Honey Boo Boo–Are We Witnessing the Making of an ‘Almost Psychopath’?
October 22, 2012 § Leave a Comment
Child TV Star
Two things reached ludicrous speed for me the past week or so, the precocious behavior of an exploited reality TV show child named Honey Boo Boo who is gaining wide exposure on talk shows across the nation and the ‘almost psychopath’ term coined by two Harvard researchers. What do they have in common with each other? They both gall me, gag me, and disgust me. Why, because they involve the fostering, rewarding, or excusing of bad behavior.
Simple as that.
On a deeper level, both situations highlight the role of environment and experience in the making or development of a person. Because early-developed behaviors tend to persist across the lifetime, shouldn’t we take more care with our children? Although they are not set in stone, it requires a lot of hard work in adulthood to change detrimental thinking patterns, beliefs, and behaviors developed in early childhood.
If you follow Honey Boo Boo’s hyperlink you will see a clip on Hulu of her recent interviews. Notice how shocked adults are at her behavior, notice how her mother just laughs along, and count how many times you hear the words “exploited” and then how the mother rationalizes what she is doing because she is giving $$ to charity. At that point, look at her child’s body language–she is in a complete harrumph with arms crossed and a frown on her face. Lastly, one commentator admits that TV often exploits children and has no intention of stopping that practice. Why? Because its lucrative. Millions of people are tuning into HBB’s show.
Now, about the making of an ‘almost psychopath’. What is the origin of adult behaviors associated with an ‘almost psychopath’? Can the claim hold up that grandiosity, exaggerated self-worth, pathological lying, manipulation, lack of remorse, shallowness, and exploitation for financial gain are purely genetic? In my opinion, they cannot because that would fly in the face of the sea of early-developmental research that strongly suggests otherwise. Brain and mind development are experience-driven. The mind also forms within a social context, in relationship with another person. At what point do we take personal responsibility for the raising of our children and the readjustment of our thinking and behavior?
I welcome your comments on this topic!
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References:
Perry, B. D., Pollard, R. A., Blakley, T. L., & Vigilante, D. (1995). Childhood trauma, the neurobiology of adaptation and “use-dependent development of the brain”: How “states” become “traits”. Infant Mental Health Journal, 16, 271-291.
Siegel, D. J. (1999). The developing mind: How relationships and the brain interact to shape who we are. New York: The Guildford Press.
The Social Engagement System
January 30, 2012 § 27 Comments
With all the buzz about social networking, it crossed my mind that you might like to know more about the biological system that supports social interaction. A deeper understanding of the neurophysiology of our life-long drive to connect with others gives us insight into our behavior in relationship to another and can even help us manage our stress response to positively impact our health and well-being.
I was first introduced to Stephen Porges’ concept of the social engagement system (SES) while in graduate school, studying John Bowlby’s theory of attachment (how infants are hardwired for connection). Porges discussed what every mother or primary caregiver already knows, that infants are driven to engage and communicate from birth onward. This primal drive is controlled by Cranial Nerve X, known as the vagus. The vagal nerve is special because it has two nuclei, the ventral vagal complex and the dorsal motor nucleus. Here are the functions assigned to each nuclei that make social engagement possible:
Ventral Vagal Complex Dorsal Motor Nucleus
Orienting (turning head) Focusing on something new
Facial expression Inhibits digestion
Vocalizing Oxygen conservation
Supports digestion Slowed heart beat
Paces the heart Freeze response
Are you surprised to learn how many functions and behaviors are mobilized during social engagement? I was amazed! Now, let’s briefly illustrate this by reflecting on a typical infant-mother interaction because what happens in this first social relationship is thought to influence a child’s socioemotional development and capacity for smooth interaction with others later in life.
Social Engagement
The baby signals its needs and emotional state to mom using sound and facial expressions such as crying, grimacing, vocalizing, smiling, and wide-eyed expressions to initiate engagement. An attuned mother often anticipates the needs of her infant and responds in a contingent manner, matching the baby’s facial expression and sounds. Mother is actually regulating her baby’s undeveloped nervous system, soothing the infant, and restoring or reinforcing a positive emotional state. As the baby’s needs are met, it begins to relax and baby and mother may re-engage playfully. This brief interaction is the dance of engagement. In the next post we will explore Porges’ assertion that there are only three possible neurologically-driven behavioral responses available to us in any given social situation.
Questions to ponder: What have you become aware of as you engage with others socially? Do you pick up cues like vocal tone, facial expression, or even body stance? Do you sometimes find yourself matching the other person’s emotional or mental state?
Please feel free to share your comments on this topic.
Childhood Experience and Parenting Strategies
January 9, 2012 § 27 Comments
I’ve never met a parent who didn’t want the best for their children. I’m not referring to wealth or material acquisitions. I’m talking about the instilling of qualities that underlie the development of positive social behaviors from infancy on, such as an adaptable personality, the ability to formulate flexible strategies, and the capacity for resilience. In other words, you want to see your child grow up to be a happy, well-adjusted adult. How does someone begin to develop parenting strategies?
I suggest that if you are contemplating raising a family, that you begin by reflecting upon
Connection
your own childhood experience since it is often predictive of how you will parent your children. “Wait a minute,” you might say, “I would never do such and such to my children,” (referring to distasteful childhood experiences). True, most of us make conscious decisions not to repeat our parent’s hurtful behaviors, yet the truth is, we are the product of our experience. To illustrate, please consider the following questions which are put to you now, as an adult, but know that your answers may be rooted in your early life experience:
1. Is it easy for you to connect to others in a meaningful way?
2. Are you comfortable in social situations or would you prefer to be alone?
3. Do you welcome new experiences or do you tend to stick to familiar situations?
4. Is your response to a stressful challenge organized, chaotic, or numbing?
Researchers in the field of early childhood development have linked behaviors associated with the above questions to experience-dependent patterns of brain organization which offer clues to an individual’s capacity for adaptability, the development of effective strategies, and resilience. Parenting is one of the most important and challenging tasks that an individual can take on. While you can never be completely prepared, the more you understand your own childhood developmental history, the more present you can be as a parent.
If you are a parent, did you find yourself struggling to give your child a different kind of parenting experience then you had received?
Early Childhood Experience and Long-Term Health
January 4, 2012 § 2 Comments
This topic is rather personal for me and has been my chosen topic of research for many years. In some ways, it has been a search for meaning. Having been raised in a very scary environment fraught with intermittent bouts of rage, alcohol, and domestic violence, my sense of safety and security were fleeting at best. I really get it, why my father was so abusive and tormented or why my mother was unable to formulate a plan to protect us. I’ve come to understand that part of my experience as a piece of a puzzle in the all too common multi-generational transmission of interpersonal trauma. What I have struggled with is understanding my enduring response to adverse childhood experience and how it has impacted my sense of self, my beliefs, and my general health and well-being.
Last century, fundamental advances were made in medicine, both in studying the disease process and in developing methods and treatments to overcome disease which have led to the present model of the adult onset of disease and chronic illness. In this model, once you hit 50, all kinds of things start to go wrong in the body.
Adult Onset of Disease Model
As a health care practitioner, I find this perspective somewhat limiting since more recent research is now exploring the link between adult health status and early childhood experience. In fact, in 1999, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) invited scientists and researchers specializing in early childhood experience to form the Early Experience, Stress Neurobiology & Prevention Science network. Their task has been to correlate data from animal studies of early life experience with data from human psychosocial research in the study of emotional and stress-related disorders. Their findings suggest that the effects of early life stress are cumulative and far-reaching, giving us insight into the role of early life experience in long-term health. This series will explore this fascinating and relevant topic in more detail so stay tuned!
Have your ever thought of stress as cumulative? Do you think that early childhood experience, positive or negative, can impact adult health?
