the Southern states agreed to give the slaves the right to vote by counting ⅗ of slaves for the representation and passing a Fugitive Slave Law.

The final conflict I want to present in this essay is the powers of the legislative branch. Under the Articles of Confederation, state governments often decided whether the statements of the national government was important. In order to give more power to Congress, Madison suggested keeping powers from the Articles by rejecting states’ laws. The Framers wanted the government that had the enumerated powers which were clearly listed in a constitution. In Article I, section 8, the enumerated powers consisted of the power of imposing and collecting taxes, declaring wars, raising and supporting an army and navy, etc. Congress also had the general powers of the general welfare clause and the necessary and proper clause. However, Congress was also limited by the writ of habeas corpus, the ex-post facto and the bills of attainder. Congress’s decisions were also checked by the other branches like the two houses of Congress.     
       
In conclusion, the Philadelphia Convention solved extremely problematic conflicts like the slavery issue, the tariffs issue, the representation issue and the power of legislative branch issue mostly by creating compromises between sides which answered and satisfied some of the certain needs for all of them. Although some of the compromises like the Three-fifths one didn’t work smoothly, we can see that it was the best way to prevent a war. Through the problems, the new constitution can be viewed as a brilliant political idea that declares a whole new nation of balances and checks that makes citizens feel secure.

Eurus Thach.

Royals

Judgment is a part of our daily lives. Judgment, in a myriad of cases, ends up creating stereotypes about an individual or a group of individuals. They, the victim of this social crisis, receive unexpected and inappropriate "notes" about themselves without any grateful attitudes in response. Many “inappropriate” individuals endeavour for a different and a better look at them. However, success can never be ensured. “Royals”, performed by Lorde, is about the feelings of these victims, who just desperately give up fighting against the stereotypes.

The benefit of the stereotypes, the general knowledge about a group of individuals, might help us expect the characteristics of the people we are about to interact. On the other hand, it decreases the self-confidence of many individuals in the community. The chorus of the song “Royals” states that the dream of being a ruler doesn’t “run in our blood” to the people who are not “proud of their address” in “a torn up town” which has no “postcode envy”. A place with “no postcode envy” is a place which is poor and fancy is always a dream. The next clue, “torn up town”, reveals not only the view of the people from the higher class but also reveals the acceptance of the sad reality of the people in the town about their own identities. However, the acceptance here is not a choice. Growing up in such a place, these people never receive envy from others, neither of the living qualities or the characteristics. The lyrics also add phrases “but every song’s like” and “but everybody's like” after revealing the real life behind the listed “fantasies”. The word “but” shows the failure of bringing out the best in the people mentioned in the song. Moreover, it also their sigh, their desperation toward the false images sticking with them. What is the consequence of this? Stereotypes result in the incomplete view of an individual. Consequently, the ascribed statuses, which describes where an individual comes from and his or her culture, accidentally make the achieved statuses, achievements of an individual, less important and considerable.

In conclusion, the stereotype is a kind of information that one individual acknowledges about another. Therefore, it wouldn’t be a mistake to have those ideas, it would be more likely to be seen as a narrow view of the world. Therefore, the more stereotypes we have, the less we see the world. Through the song “Royals”, Lorde has demonstrated a sociological perspective by emphasizing the "notes" which are stuck on us. Especially, the people in the song who are expected to have “cristal, Maybach, diamonds on your timepiece; jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash” while living in the "no postcode envy" place. To the problem that remained unsolved in our current society, the stereotypes, perhaps we just try to focus on our own goals and lives. Hence, “we don't care, we're driving Cadillacs in our dreams”. 

Eurus Thach

Domestic Violence Effect On Children and Parent-child Aggression, and Treatments (Part III)

Domestic Violence Effect On Children and Parent-child Aggression, and Treatments

Eurus Thach

March 18th, 2019

Improvements in treatments for Children

 The Childhood Domestic Violence Association (n.d.) reports, “approximately 15 million children are growing up with domestic violence in the U.S. alone” (“Getting Started”, para. 3). The Change a Life Program founded by this association suggests four main steps for the helpers and caregivers to help their children who experience such violent scenes. 

The Change a Life Program Steps 

Step one, “learn”. The Childhood Domestic Violence Association (n.d.) shares that the first step is having a discussion with children about their domestic violence situations. Step two is called “connect”. The second step is about digging deep into the child’s emotions and helping him or her control the situation. The third step is the “support” stage. Children will be provided with skills and real-life examples. The final step, “help”, is about building children a social support network, inspiring and encouraging them through role models. This is a patient process that requires a lot of effort and caring attitudes. Eventually, the results always worth it.

The role model 

The role model effect provided at the end of the Change a Life Program does not only include the caregivers or people around but also includes unrealistic characters. In fact, the role model can be used throughout the four-step process of the Change a Life Program. In case a child resists telling the helpers and caregivers his or her feelings or learning necessary skills, bringing their role models will create a more sympathetic affair for the conversation. By then, it is more relaxing for a child to share their vulnerable experience and pick up the lessons. According to White, Prager, Schaefer, Kross, Duckworth, Carlson (2017), from May 2012 to January 2013, reports studying the relation between role play and learning in children. Though all kinds of role models are equally important, White, Prager, Schaefer, Kross, Duckworth, Carlson (2017)’s research focuses on impersonating role models. However, there are still opposing views on impersonating role models. The reason, in their opinions, is fictional characters are not perfect enough. Apple Belle (2017) writes, “Batman is the most ‘human’ superhero -in that he has no powers and no perfect standards of morality- his status as a role model for children is actually highly questionable” (para. 8). However, White et al. (2017)’s experiment proves the opposite. 

In this experiment, the children were asked to participate in a difficult and helpful task but “was modified to be long and boring”. When the children wondered if they "were being a good helper", the authors assume, “this reflection was most successful when it involved impersonating a character” (White et al., 2017). A child's favourite characters affect his or her attitude. Since then, they mirror and learn the traits intrinsically. By linking the model to the child’s cognitive process, it becomes reasonable to learn. Then it goes from all the work of the reasoning system to the child’s behaviors. As long as the child feels good about his or her role model’s choice, he or she can get benefits from them regardless of others’ opinions. That is the difference between the reasoning system of a child and an adult. 

The reasoning system 

In order to interpret a child's perspective and their emotions, caregivers and helpers need to understand his or her reasoning system. The reasoning system includes the thinking and analysis of a child toward a situation. In her work, Rothbart (2011) states, “the effectiveness of a coping strategy, however, will depend on the amount of control the child can reasonably have their own behavior and the events he or she experiences” (p. 161). Hence, since early ages, it is a very familiar phenomenon that children replicate the actions from people around them. Many of us believe that the replicate will build up their habits and characters. It is hard to deny. However, it is only a part of the truth. In fact, according to Rothbart, the reasoning system decides them all.

Building up such a system requires the input of information. For example, a child sees a man crossing the street illegally in order to catch up on the bus. It is reasonable for the man to do so because of the rush. So the problem is how to get the child to understand that laws matter more or an accident might occur. There needs to be a proper explanation. The parents, the caregivers, friends, and close acquaintance or even a stranger can play a part in this process. In other words, the worse they play this role, the darker the child’s future is: “The child lives in a network of relationships with siblings, peers, and adults and is continually evaluating his or her qualities in relation to these people, while identifying selectively with some of them” (Kagan, 1984, p. 275). It is assertable that the nature-nurture fit is essential in child development and the reasoning system is its only root. With the right basis of reasoning, the right outcome, behaviors and thinkings, will come after. Therefore, as witnesses of the domestic abuse events, children have their reasoning system damaged. 

Treatments for Parent-child Aggression 

The safest way to heal parent-child aggression is through the changes of the perpetrators. Only by that way, children can confidently express their love and share their struggles with the perpetrators, which reforms the child’s perspective and the connection of the family. 

The changes of the perpetrators 

The DVCC (2011) suggests, “a pattern of jealous and controlling behavior that isolates, threatens, and frightens their partner” (para. 8). The abusers have problems controlling behaviors and performing appropriate ones. Besides the anger management, many abusers, mostly men, have to struggle with the influences from violent ads and images, especially those in the 1990s. According to Kilbourne (1999), violent ads and images “contribute to the state of terror. And objectification and disconnection create a climate in which there is widespread and increasing violence” (p. 499). In another aspect, perpetrators are also victims of domestic violence.

The Method of Lundy Bancroft 

When can the domestic violence stop? The National Domestic Violence Hotline believes that changes are possible for the perpetrators. Using Lundy Bancroft’s study, this organization (2013) shares the list including admitting actions and attitudes, making amends, developing respect and solutions for conflicts with the victims (para. 7). In order to make a success in this process, learning respect is the key. The reason is, Kilbourne (1999) shares, “turning a human being into a thing, an object, is almost always the first step toward justifying violence against that person” (p. 499). 

However, changes are not always easy. This process takes a lot of effort than it sounds. Supporting this statement, Reina Gattuso (2018) claims, “The process of genuinely changing harmful behaviors is long, slow, and difficult. It takes a lifetime to learn abusive behaviors, so unlearning those behaviors — while totally possible — takes a heck of a lot of work” (para. 10). In her paper, though Gattuso does discuss changing possibilities, she encourages the victims to save themselves more in general. The reason is breaking promises with the victims can damage their mental health heavier than previously.

Intervention Programs 

Intervention programs help the abusers by supervising and giving therapy for their anger issue. However, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline (2014), success depends on the abusers' desire to change. Toward the opposing views, this organization (2014) suggests intervention programs for the abusers to learn and control their behaviors through anger management and Batterer Intervention & Prevention Programs (BIPPs). 

Conclusion 

Consequently, domestic violence gives children liabilities in learning and problems processing emotion. Domestic violence directly attacks their mental health, which leaves children scars into adulthood. Fortunately, children do not have to suffer all the pain alone. They have organizations and laws to strengthen their voices. Besides that, there are intervention programs for the abusers to improve their anger management, which heals the parent-child aggression. There still remains incompletions in these treatments. However, though these programs eventually work, it is still hard for children to forget the past. How can they accept the fact that the abusers are supposed to be the ones they love? The parent-child aggression, one of the domestic violence's results, make it difficult for children to reconnect with their caregivers and others, especially the abusers. 

____________________________________________________________

References: (the whole research)

Apple Belle. (2017). Superhero Standards: Unrealistic Role Models or Inspirers of Morality? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://applebelleblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/29/superhero-standards-unrealistic-role-models-or-inspirers-of-morality/.

Boyce, W. T. (2019, January 2). Orchids and Dandelions. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201901/orchids-and-dandelions.

Child Domestic Violence Association. (2014). 10 Startling Statistics about Children of Domestic Violence [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://cdv.org/2014/02/10-startling-domestic-violence-statistics-for-children/.

Child Domestic Violence Association. (n.d.). Change a Life Program [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://changealife.cdv.org/.

Child Witness to Violence Project. (n.d.). Social Impact & History: History of Services for Children who are Exposed to Violence [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.childwitnesstoviolence.org/social-impact--history.html.

Cole, A. [TEDx Talks]. (2015, July 30). Domestic violence: a child's perspective [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadKzL0Ec00&t=53.

Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. (2011). Dynamics of Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. Retrieved from https://dvcc.delaware.gov/background-purpose/dynamics-domestic-abuse/.

Gattuso, R. (2018). My Abusive Partner Promises They’ll Change. Will They? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.talkspace.com/blog/abusive-partner-promises-change/.

Greydanus, D., Palusci, V., Merrick, J. (2017). Chronic Disease and Disability : Abuse and Neglect in Childhood and Adolescence. Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Hamby, S. (2015, July). Why Can Domestic Violence Get Passed From Parent to Child? Psychology Today, The Web of Violence. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-web-violence/201507/why-can-domestic-violence-get-passed-parent-child.

Jaffe, P. G., Baker, L. L., & Cunningham, A. J. (Eds.). (2004). Protecting children from domestic violence: Strategies for community intervention. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.

Jouriles, E. N., Barling, J., & O'Leary, K. D. (1987). Predicting child behavior problems in maritally violent families. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15(2), 165-173. Retrieved from Google Scholar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00916346.

Kagan, J. (1984). The nature of the child. New York, NY, US: Basic Books.

Kilbourne, J. (2016). Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts For Critical Thinking and Writing 10th edition, 488-513.

Little, J. (2017). Understanding domestic violence in rural spaces. Progress in Human Geography, 41(4), 472-488. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

McCoy, D. C., Raver, C. C. (2011) Caregiver Emotional Expressiveness, Child Emotion Regulation, and Child Behavior Problems among Head Start Families. Social Development, 20(4), 741-761, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00608.x. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Rothbart, K. M. (2011). Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press. 

The National Domestic Violence Hotline. (2014). Intervention Programs for Abusive Behavior [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thehotline.org/2014/07/03/intervention-programs-for-abusive-behavior/.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline. (2013). Is Change Possible In An Abuser? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thehotline.org/2013/09/05/is-change-possible-in-an-abuser/.

White, R. E., Prager, E. O., Schaefer, C., Kross, E., Duckworth, A. L., Carlson, S. M. (2017, September/October). The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children. Child Development, doi: 00093920, 88(5). Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 

Domestic Violence Effect On Children and Parent-child Aggression, and Treatments (Part I)

Domestic Violence Effect On Children and Parent-child Aggression, and Treatments
Eurus Thach
Mar 18th, 2019

Abstract

The basis of this studies the effect of domestic violence on children and the improvements needed in treatment programs. The contribution of magazine articles, academic journals, books, websites, and organizations highlights that treatments only work with the understanding and awareness of the child’s perspective. Children do not view a subject as the way adults do. Children process trauma, emotions, and reality differently so as to learn to grow. Especially, because they do not think opening up about their feelings is a way to deal with this sensitive topic. The wrong approach can lead to a greater distance between the helpers or caregivers and the child, which causes child-parent aggression, which results in the prevalence of treatment-resistant disorders, such as depression, trauma-related problems, and brain damage. Understanding the way a child approaches a problem helps to create appropriate methods to discuss and support him or her. In relation to children, the treatments of abusers could help children recover a semblance of a parent-child relationship, which is vital for their emotional growth. How does a child perceive a subject? How does he or she face domestic violence? What are the improvements in treatments these children need?

Domestic Violence Is Threatening Healthy Lives of Children

Children are society's first priority and the problems concerning their physical and mental health gain the most attention; domestic violence is a nightmare that damages both. According to the Childhood Domestic Violence Association (2014), millions of children in the United States cry themselves to sleep every night under a roof that houses domestic violence. Throughout centuries, researchers and the government never stopped attempting to prevent domestic abuse events and to deal with their consequences. Despite that, domestic violence still remains a crisis without effective solutions. Whether children were bystanders or victims, they have to suffer the biological and psychological issues. So, how do children cope with domestic violence?

Background

History

Domestic violence has been a long-lasting crisis in the community. The support for children now and in the past is very different. Beginning in the late 1980s, according to the Child Witness to Violence Project Organization (CWVP) (n.d.), a lot of research about the domestic violence effect on children as “bystanders” was released (para. 1). Before that, children grew up experiencing the unequal “logic” of domestic violence. Between the 1970s and 1980s, the “logic of injury”, Little (2017) claims, reinforced “a victim-blaming response to domestic violence by seeing the injured body as compliant and passive” (p. 479). Hence, previously, when a child was a victim of this crisis, there weren’t many chances that he or she would get support. It happened the same way with partners. In case children were not the victims, they had to witness their mothers suffering the pain on their own, which caused them gloomy memories and affected their mental health. Fortunately, there was a brighter movement in the 1990s. Little (2017) reports that the “logic of health” was considered in domestic violence: “While the shift to a logic of health was positive in moving away from accusations of victim passivity and for recognizing the longer-term effects of violence, its ‘somatic flexibility’, according to Sweet (2014: 44), ‘creates spaces into which new forms of blame and self-responsibility can take shape’” (p. 479).

Although domestic violence did not gain much attention at the time, there were still actions to protect children from domestic violence. Especially, the CWVP (n.d.) reveals, in 1982, The National Coalition Against Domestic Violence formed a Child Advocacy Task Force to support these “bystanders”. Since the 1980s, the child protection toward this crisis has had a remarkable movement. Thanks to the contributions, the community started to understand more about the perspective of the susceptible children as witnesses and the effect of domestic violence on child development.

Mental and Physical Health

What Kagan (1984) points out it is that “the child’s knowledge, moral evaluations, and inferences about the causes of his or her current mood” that form his or her interpretations to each “emotionally significant experience,” such as family violence (pp. 275- 276). Therefore, the results of this process turn out to be various. The worst situation would be the diffusion of negative interpretations. The author of the article Orchids and Dandelions, Boyce (2019), reports:

Nearly 34,000 children from Manitoba, Canada, five-minute Apgar scores were predictive of teacher-reported developmental vulnerability at age 5 for a variety of developmental dimensions”. In general, these experiences impede the ability to learning skill, as it also does to the mental and physical health throughout our lifetime. (paras. 3, 10)

Although Boyce (2019) mentions “a variety of developmental dimensions,” his paper mainly focuses on the “emotionally significant experience”. By acknowledging Boyce’s article and interpretations from all the work above, a child with a lack of emotional support has difficulties leading life and overcoming challenges. 

Biological privilege

Fortunately, not every child ends up the same. There are possibilities that children who are “about one in five”, also written in the article, have remarkable susceptibility to being “highly sensitive to adverse events”. With this biological privilege, they can achieve success in nurturant (Boyce, 2019, paras. 5, 6). This resilience seems to be a perfect stimulus for the emotional growth in these “orchid children”.  In general, during the unfortunate event, with a strong emotional basis, other positive forces have opportunities to win the child’s mind. However, how many children are lucky enough to have immediate support or this biological privilege?

Organization

Child Witness to Violence Project organization (CWVP)

Child Witness to Violence Project (CWVP) is an organization helps children overcome their trauma-related syndromes from domestic violence. Beginning in 1992, they have provided help to over 150 children each year. Besides their main treatment as therapy, the organization also provides the caregivers with specific guidance to connect with their children during such unfortunate events. Another purpose of the CWVP is increasing community responses through statistics and stories about susceptible children.

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References: (the whole research)
Apple Belle. (2017). Superhero Standards: Unrealistic Role Models or Inspirers of Morality? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://applebelleblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/29/superhero-standards-unrealistic-role-models-or-inspirers-of-morality/.
Boyce, W. T. (2019, January 2). Orchids and Dandelions. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201901/orchids-and-dandelions.
Child Domestic Violence Association. (2014). 10 Startling Statistics about Children of Domestic Violence [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://cdv.org/2014/02/10-startling-domestic-violence-statistics-for-children/.
Child Domestic Violence Association. (n.d.). Change a Life Program [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://changealife.cdv.org/.
Child Witness to Violence Project. (n.d.). Social Impact & History: History of Services for Children who are Exposed to Violence [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.childwitnesstoviolence.org/social-impact--history.html.
Cole, A. [TEDx Talks]. (2015, July 30). Domestic violence: a child's perspective [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadKzL0Ec00&t=53.
Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. (2011). Dynamics of Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. Retrieved from https://dvcc.delaware.gov/background-purpose/dynamics-domestic-abuse/.
Gattuso, R. (2018). My Abusive Partner Promises They’ll Change. Will They? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.talkspace.com/blog/abusive-partner-promises-change/.
Greydanus, D., Palusci, V., Merrick, J. (2017). Chronic Disease and Disability : Abuse and Neglect in Childhood and Adolescence. Nova Science Publishers, Inc.
Hamby, S. (2015, July). Why Can Domestic Violence Get Passed From Parent to Child? Psychology Today, The Web of Violence. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-web-violence/201507/why-can-domestic-violence-get-passed-parent-child.
Jaffe, P. G., Baker, L. L., & Cunningham, A. J. (Eds.). (2004). Protecting children from domestic violence: Strategies for community intervention. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.
Jouriles, E. N., Barling, J., & O'Leary, K. D. (1987). Predicting child behavior problems in maritally violent families. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15(2), 165-173. Retrieved from Google Scholar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00916346.
Kagan, J. (1984). The nature of the child. New York, NY, US: Basic Books.
Kilbourne, J. (2016). Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts For Critical Thinking and Writing 10th edition, 488-513.
Little, J. (2017). Understanding domestic violence in rural spaces. Progress in Human Geography, 41(4), 472-488. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
McCoy, D. C., Raver, C. C. (2011) Caregiver Emotional Expressiveness, Child Emotion Regulation, and Child Behavior Problems among Head Start Families. Social Development, 20(4), 741-761, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00608.x. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Rothbart, K. M. (2011). Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline. (2014). Intervention Programs for Abusive Behavior [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thehotline.org/2014/07/03/intervention-programs-for-abusive-behavior/.
The National Domestic Violence Hotline. (2013). Is Change Possible In An Abuser? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thehotline.org/2013/09/05/is-change-possible-in-an-abuser/.
White, R. E., Prager, E. O., Schaefer, C., Kross, E., Duckworth, A. L., Carlson, S. M. (2017, September/October). The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children. Child Development, doi: 00093920, 88(5). Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 

Domestic Violence Effect On Children and Parent-child Aggression, and Treatments (Part II)

Domestic Violence Effect On Children and Parent-child Aggression, and Treatments

Eurus Thach

March 18th, 2019

Literature Review

Millions of children out there are suffering domestic violence every day. Domestic violence, when it comes to children, gives them no choice of either staying or running away. It is a cruel challenge that children have to learn how to adapt. To be adaptive to such an environment, they have to trade their physical and mental health. Besides that, it costs children the ideal relationship between them and their caregivers, which results in parent-child aggression. The reason is the emotional expressions between to subjects in that relationship relate to each other. The pressure, the parent-child aggression,  makes children keep their mental and physical problems to themselves and becomes susceptible adults.

       

Summary

A child learns emotional expressions from the caregiver.  McCoy and Raver (2011) state, “greater frequency of positive caregiver emotional expressiveness has been linked with greater emotion regulation, more adaptive behavioral competence, and fewer behavioral problems in children” (p. 743). A child learns and modifies the emotional expressions from the caregiver. On the other hand, a poor emotional performance from the caregiver evokes negative thinking and the negative reaction of the child. What makes a poor emotional performance? It is when a child witnesses his or her caregiver’s gloomy expression such as sorrow or aggression toward a problem. McCoy and Raver (2011) reveal that the performances of frustration, fear, or anxiety shape "children’s responses to emotionally arousing stimuli in ways that may be proximally adaptive but that may also compromise children’s longer-term functioning” (p. 744). One wrong step can push the process of shaping a child’s thinking further to undesirable development. In the end, it produces heavy, child mental problems. That is how parent-child aggression is built up. 

In all dimensions, domestic violence causes the heaviest damage and consequences to children. What is worse than a child suffering unsteady feelings among abusive events? Jaffe, Baker and Cunningham (2004) state the following:

52% of 144 mothers reported that their children yelled from another room during abusive events at least occasionally, and 24% reported their children frequently yelled from another room. Twenty-one percent of the mother reported their children called someone else for help during the abuse at least occasionally, and 6% reported they did so frequently. (p. 14) 

When domestic violence occurs, children bottle up their feelings toward their caregivers, suffer the pain on their own. They keep doing so until they reach the threshold of their tolerance. Hence, they yell, which is the easiest way to relieve their feelings. To them, sharing feelings with their caregivers is not the best option. It is not because they do not want to, they just do not know how to let them out gently.   

Besides the difficulty handling the damaged emotions, in the article of Jouriles, Barling, and O'Leary (1987), children also have a high chance of developing psychological problems: “Parent-child aggression in families of antisocial children compared to families of control groups (Patterson, 1982), and children exposed to parental aggression have consistently been found to show more behavior problems” (p. 166). Parent-child aggression involves not only in the present mental health but also the long-term impact. Hamby (2015) shares, “a child who grows up in a violent home might be a violent adult” (para. 5). How does domestic violence relate to parent-child aggression? Jouriles, Barling, and O'Leary (1987) explain that interspousal aggression strongly connects with parent-child aggression (p. 166). Domestic family stresses out the parent-child aggression, which affects the child, and the affected child grows up and steps in the community with violence and unhealthy mental life.

Studying about community responses means studying the community’s recent reactions and attention to this crisis. Since then, there should be more improvements to domestic violence. Besides the people, the government has taken this seriously. There have been several changes in U.S. law. However, they occur slowly. While the domestic violence researches appeared in the 1980s, it took the U.S. a decade to improve and proceed with the law.  According to Jaffe, Baker, and Cunningham (2004), in 1997, a Utah law was passed and treated an adult who exhibited more than once domestically violent behavior like an offender. After the law, Jaffe, Baker, and Cunningham (2004) reports, the desired effect has been achieved through the decrease in the amounts of domestic violence (p. 17). The twenty-first century is nominated as a safer time for children in the world. Despite that, the lack of responses in the community is still undeniable. In her TED Talk speech, Abi Cole (2015) asserts, there are 38% domestic violence cases that the police leave the perpetrators with just warnings. “Only a quarter of reported incidents”, Cole (2015) continues, “results in the rest; and a mere 4%... results in conviction”. That is clear proof that this crisis needs more attention from the government.    

What about the view of the community on the cause of domestic violence? Surrounding that main factor is others like interspousal conflicts and learning adults’ violent behaviors. Into details, Greydanus, Palusci, and Merrick (2017) assume factors that draw the crisis are “limited education in parenting skills as well as an underlying milieu in human history of extreme violence and aggression” (p. 108). More speech appears to encourage and help the children overcome this hard time. It is good news that nowadays civilization allows people to have caring attitudes toward this crisis. In spite of that, Abi Cole (2015) reveals that there are a lot of cases the witnesses choose not to involve in the situation. Sadly, the ignorance of the community accidentally strengthens the perpetrators’ power, which makes it hard to put a complete stop on domestic violence.     

Discussion and Evaluation

Most of the research agrees that children might copy behaviors and learn emotional responses from caregivers. In the domestic violence angle, Hamby (2015) interprets, “they see adults use violence to get their way and social learning theory would suggest that kids will copy that behavior” (para. 5). She uses the social learning theory to support her claim. In lieu of using the same method, Jouriles, Barling, and O'Leary (1987) accomplish their study about parent-child aggression based on many others’ researches and experiments. So do Greydanus, Palusci, and Merrick (2017). This work relates the process to “limited education on parenting skills” and “underlying milieu in human history” (p. 108). Although they do agree that the expressiveness from the caregivers non-linearly connects to this learning process (pp. 743-744). No child wants to replicate domestically violent behaviors from the adults. However, how do they resist the process while the abusive events keep being on loop? It is an unconscious process that is hard to fight against. 

This is also the why reason appropriate community responses are essential. Jaffe, Bake, and Cunningham (2004) tend to focus more on the improvement of community responses. They provide organizations and the laws fighting against this crisis. The work by Greydanus, Palusci, and Merrick (2017) also chose community attention as their aim. However, instead of naming supportive foundations, it mostly reviews the timeline of domestic violence. Jaffe, Bake, and Cunningham ’s work (2004) lacks information about the process of modifying caregivers’ emotional expressions. On the other hand, they show their interest in the psychological effect of domestic violence on child development. Like other research in this essay, they assume that this has a long-term impact on mental life (p. 11). Community responses reveal the way people connect with each other. It is hard to get in one’s shoes, but never too hard to respect and protect them.

Proposed Research Question

The further question this research brings forth is what kind of understanding and awareness of a child’s perspective of domestic violence is needed to help improve the treatments for them. This piece of information might be missing due to the psychological complexity of an individual. Besides the improvements in children’s treatment, intervention programs for abusers are also helping children heal parent-child aggression. Studying this specific problem asks for deep and highly-educated work. Since then, the research can end up collecting various aspects of a child. The reason this question is significant is that it strongly relates to parent-child aggression and child cognitive development. Understanding this problem means understanding the whole picture of domestic violence, which helps improve community responses.

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References: (the whole research)

Apple Belle. (2017). Superhero Standards: Unrealistic Role Models or Inspirers of Morality? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://applebelleblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/29/superhero-standards-unrealistic-role-models-or-inspirers-of-morality/.

Boyce, W. T. (2019, January 2). Orchids and Dandelions. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201901/orchids-and-dandelions.

Child Domestic Violence Association. (2014). 10 Startling Statistics about Children of Domestic Violence [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://cdv.org/2014/02/10-startling-domestic-violence-statistics-for-children/.

Child Domestic Violence Association. (n.d.). Change a Life Program [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://changealife.cdv.org/.

Child Witness to Violence Project. (n.d.). Social Impact & History: History of Services for Children who are Exposed to Violence [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.childwitnesstoviolence.org/social-impact--history.html.

Cole, A. [TEDx Talks]. (2015, July 30). Domestic violence: a child's perspective [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cadKzL0Ec00&t=53.

Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. (2011). Dynamics of Domestic Violence. Domestic Violence Coordinating Council. Retrieved from https://dvcc.delaware.gov/background-purpose/dynamics-domestic-abuse/.

Gattuso, R. (2018). My Abusive Partner Promises They’ll Change. Will They? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.talkspace.com/blog/abusive-partner-promises-change/.

Greydanus, D., Palusci, V., Merrick, J. (2017). Chronic Disease and Disability : Abuse and Neglect in Childhood and Adolescence. Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

Hamby, S. (2015, July). Why Can Domestic Violence Get Passed From Parent to Child? Psychology Today, The Web of Violence. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-web-violence/201507/why-can-domestic-violence-get-passed-parent-child.

Jaffe, P. G., Baker, L. L., & Cunningham, A. J. (Eds.). (2004). Protecting children from domestic violence: Strategies for community intervention. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press.

Jouriles, E. N., Barling, J., & O'Leary, K. D. (1987). Predicting child behavior problems in maritally violent families. Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 15(2), 165-173. Retrieved from Google Scholar: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/BF00916346.

Kagan, J. (1984). The nature of the child. New York, NY, US: Basic Books.

Kilbourne, J. (2016). Two Ways a Woman Can Get Hurt: Advertising and Violence. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts For Critical Thinking and Writing 10th edition, 488-513.

Little, J. (2017). Understanding domestic violence in rural spaces. Progress in Human Geography, 41(4), 472-488. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

McCoy, D. C., Raver, C. C. (2011) Caregiver Emotional Expressiveness, Child Emotion Regulation, and Child Behavior Problems among Head Start Families. Social Development, 20(4), 741-761, doi:10.1111/j.1467-9507.2011.00608.x. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

Rothbart, K. M. (2011). Becoming who we are: Temperament and personality in development. New York, NY, US: Guilford Press. 

The National Domestic Violence Hotline. (2014). Intervention Programs for Abusive Behavior [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thehotline.org/2014/07/03/intervention-programs-for-abusive-behavior/.

The National Domestic Violence Hotline. (2013). Is Change Possible In An Abuser? [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://www.thehotline.org/2013/09/05/is-change-possible-in-an-abuser/.

White, R. E., Prager, E. O., Schaefer, C., Kross, E., Duckworth, A. L., Carlson, S. M. (2017, September/October). The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children. Child Development, doi: 00093920, 88(5). Retrieved from EBSCOhost. 

Child Developmental Dimensions Small Discussion

Kagan points out it is “the child’s knowledge, moral evaluations, and inferences about the causes of his or her current mood” that form his or her interpretations to each “emotionally significant experience”, such as family violence (1984, pp. 275- 276). Therefore, the results of this process turn out to be various. The worst situation would be the diffusion of negative interpretations. The author of the article Orchids and Dandelions reports that “careful epidemiologic work by one of my doctoral students and a former postdoctoral fellow has found that in nearly 34,000 children from Manitoba, Canada, five-minute Apgar scores were predictive of teacher-reported developmental vulnerability at age 5 for a variety of developmental dimensions”. In general, these experiences impede the ability to learning skill, as it also does to the mental and physical health throughout our lifetime (Boyce, 2019, par 3, 10). Although Boyce mentions “a variety of developmental dimensions”, his paper mainly focuses on the “emotionally significant experience”. As we acknowledge from Boyce’s article and interpretations from all the work above, a child with a lack of emotional support has difficulties leading life and overcoming challenges.

Fortunately, not every child ends up the same. There are possibilities that children who are “about one in five”, also written in the article, have remarkably susceptibility to “highly sensitive to adverse events”. With this biological privilege, they can achieve success in nurturant (Boyce, 2019, par 5, 6). This resilience seems to be a perfect stimulus for the development of the reasoning system in these “orchid children”.  In general, during the unfortunate event, with a strong emotional basis, other positive forces have opportunities to win the child’s mind. To those whose genes do not cover resilience, we can train them to be persevering. The reason is the process of being resilient includes the perseverance. Perseverance is known as a trait of facing and overcoming difficulties.

According to the article The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children, from May 2012 to January 2013, the result from the experiment studying the relation between role play and perseverance in children supported the view that the perseverance is “a skill that is accessible to even very young children”. In this experiment, the children were asked to participate in a hard-working and helpful but “was modified to be long and boring”. When the children wondered if they "were being a good helper", the authors assume, “this reflection was most successful when it involved impersonating a character” (White, Prager, Schaefer, Kross, Duckworth, Carlson, 2017). To conclude, a child's favourable characters affect his or her attitude. Since then, they mirror and learn the trait intrinsically. By linking the model to the child’s cognitive process, it becomes reasonable to learn. Then it goes from all the work of the reasoning system to the child’s behaviors.

References:

Boyce, W. T. (2019, January 2). Orchids and Dandelions. Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/201901/orchids-and-dandelions.

Kagan, J. (1984). The nature of the child. New York, NY, US: Basic Books.

White, R. E., Prager, E. O., Schaefer, C., Kross, E., Duckworth, A. L., Carlson, S. M. (2017, September/October). The "Batman Effect": Improving Perseverance in Young Children. Child Development, 00093920, 88(5). Retrieved from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.greenriver.edu/ehost/detail/detail?vid=1&sid=dabcfa35-c22e-4929-ac42-9a252b24d38d%40sessionmgr4009&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=124970333&db=tfh.

Eurus Thach.