This paper is going to focus on two theoretical perspectives and how they are applied to the film titled “Front of the Class”. This film brings us through the life story of a young man diagnosed with Tourette’s syndrome (TS), obstacles that he was confronted with and how he overcame many life struggles in order to become an accomplished and gifted educator. The theories will be evaluated for their practice implications as well as their areas of strengths. As this film is analyzed through the lens of two human behavior theories, it is imperative to identify how social assemblies oppress and marginalize an individual while simultaneously bringing forth social justice as delegates of change.
THEORETICAL THEORIES
Object Relations Theory
Object relations theory focuses on an individual’s propensity to attach to a nurturing parent or caregiver at a young age. Through these attachments, individuals gain a confident sense of self and a secure sense of how they relate to others (Urdang, 2010). Object relations theorists believe that individuals hold onto images of their first caregivers in their subconscious in order to sort out later interactions with important figures in their adulthood. Object relations theory is also explained as a relationship between human beings, in particular within a family and especially between the mother and her child. A basic conviction is that we are driven to form relationships with others and that failure to form positive early relationships leads
The 1967 film by Mike Nicoles “The Graduate” is about Benjamin Braddock, a recent college graduate, who is at a crossroads in his life. He is caught between adolescence and adulthood searching for the meaning of his upper middle class suburban world of his parents. He then began a sexual relationship with the wife of his father’s business partner, Mrs. Robinson. Uncomfortable with his sexuality, Benjamin and Mrs. Robinson continue an affair during which she asked him to stay away from her daughter, Elaine. Things became complicated when Benjamin was pushed to go out with Elaine and he falls in love with her. Mrs. Robinson sabotaged the relationship and eventually the affair between Mrs. Robinson and
Relational theory is built on the assumption that there is an inherent tendency for people to maintain relationships with others (Hutchinson, 2015). Relational theory is the integration of several psychodynamic theories, such as object-relations theory, self-psychology, and interpersonal psychoanalysis, into a larger perspective which acknowledges that the mind exist in relation to others (Segal, 2013). This theory’s origins in psychodynamic theory can be seen in key concepts such as the assertion that human behavior is significantly impacted by past relational patterns (Segal, 2013). Although past relationships are viewed as influential, relational theorist maintain individuals’ can exercise agency and that actions can be influenced but
During the first year of a baby’s life, these nascent relationships serve to the baby as a template of how relationships work. Thus, the quality of the relationships in the baby’s life offers the baby a framework for future relationships, according to the attachment theory. Whether a child’s relationship with their parent or parents was healthy or not, influences how the child searches for and acts in relationships in the future. The attachments and connections made in early stages of our life affect how we build attachments to people in the future. The four classic categories of attachment styles include secure, insecure anxious, insecure avoidant, and insecure disorganized, and were derived from a vast number of infant and toddler observations in a test known as the “strange situation” (Murphy, 2017).
Everyone has an attachment style from which they developed in the first two years of their life. This attachment style tends to stay consistent with each person throughout their lifetime and affects their social-emotional development, and thus relationships with other people. Attachment styles greatly affect the choice one makes in life partners, and how they parent their own children. It is important for everyone to gain insight on their own attachment style if they are to know their emotional limits and how to strengthen their flaws in order to develop a better-self and stronger relationships with other people (Norcross, 2011). It is even more so important for caregivers to be aware of their attachment style and how sensitively available they are to the children in their lives. How the primary caregiver responds to the child’s needs, determines the attachment style the child will acquire. To develop a secure attachment the child needs to establish confidence in a reliable caregiver. In this paper I will be talking about the behaviors and interactions that I observed while watching the film “Babies”, and what attachment styles may be formed as a result of those interactions.
Attachment is a deep and enduring emotional bond that connects one person to another across time and space (Bowlby, 1969). Likewise, attachment theory is a psychological model that seeks to illustrate the dynamics of both long term and short- term interpersonal relationships (Waters, E.; Corcoran, D.; Anafarta, M. 2005). Additionally, attachment theory address how people respond within relationships when hurt, separated from loved ones, or when they perceive a threat (Waters et al., 2005). Attachment theory is the combined work of John Bowlby and Mary Ainsworth (Bretherton, I. 1992, p. 1). The theory predominantly draws on the ideas from doctrines such as, ethology, cybernetics, information processing and developmental psychology (Bretherton, I. 1992, p. 1). It is considered that attachment theory has revolutionized the way society thinks about the relationship between the mother and her child and the importance of
Kohuts would say we look for three “self-object,” mirroring, idealizing, and partnering (Brandell, 2010). These three self-objects are presented in the caregiver and the child picks them up. However, are they equal to attachment or underlying extension to how attachments are formed? Mirroring is when the child performs something great and the caregiver applauses them for it. Idealizing is when the child looks up to their caregiver. Partnering is the child and caregiver becoming friend like (Brandell, 2010). Building attachment with underlying extension of self-objects help with the relationships we have and our social development. The relationships we have with people as we grow up normally reflect the kind of attachment we have with our caregivers. A child’s first experience of attachment is the first time a mother holds her child after being born which would builds an instant attachment and bond between them that is unbreakable (Brandell, 2010).
The formation of secure attachments with the primary caregiver is thought to be of great significance by John Bowlby, who believed that the infant was completely reliant on the caregiver to care and provide for them (as cited in Psychology, Martin, Carlson & Buskist). Those children with sensitive caregivers would grow up to be more confident and developed in all aspects of life, for example forming relationships in later life. Those with unresponsive caregivers would see the world as unpredictable and unreliable. Nelson (1996) claimed that the bond between the primary caregiver and child is extremely important in how an infant sees the world around them (as cited in Attachment from infancy to childhood). Yet, attachments, in this case insecure ones, are not the only reason as to why we develop into the individuals we are. There are other causes that are unrelated to attachment that explain our later development.
This foundation theory developed by John Bowlby, focuses on the form, quality, and strength of human attachments made in early life and their effect on development and pro-social behaviors (Tuner, 2011, p. 30). Bowlby’s attachment theory diverged from Freudian theory in many important ways, none more so than his emphasis on the importance of actual experience to human development. In Bowlby’s view, the quality of interactions between infant and caregiver(s), beginning at birth, motivated specifically by the child’s needs for safety and protection, are central to lifespan development (Turner, 2011, p. 31). Bowlby’s main interest was the formation, beginning in infancy, of the behaviors that collectively compose the attachment behavioral system.
Attachment theory is accepted by most psychologists and psychiatrists as the best explanation for how we develop the capacity to form relationships with others and relate to our environment. It asserts that the methods we use to relate to others, manage our needs, express our demands, and shape our expectations for the world are rooted in our relationships with our early caregivers. Through these interactions we learn to balance our feelings and need states with others and to establish our varying degrees of independence, dependence, power, and control. Attachment also impacts self-esteem through the experience of conflict with caregivers.
Bowlby states that affectionate bonding between caregivers and infants is crucial for a health development (1973). Based on the attachment patterns they had at early childhood with primary caregivers, children develop internal working models about self and about others. These internal working models which they form help them interpret and predict experiences in adult relationships.
Early attachments of children to their caregivers are a widely studied subject among psychologists. Childhood attachment theories draw their theses and components from cognitive, behavioral, and psychoanalytic branches of psychology; in the form that attachments deals with what a child is thinking, doing, and the analyses of these attachments in later life (Weiten, 2005). "Attachment refers to the close, emotional bonds of affection that develop between infants and their caregivers." (Weiten, 2005) The age that attachments start forming is usually between 6 to 9 months, depending on the child; prior to this, a child can be handed off to babysitters with little protest, but after attachments begin forming children may develop separation anxiety (Weiten, 2005, Wicks-Nelson & Israel, 2009).
Attachment is an integral part of the human condition, through it bonds are created between child and caregiver and these bond help contribute to a developing person’s sense of self and the world around them. These feeling of connection carry over from parent, to child, to later life from the person to their partner and then their own children. Attachment theory grew out of the understanding that young children in their early fragile stages of development require protection and security to increase their chance of survival, protection is present in the form of the parents from whom physical and a psychological sense of security comes. The infant sees their parents as a protector and a secure base through which they can always turn to in moments of stress when experiencing the world (Browne & Shlosberg, 2006).
John Bowlby (1969) used the word “attachment” to explain the deep-rooted bonds that develop between children and their primary caregivers. Mother–infant attachment refers primarily to the lasting bonds between an infant and his or her mother (Bowlby, 1969). During this process an infant selectively seeks his or her mother when anxious in an effort to create a “secure base” while achieving comfort and feelings of safety.
The attachment theory of Bowlby (1980) helps to explain human bonding, conceptualize attachment, and proximity seeking. According to Lee and Hankin (2009) comfort received from caregiver reassure a child that at the time of distress caregiver will be with them. Furthermore, Lee and Hankin (2009) explains that the attachment within infant-caregiver is regarded as a basis for future relation dynamics of a child. Child, who is having anxious attachment are having difficulty to take caregiver as a secure person and they are characterized as anxious person (Lee & Hankin, 2009). Hamilton (2000) explained about a 12-year longitudinal study that found infant attachment style helps to predict attachment style in adolescence. In addition, a meta-analysis
In life, people are given obstacles so that they have the chance to overcome them and as a result learn more about themselves. The movie, “Front of the class”, is about a boy named Brad Cohen with tourette syndrome. Tourette syndrome (TS) is a neurological disorder characterized by repetitive, stereotyped, involuntary movements and vocalizations called tics. Inspired by his principal who told him that he is capable of being successful in life, Braid decided to become a teacher so that he could educate children about his syndrome, or what he called “ a constant companion” as well as educate the children about other disorders out there and teaching them how to accept it in society.