The effects of abuse on Jerry Houseman`s personality development as a pedophile and on Robbie Young`s as his sexual abuse victim in Scott Campbell`s touched - USD Repository
THE EFFECTS OF ABUSES ON JERRY HOUSEMAN’S PERSONALITY
DEVELOPMENT AS A PEDOPHILE AND ON ROBBIE YOUNG’S AS
HIS SEXUAL ABUSE VICTIM IN SCOTT CAMPBELL’S TOUCHED
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
DEWI KURNIAWATI
Student Number : 034214106
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
"PERSONALITY IS ONLY RIPE WHEN A MAN HAS MADE THE TRUTH HIS OWN" (SOREN KIERKEGAARD)
This Undergraduate Thesis is dedicated to My Beloved father and mother My Brother and Sister My dearest Ign.Trisetya Wibisana
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank Allah S.W.T for the guidance and mercy that I always feel in every single moment of my life. The worthiest thing in my life is having you who always hold me tight and rise me up from the desperation.
My deepest thanks and gratitude are dedicated to my beloved parents, who always believe in me and support me through their hopes and prayers. My special thanks is for my grandfather and grandmother who never forget to call my name in their prayers. It is also dedicated to my beloved brother Fajar and my sister Lusi who always give me ways to see the world wisely and support me to encourage my dreams, without you I can not see how precious life is. Dear my little cute Najma I love you.
My grateful thanks are for my wonderful sponsor, Ms. Dra. Theresia Enny Anggraini, M.A and my co-sponsor Ms. Modesta Luluk Artika Windrasti,S.S, for their patience and understanding. Thank you for guiding me to finish this thesis until it is completed. Without their assistance this thesis would never be better.
I would also like to express my special thanks to other lecturers who have helped me in learning and understanding English in my whole semesters in this university. My deepest gratitude is also to Mr. Heri and Miss Eta who help me understand more about personality.
Sincerely appreciation is extended to dek Ani and Ari, the twin…twinkle twinkle little stars who always give me the best friendship, Mbak Naina who gives me new spirit to be happier and younger. Thank you for lighting my soul whenever I give up.
Special thanks to Afrill who gives me big contribution to make this thesis better, to Yuni and Nina who have accompanied me from the first semester, Mr. Syarifudin, mas Adi, Agatha, Nunuk, Najih, Ketut, ex-GK 1A (mbak Desi Cucum, mbak Vika, Mbak Desi Ratna, Didie, Rosa), mbak Niken, Sastra Mungil, Noah team, Konco Rinonce and all students of English Letters 2003 thanks for the friendship, love and togetherness.
Dewi Kurniawati
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE7. Review on three Kinds of Abuse and Neglect………………...19
1. Robbie Young’s Personality before He is Molested ……43
B. Robbie Young’s Personality Development ……………………42
2. Houseman’s Personality after He Becomes a Pedophile ……34
1. Houseman’s Personality before He Becomes a Pedophile ……28
CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY ……………………………………23
A. Object of the Study ……………………………………………23 B. Approach of the Study ……………………………………………24 C. Method of the Study ……………………………………………25CHAPTER IV : ANALYSIS ……………………………………………27
A. Jerry Houseman’s Personality Development ……………………27C. Theoretical Framework ……………………………………………20
8. Review on Bisexual …………………………………………20
6. Review on Personality Disorder ……………………………17
…………………………………………………………....i
5. Review on Correlational Studies ……………………………16
4. Review on the consequences of childhood Sexual Abuse ……14
3. Review on Pedophilia ........................................................13
2. Theory of Personality ……………………………………9
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ……………………8
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………1
A. Background of the Study ……………………………………………1 B. Problem Formulation ……………………………………………4 C. Objective of the Study ……………………………………………5 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………6CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW ……………………………7
A. Review of Related Studies ……………………………………………7 B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………8
APPROVAL PAGE ……………………………………………………………ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ……………………………………………………iii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN ……………………………………………………iv
MOTTO PAGE ............................................................................................v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ……………………………………………………vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS ………………………………………………… viii
ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………………… x
ABSTRAK …………………………………………………………………….xi
2. Robbie Young’s personality after He is Molested ……………47
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION ……………………………………………69 BIBLIOGRAPHY
……………………………………………………………73
APPENDIX ……………………………………………………………………75
ABSTRACT
DEWI KURNIAWATI. The Effects of Abuses on Jerry Houseman’s
Personality Development as a Pedophile and on Robbie Young’s as his Sexual
Abuse Victim in Scott Campbell’s Touched. Yogyakarta: English Letters,
Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.
The thesis is meant to prove that past experiences have a big contribution in forming someone’s personality development. Based on Jerry Houseman’s and Robbie Young’s personality development in Touched, the writer tries to show the effects of physical and emotional abuses on Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and the effect of sexual and emotional abuses on Robbie Young’s as his sexual abuse victim. Based on their development the writer also discusses their sexual behaviors that are formed by the past experiences they have in their childhood. It shows how one variable can affect other variables in our lives.
There are three problems that will be discussed in this thesis. First is Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile, second is about Robbie Young’s personality development as his sexual abuse victim and the last is about what pattern can be depicted from their personality development.
In answering those problems, the theories of character and characterization, theory of personality, review on pedophilia, review on the consequences of childhood sexual abuse, review on correlational studies and review on bisexual are used. The approach that is applied in this thesis is psychological approach since this approach give more details about human‘s mind and behavior, it helps the writer to analyze human’s personality.
The characters discussed in this thesis show that human’s personality always changes as the result of the environment and the experiences that they have in their lives. Jerry Houseman as a pedophile and Robbie Young as his sexual abuse victim show personality development as the defensive mechanism in facing some problems in their lives. It can be seen from their personality changing from their childhood into adulthood. Their personality development also show co- relational pattern namely cause and effect relationship. Both characters’ personalities show the reflection of their childhood experiences. Based on the analysis, hopefully people will understand their own personality. This thesis also tries to explain that one thing in human’s life influences another and has a causality pattern.
ABSTRAK
DEWI KURNIAWATI. The Effects of Abuses on Jerry Houseman’s
Personality Development as a Pedophile and on Robbie Young’s as his Sexual
Abuse Victim in Scott Campbell’s Touched. Yogyakarta: Program Study Sastra
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.
Tujuan dari skripsi ini adalah untuk membuktikan bahwa kepribadian seseorang mengalami perubahan sebagai akibat dari pengalaman masa lalu yang mereka alami. Berdasarkan perkembangan kepribadian Jerry Houseman dan Robbie Young dalam novel Touched, penulis mencoba untuk menunjukkan akibat dari pelecehan fisik dan emosinal dalam perkembangan kepribadian Jerry Houseman sebagai pedofilia dan akibat dari pelecehan seksual dan emosional dalam perkembangan kepribadian Robbie Young sebagai korbannya. Berdasarkan perkembangan kepribadian yang mereka tunjukkan, penulis juga membahas kehidupan seksual yang terbentuk berdasarkan pengalaman masa lalu mereka dimasa kanak-kanak. Hal tersebut menunjukan bahwa satu factor dalam hidup kita dapat mempengaruhi factor yang lain.
Ada tiga permasalahan yang dibahas dalam skripsi ini yaitu, pertama mengenai perkembangan kepribadian Jerry Houseman sebagai pedofilia, kedua mengenai perkembangan kepribadian Robbie Young sebagai korban pelecehan seksual dan ketiga pola hubungan apakah yang terbentuk dalam perkembangan kepribadian mereka.
Teori mengenai tokoh dan penokohan, teori psikologi, ulasan tentang pedofilia, ulasan tentang akibat dari pelecehan seksual, ulasan tentang pola hubungan perkembangan kepribadian dan ulasan tentang biseksual digunakan untuk menjawab ketiga pokok permasalahan diatas. Skripsi ini menggunakan pendekatan psikologi karena pendekatan ini memberikan penjelasan lebih tentang pemikiran dan tingkah laku manusia sehingga diharapkan mampu memberikan kemudahan dalam mendalami dan membahas kepribadian seseorang.
Berdasar perkembangan kepribadian kedua tokoh diatas terlihat bahwa kepribadian seseorang selalu berubah dipengaruhi lingkungan dan pengalaman hidup mereka. Jerry Houseman dan Robbie Young mengalami perkembangan kepribadian sebagai mekanisme pertahanan atas masalah yang muncul dalam hidup mereka. Hal tersebut terlihat dalam perkembangan kepribadian mereka dari masa kanak-kanak hingga dewasa. Perkembangan kepribadiaan mereka menunjukkan adanya pola hubungan sebab akibat. Kepribadian kedua tokoh tersebut menunjukkan refleksi kehidupan mereka di masa kanak-kanak. Berdasarkan analisis tersebut diharapkan pembaca mampu mengenal kepribadian mereka sendiri. Skripsi ini memcoba menjelaskan bahwa dalam kehidupan manusia tiap factor saling berhubungan dan mempengaruhi dalam hubungan kausalitas.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Human is a unique creature that has been created with both mind and soul. Those things are the significant characteristics of human being that differentiate
them from animals, which only have instinct. Although in some cases, biologically human is assumed as animal when they have sexual attractiveness toward other, which is called as sexual instinct or libido, but the sexual concept in human and animal are different. Furthermore, human can find that specific characteristic in psychology.
Human life is closely related to psychology since psychology lies midway between biological and social sciences where particular parts of human being are usually discussed. Human as mono dualistic creature has two aspects in their life, namely individual and social aspects. The individual aspects of human life consist of physical changes and personality development; furthermore, human development itself is influenced by two factors. The first factor is human’s early experiences within the family and the second factor is the importance of environment, or society, on the other hand social aspect consists of culture, environment, or society. Culture explains human’s value, beliefs, customs, symbol and the way human being shares their lives and those essences are forming a good society and environment.
From that description, we can underline that both individual and social aspects are very important and significant in forming human’s attitude and behavior. By understanding those two aspects, we will be able to understand character and characterization both in fiction and reality deeper and clearer.
In studying human being, people should not always observe their life directly from reality but they can also do it based on literary works. Literary works imply human’s life in reality; it is a mirror of our life, a reflection of human life. E.M Forster said that actors in a story are pretended to be human being (1974:30). It means that literary works are the imitation of human life. Deep inside the literary works exist something that should be realized.
Literary works as reflection of reality with its complexity can also be seen in Scott Campbell’s first novel entitled Touched. This novel is very interesting since the author provides a story with complex conflict based on the psychological experience undergone by Jerry Houseman as a pedophile and Robbie Young as his sexual abuse victim.
This novel is about Houseman molestation to Young, in which the molestation finally comes out to public and influences their personality development. Houseman must deal with his own problematic feeling concerning his consciousness as a pedophile, his family and society, while Young must cover his anxiety and face his future with unsure step since he always feels that everything he does is under other people’s observation because everyone knows him as a sexual abuse victim.
In analyzing this novel, the writer focuses on the effect of physical, sexual and emotional abuses on Houseman’s and Young’s personality development. Both of them have the same problematic cases in their childhood that finally influence their personality development. Houseman experienced physical and emotional abuse that finally drove him into a pedophile, while Young experienced sexual abuse in his pubertal era, in which that embarrassing experience finally took rule in his personality development. In this study the writer wants to draw a line to give more description for the readers about the importance of childhood experience to human’s future and this idea will be explained further by using co relational theory of personality development, in which this theory shows cause and effect relationship that lies in human being.
That topic is very interesting to be discussed since it shows the psychological aspect in human life, which is represented by both Houseman as a pedophile and Young as his victim. From psychological point of view, we can see that someone’s personality development is influenced by both his environment and past experiences.
In this study, the writer also tries to see how human being as represented by the characters in the story behaves and faces problems that occur in their lives.
By reading this novel, readers will get involved in Jerry Houseman’s and Robbie Young’s problems and their amusing experiences when the molestation comes to the public, which totally changes their life and future.
The other reason in choosing that topic is that sexual abnormality is an interesting topic to discuss. Many people have this kind of abnormality but sometimes they do not realize it because its symptoms are very soft to be detected and from this novel, the reader can learn how Houseman and Young deal with it, with their conscious and unconscious feeling.
By seeing on the effect of physical, sexual and emotional abuses in Jerry Houseman’s and Robbie Young’s personality development we can see that personality traits which are observed in adulthood are formed by the cumulative effects of early childhood experiences. This understanding will give us more description about human in their psychological maturity and indirectly it will bring us into deep understanding of our own psychological development as a human being.
B. Problem Formulation From the explanation above, the writer formulates the following problems.
1. How is Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile described?
2. How is Robbie Young’s personality development as Houseman’s sexual abuse victim described?
3. What pattern can be depicted from their personality development?
C. Object of the Study
This undergraduate thesis will analyze Scott Campbell’s first novel entitled Touched about a young boy who was molested by his neighbor. The analysis is aimed at discovering the effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuses in Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s personality development as his sexual abuse victim.
The writer also tries to show whether everything in our behavior is moved by our motivation especially the needs of being loved and secured. Moreover in some cases thought and unconscious mind give dominant influence especially in forming sexual behavior. This analysis also tries to show the similar pattern that both the molester and the victim share in their personality development by seeing their past experiences to answer all things that happen in the present.
Since the questions above are formulated into three parts, the discussion will be divided into three parts also. In the first part, the writer will explain Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile, how he grows into a pedophile and how his personality develops after his molestation to Robbie Young.
In the second part, the writer will explain how Robbie Young’s personality is described from his childhood into his adulthood. Finally in the third part, the writer tries to show their personality development pattern and see whether they have similar pattern in general or not.
D. Definition of Terms
There are several terms that will be explained to give reader better understanding of what will be analyzed in this study.
1. Personality
Personality may be defined as the underlying within the person of individual behavior and experience (Cloninger, 2004:3).
2. Sexual Abnormality
Abnormal means “away from the normal”; it implies derivation from some clearly defined norm. On a psychological level, however, we have neither “ideal model” of man to use as a base of comparison, nor are we entirely clear as to just what behavior is or is not normal (Davison, 1996:14).
While sexual abnormality is defined as a sexual dysfunction, which is defined as inhibitions of the normal sexual response cycle (Davison, 1996: 365).
3. Pedophilia
The pedophile is sometimes called the child molester, prefers sexual activity with prepubescent children and acts out his preference repeatedly. The child molester may just undress the child and look, expose himself, masturbate in front of the child or gently touching and fondle the child. Some go further and have oral, anal or vaginal sex with the child, sometimes using force (Seligman, 2001: 533)
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies Scott Campbell in his novel Touched tries to bring a big issue how parents and the justice system deal with a boy touched by a neighborhood child molester. In this novel, Campbell shows his competent as a writer by performing different
perspective among layers he creates in his story. Based on Thomas L. Klipatrick from Southern Illinois University Library which is stated in http://search.Barnesandnoble.com/ Bookseacrh/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=053378228#rev, Campbell is a smart writer who treats his subject creatively by developing an emotional topic about an abusive relationship in a logic way with unambiguous description. Campbell provides the story in four perspectives; first perspective is told by Linda (Robbie Young’s mother), second is by Jeanette (Houseman’s wife), third is by Houseman and finally is by Robbie Young who is molested by Houseman. The four perspectives are connected each other in a coherent description that help readers to understand the story.
From his statement we can see that Campbell has power to create a good book and his novel Touched proves his capability to create a new book with child abuse as its topic and packs it neatly as a melodrama using logical ways so we will not find it as a cheap melodrama but we will find it as more artistic, valuable
8 Another comment comes from Christian M. Loys, an author and poet. He said in http://search.Barnesandnoble.com/Bookseacrh/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&isbn =053378228#rev that Scott Campbell is a good writer who successfully delivers a novel about life, people, and love. Campbell provides a story about the complexity of love and affair in two families which are closely related into reality. From that reason, the reader will be able to see the novel as a real action which happens around them so they will understand all characters and include in all actions.
If many criticisms focused on the way Scott Campbell creates the plot and the emotion in the story, the writer wants to show the detail of Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s as his sexual abuse victim in order to show the co relational pattern of their personality development by relating this study with psychological approach.
B. Review of Related Theories
To support this study, the writer presents some theories in order to answer the problems. The theories are theory of character and characterization, theory of personality, review on pedophile, review on the consequences of childhood abuse, review on bisexual, review on co relational theory, review on personality disorder and review on some kinds of abuse and neglect.
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Theory of character and characterization is very important for us to understand fiction as the imitation of reality. Character is the person in the novel while characterization is the way how the author produces the character. In his book, W.J. Harvey shows the importance of character to form the unity of literary work especially in fiction by emphasizing its contextual knowledge. He said that character is the prime reason for our enjoyment of fiction.
Otto in his book, Science and the Moral Life says that character is a human being’s specific identity, which is formed by his environment, and background and those things are very significant to form his/her character.
The method of characterization is the way the writer reveals the character
5 and it can be seen from his action, speech, thoughts, physical appearances and what other characters say or think of him. M.J. Murphy (1992: 161- 173) in
Understanding Unseen: an Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel
for Overseas Students states that there are nine ways in which the author presents
his character, which are, personality description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, direct comment, thought and mannerism.
a. Personal Description An author describes the characters through the detail of his/ her appearance.
Personal description helps the readers both visualize and understand the characters characterization.
We can understand and analyze a character’s nature through other character’s eyes and by giving comment on his/her nature. Other characters will give explanation about his/her character.
c. Speech An author gives the readers as insight into character in the work through what a person says. The character can give us clue to his own nature through his speaking and conversation with other people and opinion. It can be seen whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with other characters or whenever he puts forward an opinion, we clearly see his/ her character.
d. Past life An author gives readers a clue to event that helped to shape a person’s character and form the characters past life we can shape his nature since someone’s attitude can be influenced by their past life.
e. Conversation of others Author gives readers clue to a person’s character through conversation of other people and things they say about him.
f. Reaction Author gives readers clues to a person’s character by letting us know how a person reacts to various problems and events.
g. Direct Comment
Direct comment is applied to give straight description of the character to the readers.
h. Thought Author gives us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. i. Mannerism
We can understand a character through the way in which he behaves and talks when he is with other people.
2. Theory of Personality
The term personality can be defined as human’s character both inner and outer and it signs human’s consistency and stability behavior. Ruch in his book
Psychology and Life , says that there are no standard meanings of personality but
he emphasizes that all definitions of personality attempt in one way or another to include the whole person all the abilities, tendencies, and other innate or acquired characteristics that are more or less consistent from one day to the next and distinguish him from other people. (1967:111).
The theory of personality development is also explained further by Coleman in his book Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life, some people perhaps question why some people become homosexuals, heterosexuals, or alcoholics, etc. The answers to these questions will require a review on the influences of heredity and environment, on the role of the “ego” or “self”, emotion and of the essential of motivation.
Heredity is the characteristic of our genetic inheritance and the ways in which it influences personality development. At conception each new individual receives a genetic endowment from his parents, which provides for physical equipment, muscles, glands, sense organs, nerves and so on, essential for his development into adult human being. Thus heredity not only provides the potentialities for development but also determines how individual reacts to his/her environment and how it influences his/her development.
Related to the environment, forces in our environment are constantly shaping our psychobiological development. Our socio-culture environment influences our development even more dramatically through our contact with it. We learn language, we speak, the customs we follow, the values we believe in and the competencies are necessary for dealing with problem in life. Besides participating in a general socio culture environment, we are members of subgroups existing within it, such as family, sex, age, social class, occupation, and religions groups, since each individual belongs to a somewhat unique pattern of sub cultural environment in an individual way.
Self (ego), fundamental to the individual’s self-structure is the assumptions he develops about himself and the world. Below are the assumptions.
a. Reality assumptions -his view of things as he thinks they really are, of kind of person he is and the nature of the world he lives in.
b. Value assumptions- his view of the way things should be, of right and wrong, good and bad, desirable and undesirable. c. Possibility assumption -his concept of how things could be, of possibilities for change of opportunities for personal growth and social progress.
These three sets of assumptions provide individuals with a frame of reference, a consistent view of himself in relation to his environment, essential for guiding his behavior.
Beside those aspects, Clarke et al stated that emotion is also one of the aspects of personality because one’s personality is not only about what one does and think but also what one feels. One’s feeling and thoughts may provoke individual to behave or act in adaptive ways. When an individual behaves in a totally new way, new emotions may be formed and new attitudes may develop (1985: 293). Clare et al proposes that emotions can be aroused from social relationships when one interacts with his physical environment.
Floyd L. Ruch said that to observe psychological changes, we must pay attention to emotional response; emotion itself consists of two aspects. First emotion is as conscious experience and second emotion is as energizer.
Emotion as conscious experience means that to produce an emotion, a stimulus situation must perceive and evaluated as significant. This means that the present situation must be related to past experience and seen as having implications for the future. The presence of a dangerous situation for example, does not arouse fear or dread in us unless we perceive it as dangerous. Such evaluation may also involve cultural factors such as family, church, and political philosophy (1967: 415). Emotion as energizer means that emotion plays a vital part in our motivational pattern. A life without emotion would be virtually a life without motion. Emotions may serve to direct behavior either toward some desired object or condition (1967: 416). Considering all those explanations we will be able to identify the basic emotion of human being and in the following are some theories of human emotion that will support the analysis, first is guilt and second is embarrassment and shame.
Guilt encompasses feeling of having committed a sin, done something evil, subjected someone to an injustice, and of being generally in the wrong and deserving punishment (Clare et al, 1985: 559).
Embarrassment and shame are similar in several ways. Both require the presence of others who realize that some kind of social mistake has been made.
Both involve the most acute and psychologically distressing end of the dimension of oneself as a social object. In both there is a loss of self-esteem, but the two emotions differ in many ways and the most important differences is that shame involves morality, that is , a moral lapse, but embarrassment involves more trivial social error (Buss, 1995: 284).
Duane P. Schultz reveals Karen Horney’s personality theory emphasizes the importance of safety need and basic fear in forming human’s personality.
Horney thought childhood was dominated by the safety need, by which she meant the need for security and freedom from fear (Horney, 1973). Whether the infant experiences a feeling of security and an absence of fear is decisive in determining the normality of its personality development. A child’s security depends entirely on how the child is treated by the parents (1998:142).
Basic anxiety is also the foundation of neurosis while neurosis itself is a mental illness that causes depression or abnormal behavior which are effecting someone’s personality development. endangered, in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray” (Horney, 1937, p.92). In childhood we try to protect ourselves against basic anxiety in four ways; securing affection, such as trying to do whatever the other person wants, trying to bribe others, or threatening others into providing the desired affection (1998:142).
Susan E. Cloninger in his book Theory of Personality reveals the fundamental issues the psychologists usually use in studying personality. First is descriptive issue which illustrates individual differences, explains the traits that distinguish people in order to find them unique. Second is dynamic issue which concerns with the importance of our thought, unconsciousness, culture and society in shaping our personality and finally developmental issue which is about the importance of heredity and childhood and adulthood experiences to determine someone’s personality.
3. Review on Pedophilia Psychosexual disorder contains gender identity disorder and paraphilias.
The term paraphilias is used to identify a person who is suffering from unconventional sexual activities, for example, pedophilia. Pedophilia is described as a psychosexual disorder in which adult; especially men at least as far as a police records indicate derive sexual gratification through physical and sexual contact with pubertal children.
In term of pedophilia, there are three legal codes that specify at what age interaction between an adult and a young person is considered, child molestation (usually under age 12), statutory rape (generally 12 to 17) and a consenting sexual act (often 18 or older, but in some states may even be 21) (Robert et al, 1983: 602).
According to Neal and Davison in their book Abnormal Psychology pedophile, or child molester is content to stroke the child’s hair, but he may also manipulate the child’s genital, encourage the child to manipulate his, and less often attempt intermission. The molestation may be repeated over a period of week, month or years (1980:298).
Moreover they also explain that in this case, pedophiles generally know the children they molest, being a neighbor, or friend of the family. Usually older heterosexual pedophiles are or have been married at some time in their lives.
Robert Crooks and Karla Baur in their book Our Sexuality, said that child molestation is the most heinous of crime. Based on investigations most pedophiles are male, perhaps a teenager but often middle aged or older, who is shy, conservative, and frequently very moralistic or religious. The majority of these individuals are family friend, neighbor or acquaintances of the victim. They often have poor social and sexual relations with other adults and they may feel inadequate and inferior (1983:602).
Occasionally, pedophilia involves homosexual adult- child contacts, but the vast majority of such acts are heterosexual in nature, between an adult and female child (Rush, 1980) (Robert et al, 1983:603).
Most adults who are related sexually to a child do not inflict physical harm (Mc Cagny, 1971). The sexual interaction usually consists of touching and Sometimes the child touches the offender’s genitals. Vaginal intercourse or anal penetration is not very common. However, the potential for violent abuse is present, and evidence suggests that some child molesters may progress to more violent sexual offenses, such as rape (Abel, 1981) (Robert et al, 1983: 603).
4. Review on the Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Based on Ferrara’s book entitled Childhood Sexual Abuse Developmental
Effects Across the Lifespan , a child exposed to abuse may harbor many emotional
concerns arising from the abuse. Misperception about the experience, including those about self, the abuser, and the behavior or act that was forces upon the child, linger through out life and can be debilitating. In many instances, total recovery from the emotional trauma may not occur; rather, the victim develops coping skills to help him or her through the highly stressful recalled memories or ensuing flashback that may occur (2002: 74).
Generally sexual abuse victims will deal with emotion instability. Fears that are real, as well as unrealistic misperceptions formed about the abuse, about self and about the perpetrator, may jeopardize future development and emotional as well-being (2002: 75). Ferrara also explains further about emotional reactions that sexual abuse victims usually have. She says that short- and long- term emotional reactions from abuse impact every realm of a child’s life, including all of his or her relationships (Harris & Landis, 1997). Children experience a wide range of reactions during and following abuse. The emotional reactions vary in with residual issues from the abuse, such as recalled memories, flashbacks and other symptoms, in a self- sustaining manner, whereas other abuses experience severe, acute and chronic reactions, such as mental illness, resulting in debilitating depression, severe psychosis, or dissociative disorder (2002: 79).
Robert Crooks and Karla Baur in their book Our Sexuality explain further that child sexual abuse victim may be emotionally traumatized by sexual encounter with an adult; the effects are generally believed to be transitory. Frequently, the major damage in such cases seems to come from parental reaction to revelations or discovery of such activity. The child, when he/ she reports to parent, may merely be relaying a sense of discomfort over something he or she does not fully understand. It is when the parent understandably react with extreme agitation that the child is most likely to develop detrimental emotional reactions. The young person may have a sense of being implicated in what now appears, in light of parental reaction, to be something terrible. She or he may come to feel extremely guilty over having participated in such an event. Children may also feel guilty about such experiences even without parental displays of distress, because they sense the guilt of the person who molests them (1983: 603).
Davison and Neale in Abnormal Psychology also give some explanation about child abused victim’s reaction when he or she was molested. They say that the child tends not to interpret the interaction in the same sexual terms that adult do. Even if the molester has an orgasm, it is not always clear to the child what has happened (1980: 298). It means that in the time when the children were molested, any knowledge about adult sexual activities, therefore most of them sometimes didn’t see it as a great danger.
5. Review on Correlational Studies
Susan C. Cloninger in her review on co relational studies explains that many personality researches is co relational. Correlational research or study, which measures two or more variables to study how they are related, is vital to refining descriptions of personality. Sometimes two measures are studied for a single theoretical construct; in such case, these measures should be correlated. At other times, two different theoretical constructs are predicted to be correlated, because theoretical propositions describe one as causing the other (e.g. “frustration causes aggression”) (2004, 16).
In discussing correlation, we do not merely discuss causality as David G. Elmes emphasized in his book.
The existence of even a sizable correlation implies nothing about the existence of a causal relationship between the two variables under consideration. Correlation does not prove causation (2003: 107).
But basically both correlation and causality are connected to each other since two variables which are causally related will automatically show correlations.
Things that are closely causally related will show correlations that are commensurate with the strength of the relationship. A cause that is both necessary and sufficient for some outcome will be perfectly correlated with that outcome (Sternberg, 1988: 97)
The writer tries to detect contingency between variables which are reflected correlation and causality theories in order to explain their personality development’s pattern. In The Psychology of Human Thought we can see that both theories are interconnected and efficient to explain the relationship between present and past.
Being able to detect the relationship between some condition and outcome accurately is critical both to noticing that some condition (potential cause) is correlated with an outcome of interest and to evaluating whether some suspected cause is actually responsible for the outcome. Whether or not we already have an idea of what the cause is, we must analyze the correlation between the states or evens to infer a causal relationship. Most research on the way people perform his task has focused on the relatively simple situation in which the two events, that is, the possible cause and the outcome, are explicitly identified; in which each has only two possible states, present and absent; in which subjects are not likely to have any prior beliefs about the relationship between the possible cause and the outcome; and in which no other potentially causal variables are involved. The task of the subjects in these studies is simply to evaluate the degree of relationship between the causal variable and the outcome variables, given information about several situations. For each situation, subjects are told (or they observe for themselves) whether the cause is present or absent and whether the outcome is present or absent (Sternberg, 1988: 98).
6. Review on Personality Disorder
Personality Disorder appears when personality traits are inflexible and maladaptive, while personality traits itself is defined as pattern of perceiving and thinking about the environment and oneself. Personality disorders that will be discus in this thesis are schizoid and depression.
Based on Buss, schizoid is categorized as partial continuity. Schizoid may regarded as the extreme low end of the dimension of sociability. This disorder is partially continuous with unsociable personality disposition. People have no real friends and no motivation to develop friendships. They are entirely unresponsive to social reward and punishments, and in their dealings with others they seem cold and aloof.
While in the other hand, depression is categorized as mood disorders. Depressive clearly are extremely low in self-esteem and activity. Depression is also marked by an absence of positive affect. This term has been defined by a set of adjectives that has emerged from factor analyses of affectively toned terms: active, alert, attentive, determined, enthusiastic, excited, inspired, interested, proud, and strong. The other factor, called negative affect, is defined by these adjectives: afraid, ashamed, distressed, guilty, hostile, irritable, jittery, nervous, scared, and upset (Buss, 1995:359).
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth
Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, pg. 733), for research
purposes, describes Depressive Personality Disorder as a pervasive pattern of depressive cognitions and behaviors beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
a. Usual mood is dominated by dejection, gloominess, cheerlessness, joylessness, unhappiness b. Self-concept centers around beliefs of inadequacy, worthlessness, and low self-esteem c. Negativistic, critical, and judgmental toward others
d. Prone to feeling guilty or remorseful
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