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through directing comment on the character, person’s thoughts, his conversation or through the medium of another person.
Fifth, Conversation of others, the author gives clues through the conversations of other people and the things they say about him. Sixth, Reactions,
the author gives clues through how the person reacts to various situations and events. Seventh, Direct comment, the author directly gives comment on a person’s
character. Eighth, Thoughts, the author gives the reader of what a person is thinking about. Ninth, Mannerisms, the author describes a person’s mannerisms,
habits or idiosyncrasies which tell the reader about the character.
2. Critical Approach
Critical approach in literature is used to understand its nature, function, and positive values Rohrberger and Woods 3. They propose five kinds of
approach, namely Formalist, Biographical, Sociocultural-Historical, Mythopoetic, and Psychological approaches. Formalist Approach focuses on a literary work as
its integrity. Biographical Approach deals with the author’s life to understand his works. The readers study the author’s life and its development to explore or
understand deeply about his writings and give appreciation to the author. Sociocultural-Historical Approach believes that literature is not created in
a vacuum, but the ideas are built of the culture. There are two factors presented in this approach. First, historical facts in the literary works become the value to the
historian, not the author. Second, the literary work has historical significance, not literary significance.
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Mythopoeic Approach discovers certain universally recurrent patterns of human thought, which are ancient myths and folk rites, which they believe find
some expression in significant works of art. Psychological Approach involves certain recurrent pattern of human thought which draws on a different body of
knowledge. It uses psychological criticism, such as human motivation, human personality, and human development. This approach believes that human
personality develops from infancy through childhood until adolescence.
3. Child Abuse
The precious time of childhood is one should be nurtured by adults Pritchard 1. Many adults, even parents, do not really take care of children as
how it should. Children are abused physically and emotionally. The best evidence in Britain today is that 7 of children have in the recent past been subject to
severe physical abuse, 6 have been physically neglected, 6 have been emotionally abused, and 8 have been victims of contact sexual abuse Pritchard
1. There are two types of abuse, namely physical abuse and emotional abuse.
a. Physical Abuse
Pritchard proposes physical abuse as severe bruising and fractures caused by blows, head injuries, shaking, eye damage, suffocation, poisoning, marks by
sticks, whips and cords, marks of burning, biting and scalding 12. It is also described as any nonaccidental physical injury to the child, and also includes acts
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or circumstances that threaten the child with harm or create a substantial risk of
harm to the childs health or welfare Child Welfare Information Gateway.
Commonly, children who experience physical abuse will have the continuing punishment from the abusers. Moreover, children who learn that they
deserve frequent physical punishment develop poor self-esteem and make them more vulnerable to severe depression Pritchard 13. Pritchard and Butler say,
Ironically, as Straus and Gelles show, physically beaten children who act with rebellion and anger are often subject to further, more severe physical
punishment. At the extreme they enter a phase self-defeating behavior and attribution, in which apparently deviant children are subjected to further
punishment and rejection 2003.
Physically abused children will also have increased risk in later life of depressive symptoms, suicidal thoughts, alcohol abuse, physical abuse of children, and wife
beating. They also have significantly higher lifetime rates of anxiety, alcoholism, and aggression towards others Pritchard 13-14.
b. Emotional Abuse
There are five different aspects of ‘psychological battering’: rejecting, terrorizing, ignoring, isolating, and corrupting of a child Pritchard 14. O’Hagan
1993 in Pritchard’s The Child Abusers: Research and Controversy defines psychological abuse as:
The sustained, repetitive, inappropriate behavior which damages, or substantially reduces, the creative and developmental potential of crucially
important mental faculties and mental processes of a child; these include intelligence, memory, recognition, perception, attention, and moral
development 15. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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It can also include instability of parenting figures, their sudden departure and arrival of new parents or partners for a mother, as well as inconsistency in
parental disciplinary activity, kindness and indulgence for short periods, followed by periods of harshness, emotional and physical cruelty 15.
Emotional abuse is defined as a pattern of behavior that attacks a child’s emotional development and sense of self-worth. It also includes excessive,
aggressive, or unreasonable demands that place expectations on a child beyond his or her capacity http:www.childabuse.orgabout20child20abuse.html.
Emotional abuse also includes failure to provide the psychological nurturing necessary for a childs psychological growth and development -- providing no
love, support or guidance National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse.
When parents ignore their children, and devote little time to them, as they grow older, their poor adjustments frequently lead to mischief Hurlock 652.
Moreover, there are three forms of psychological damage to young children that poor family relationship can cause,
1 They affect children’s attitude towards people outside the home and the way
children treat them, 2
They lead to poor adjustments as children grow older. Feeling unloved and unwanted in the family may create inferiority,
3 Children can be unhappy. Such children often develop the habit of being
unhappy. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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Hurlock describes that parental rejection destroys the children self-esteem and creates feeling of helplessness and frustration, which can permanently disable
the child in adjustment to life 661. As children grow older, antisocial behavior such as aggression, cruelty, swearing, seeking attention, praise, and unnecessary
help, and showing off is common Hurlock 438. Parental rejection also has some constructive values. Rejected children
become independent and capable of amusing themselves and of developing social interests. They are alert, shrewd, cunning, creative, realistic, and in a hurry to
grow up and leave school. Socially, they are early matures Hurlock 661.
4. Motivation
Motivation is the concept that we use in describing the forces acting on or within an organism to initiate and direct behavior Petri 3. Beck adds,
“Motivation is broadly, concerned with the contemporary determinants of choice direction, persistence, and vigor of goal-directed behavior” 24. When there are
two behaviors that are equally possible, one should be chosen and organism persists in this behavior with more or less vigor until the goals are achieved Beck
24. When someone has motivation, he is going to be able to have achievement behind his motivation. Murray in Beck’s Motivation Theories and Principles
defines need for achievement as a desire or tendency to overcome obstacles, to exercise power, to strive to do something difficult as well as quickly possible
Beck 317. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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In order to accomplish need of achievement, human generally has conflict. Human behavior involves conflict because there are always choices Beck 256.
Beck states, “Conflicts may often be aversive because they involve frustration; a goal cannot be achieved because of the conflict” 256.
Theory of the relation between conflict and motivation is suggested by Miller in Beck’s Motivation Theories and Principles 256-257. There are six
assumptions of conflict. First, approach gradient means the closer an organism is to a positive goal, the stronger the motivation to approach that goal. Second,
avoidance gradient means the closer an organism is to an aversive goal, the
stronger the motivation to escape or avoid that goal. Third, steeper means the avoidance gradient drops off more rapidly as the organism is further from the
goal. Fourth, the levels of either approach or avoidance gradients can be raised
or lowered by appropriate manipulations of approach and avoidance motivation e.g. changes in degree of hunger or level of fearfulness. Fifth, below the
asymptote of learning, an increase in the number of reinforced trials will increase the strength of the response tendency that is reinforced either approach or
avoidance. Sixth, when two incompatible responses are in conflict, the one with the stronger motivation approach or avoidance will occur.
Punishment also becomes a reason in motivating human to accomplish needs of achievement. Punishment may be defined as a delivery of a stimulus that
suppresses behavior preceding it, whether or not the stimulus is shown to be PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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aversive Beck 217. There are some rules for punishment as suggested by Azrin Holz in Beck’s Motivation Theories and Principles 229 as follows,
a. No “unauthorized” escape from the punishing stimulus should be permitted,
b. The undesirable behavior should be consistently punished,
c. Punishment should be delivered as quick as possible after the undesired
behavior occurs, d.
Extended period of punishment should be avoided, e.
The punishing stimulus should not be associated with a rewarding one, f.
The motivation to make the punished response should be reduced as much as possible,
g. There should be no positive reinforcement of the punished response,
h. An alternative to the punished response should be made available.
However, there are some potential problems in the use of punishment as proposed by Beck 230-231. First, the method of punishment is not really
punishing to the particular individual in the particular situation. Beck says, “Punishment is supposed to reduce the frequency of some undesirable behavior”
230. Second, when a teacher or parent gives punishment in class or at home, he can control the children. Whereas, outside class or home he cannot control them.
Third, punishment can produce excessive emotionally or escape behavior. Beck says, “Carefully controlled response contingent punishment is both more effective
and less disturbing than stimulus contingent punishment” 230. Fourth, emotional outbursts following punishment may be so generally disruptive that the
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punishment is self defeating; the effect can be worse than the behavior that prompted the punishment.
In the theory of Motivation, Franken says that frustration may create aggression because,
