Nature Vs. Nurture Argumentative Analysis

Genie is a thirteen year old girl who was saved from social isolation. She was born with Rh blood poisoning but was saved because of a blood transfusion. Genie’s father, Clark was told that she may have a chance of mental retardation because of the blood transfusion. Taking that into consideration, Clark was determined to protect his child. Therefore, he strapped her up into an infant potty chair keeping her away from the outside world.

Genie also looked as though she was only about six when in fact she was thirteen. After reading the article and watching the video, it left me very sad and a little confused if she was born with a mental or developmental delay. Not that what her parents did was right by any means, but I don’t think we will ever know. I do feel that attachment plays a big part in development, and wit out it there can be all kinds of bad outcomes. When it comes to language I do believe there is a critical age that they need to be exposed to it along with an emotional attachment. If we say Genie was born a normal healthy child without any mental delays, than it is proof in her case that not having the love, attachment, and nurturing home did affect her ability to learn to her full potential. At the children's hospital Genie's doctors were able to gather important information on her brain waves, the only problem with that is it looks the same as a child with a mental delay or mental illness. They found that she had an unusually high number

The old and popular debate between ‘nature vs. nurture’ has generated a lot of interest in newborns, who were previously thought to be ‘blank slates’, and has contributed a lot to developmental psychology, a field of psychology focusing on studying infants. It is now generally accepted that both nature and nurture make equal contribution to the infant’s development.

Genie: A Scientific Tragedy, by Russ Rymer follows the life and progress of a Young girl by the name of Genie. Genie was a young girl that grew up in complete isolation with virtually no human contact. Genies father had kept her locked in her room and had kept her tied to a potty chair because he had believed Genie to have some type of mental retardation, this isolation continued until Genie had reached the age of thirteen. In November of 1970 Genie was finally rescued from her home and taken to the Children’s Hospital In Los Angeles California.

After she was found Genie was treated like a research project rather than a child. She was still passed around from researcher to researcher meaning it was unlikely she developed strong bonds. Because of lack of findings, care from the researchers was pulled. This meant she went back to her unable mother.

Genie is a wild child who found in LA on 1970, she is a very extreme case of neglected the caretaking from adult. Her father believed she is retarder She spent her first thirteen years on tiding at the potty chair and still wearing diaper, she had never see, listen, being taught of anything in her life. For the past many years she had been isolation and lack of adult care make her the way she is right now.

Spending the majority of her time in confinement, she never learned how to vocalize or acquire any language. This would be one of the main components researchers would focus on. Living on only small amounts of food caused Genie to be underweight and malnourished. She did not look like a 13-year-old, but rather half her age. She walked like a bunny and had poor eyesight. She had very pale skin and often threw tantrums. The child barely showed any sign of affection or attachment towards individuals including her mother and brother. She was significantly different from most children her age. As individuals typically continue to mentally ameliorate throughout his or her life, it appeared as though Genie would not. She also had an abnormal brain wave patterns. Researchers would ponder the intricacies of Genie’s early childhood for these very reasons and debate on they should help

The Genie´s case is about a girlwho lived thirteen years of her life isolated from the world, without interacting with people, without having any contact with the outside. When they found her she still wore diapers and only emitted sounds like a baby, she didn't have the ability to walk or even to speak, also she hadn't developed

Doctors and researchers took advantage of and exploited Genie’s situation. At first the professionals were mesmerized by her situation and wanted to know more about her case. Doctors came from all over the country to exam Genie to make a name for themselves. She was used for research on cognitive development and speech development. But she was being over tested because the doctors and researchers wanted fast results. They tested her to the point that they stopped video recording the testings. They would visit her at all times. Genie was also abused by her foster parents and caretakers. One family that she lived with punished her for vomiting and Genie speech never recovered after that incident.

In psychology, it has long been debated whether nature or nurture influence human behaviours more extensively. This has captured the interest of many psychologists as determining an answer can improve society. For instance, if it is proven that nurture significantly impacts human development greater than nature, we can nurture children to abstain from violence and drugs, resulting in a decrease of crime in society. Nurture refers to the environmental factors and thus the experiences and upbringing of people were studied to see how it affected their development. For example, the Zimbardo Prison Study, Harlow’s Monkey Experiments, and Genie are all exceptional examples of how nurture affects cognitive development and behaviors. Conversely, nature refers to the genetic factors that affect human development. To support this argument that genetics play a more significant role in human behaviours and development, psychologists focused on studying siblings and children. More specifically, The Boy With No Penis, the Jim siblings, and Sandra Scarr’s observations were studied to further understand the heritability of certain behavioral traits and the undeterring quality of nature. By examining these experiments and studies, a possible answer can be reached.

The final child of the couple was Genie. At a doctor’s appointment in late 1958 when Genie was 20 months old the doctor diagnosed her with mild retardation. However, this claim has been debated. Nevertheless, Genie’s sadistic father kept her in extreme isolation locked away in an upstairs bedroom. The window was covered in aluminium foil and Genie was tightly restrained to a potty chair in near darkness every day. At night she slept in a tattered sleeping bag tied down in a cot that was enclosed with chicken wire. Although she would often be left on the potty chair overnight. She was malnourished and Clark forbid his son and wife to speak to Genie. If she was to make any sound she was beaten with a wooden plank, and was allegedly sexually abused also. Though no one will ever know exactly what

Stage 3: Initiative Versus Guilt Between three and five years of age with acquired new skills from stage 1 and stage 2 children have the capacity and are ready to learn .Now children have the capacity and ready to learn productive ways of dealing with people and things. They learn how to take initiative without being hurtful to others and also discover how the world works. They take challenges and master the new skills acquired. In this stage they forget quickly and move forward energytically. This gives them a sense of success. At this stage children need to develop sense of purpose, this happens when adults direct children’s urges toward acceptable social practices. If children are discouraged by criticism, feelings of incompetence are

Genie, the second case of wild child was found in a room tied to a potty chair. Genie was kept in a room locked away because her father thought she was retarded at birth until the age of 13, when she was rescued by a social worker. She was locked away from normal civilization and any type of socialization, and she was beaten for making noises. Genie was an infant trapped in a 13 year old body, because she could only make infant like sounds and no words or sentences. Genie's brain waves were adnormal, but doctors believed that she could learn. They began teaching and trying to develop her brain through forming relationships. Genie begin to speak and say words; but they were difficult to understand. Genie progress gave doctors hope that she

When Genie was first brought to the hospital for tests, she weighed only fifty-nine pounds. She was incontinent, could not chew solid food, could barely swallow, and could not focus her eyes beyond twelve feet. She salivated persistently and spat

* The girl was given the name Genie to protect her identity and privacy. "The case name is Genie. This is not the person's real name, but when we think about what a genie is, a genie is a creature that comes out of a bottle or whatever, but emerges into human society past childhood. We assume that it really isn't a creature that had a human childhood,” explained Susan Curtiss in a documentary called Secrets of the Wild Child (1997).