The Unsocial Life of Genie Wiley Ryan Hernandez Lamar Community College Genie Wiley What is socialization, and how important is it for human beings? Socialization is the activity of being social and encountering with others. It is a process of learning how to communicate and behave in a certain way in society. Many people develop these skills as children, but what if they never get the chance to? Genie Wiley is a girl who was found in October of 1970 in a Los Angeles county welfare office. She was 13 years old and weighed about 60 pounds when she was found. Her real name is Susan Wiley, but when she was discovered, they thought of her as a genie. She had spent her entire life in one room, and she was often tied to a potty chair. …show more content…
Scientists and doctors questioned what should be done with her. An expert team of psychologists began the process of trying to rehabilitate her. She would often spit and growl, and she did not know how to chew. She was very quiet and was unable to speak. Her inabilities to use language made it difficult to evaluate her mental abilities, and on tests she scored at about the level of a 1-year-old. The reason why Genie's case was so fascinating to psychologists and linguists was that it presented a unique opportunity. They were able to study a hotly contested debate about language development and human growth. Nativists believe that the capacity for language is something that is done naturally. Empiricists think that it is the environment that someone is in plays a key role in human development. Substantially, it comes down to the age-old question, do genetics or environment play a greater role in developing …show more content…
There was some difficulties with the move but she had appeared to be doing well. Then, she was removed from her psychologists care, and research on Genie stopped. The doctors and scientists did not have enough money or enough findings to keep going with the research. Genie was given back to her birth mother who shortly put her in foster homes because she could not handle the task of taking care of Genie. Due to the treatment of her in foster homes, Genie was scared to speak and she had regressed back to silence. Socialization is very important in child development. It is how we learn to communicate and interact amongst others. Genie did not get the chance to develop these skills and that made it much more difficult for her to learn as she got older. Growing up she had never really ever spoken a single word, so she never learned how to speak. Communication is one of the most important skills for human beings, and it was the skill that Genie lacked most. She had never developed most of the basic skills humans naturally
She ended up getting pregnant by her abusive father at the age of 12 as well as age 16. She had a little girl named Mongo that was mentally challenged[SR2] and a son named Abdul that was dark like she was[SR3] . She was kicked out of school because she was pregnant and that kind of helped her pave
Likewise, if children today do not learn the act of deeply reading, their capacity to deeply think may be stunted. However, feral children such as Genie were also victims of abuse and solitary confinement for most of their early years, so their inability to learn language may be also the result of damage caused by abuse. According to Jay Shurley, a specialist in social isolation, says that “solitary confinement is, diabolically, the most severe punishment” (Genie). With a lack of socialization, Genie never learned how to communicate, and as a result, was hampered in this way for the rest of her life. So if a child was never exposed to deep reading, is it possible that they will not be as proficient in these skills, since they were not acquired during the years of major brain
Born a slave, she grew up working. When she was a child, she was rented out as a house servant and a babysitter. When she was twelve and working in the fields, she refused to help an overseer beat another slave and got a severe head injury as a result, subjecting her to spells of narcolepsy for the rest of
She was raised under very harsh conditions. She started as a slave at age 6. She grew up being beaten and whipped. She sometimes stuck her feet in coals to prevent frostbite. When she was 30, she escaped from her slave owners.
She was the opposite of her sister. She was not able to really let people in and be personal with another person.
Throughout her college years she worked at a nursing home and volunteered at the foster care once every week. She lived in Lubbock, Texas with her husband as an Engineer and had her first child at the age of 28. Ngoc was has a different point of view about the world than everyone she has meant so she
The novel Alandra’s Lilacs, by Tressa Bowers, tells the story of a Deaf woman, Alandra, and her mother Tressa. The story begins before Alandra was born and tells Tressa’s narative up to Alandra’s adulthood. Throughout the book, the reader sees the challenges that come with having a deaf child. We see both the achievements and setbacks faced by Alandra and her mother. Although being deaf may seem like a misfortune to most, Tressa reveals her experiences with Deaf culture and seeing deafness in a new light.
She emphasizes that her family “learned how to be unselfish” and that her parents and siblings learned sign language for communication (CITATION HERE). One of the critical
While isolated, Genie had no sense of self, had no ideas of social norms and her only agents of socialization were her parents. While under the care of the hospital and others, she was able to learn and express herself in ways that she was never allowed to before. Finally, able to speak, Genie became able to pronounce simple words. After years of learning, Genie has never been able to fully communicate and has never grasped using questions and sentences. Genie’s influences and insights are accurately described by the sociological concepts
However, she spoke with broken grammar and sentences, which kids tend to outgrow around the ages of 5 to 9 or 10. This sides with the nurture side of things because it states that she never learned how to speak accurately grammar wise because she had a horrible upbringing. Identify at least two pros and two cons of the case study approach to research as applied to Genie. (3 points) Some pros of the Genie case was that it provided a great opportunity to answer the question of whether there is a critical period for learning how to communicate.
She was so advanced that she skipped classes and was only 10 by the time she was in high school. Little Katherine Johnson was said to be a “child prodigy” and
As Genie cognitively progresses throughout the years after rescue, she gains the abilities to respond to others and interact with certain objects. Even though she did not properly develop her self identity during her childhood, there is evidence that she is beginning to conceptualize her sense of self during her teen years. Feral children, such as Genie, lack a self concept impairing their development. However, in order to solve this, they must require the agents of socialization, immerse themselves in culture, and undergo socialization methods, such as Mead’s “Stages of the Self.” Through constant nurturing and therapy, Genie would have a chance to develop her sense of self and recovery from her previous, feral state.
She had been beaten and had not been taught anything. She could only speak a few words and do little actions. A girl had been raised by dogs her whole life. When she was found, she acted like a dog. The dogs had taught her how to act.
She was also beaten by her abusive father if she attempted to make a noise (Curtiss, 1977). Genie underwent extensive training and tutoring to be taught language. While Genie’s vocabulary expanded greatly, and she adopted the ability to form fluid and plausible sentences, she did not manage to master the comprehension of syntax and the grammatical rules of language. Children however naturally grasp the context of syntax without formal teachings of it. This study therefore supports the argument that children acquire language easier during the initial stages of their life.
Use at least two scholarly articles as well as the textbook to support your position. There are facts to prove that both nature and nurture take a huge role in how children develop and why they become what they are as adults. Based on the research it is known that there is no clear answer as to what is more influential than the other when it comes to nature versus nurture. This topic is still in debate due to the fact that there are so many supporting details to prove that both play a huge role in a child’s life. REFERENCES: : Nature versus nurture debate.