Adolescent Problem Behavior: Charles Mansons Case - Essay Example

? Insert Insert Your Case Study (Charles Manson) Your (PSYC 2078 41614 or 41615) (Mr. J. M. Hillis) Case Study Biography Charles Manson is an American musician come criminal who was born in November 1934 in California. He later built the Manson family which was later convicted for murders of Sharon Tate and Leno and Rosemary LaBianca. Although Charles did not participate directly he was charged for conspiring with the Manson family leading to the deaths in the joint responsibility rule. However, looking at Manson biography we find that Manson was a troubled young person right from early childhood. He was born of a 16-year-old mother who ran away from her home in Cincinnai (Emmons). Kathleen Maddox was not married by the time she was giving birth to Manson and was so irresponsible to the extent of not informing his son who his dad was. However, after the birth of his son, Kathleen Maddox was married to William Manson and that is where Charles Manson got his last name. Nevertheless, it is believed that Colonel Walker Scott is the real father to Charles Manson after Maddox filed a bastardy suit against him in 1937. The suit was successful and an agreement judgment met. Charles Manson got a chance to attend one of the prestigious schools in Washington D.C because his father was a colonel. He attended National Training School for Boys because his biological father Colonel Scot was African American. Colonel Scott is described to be a young drugstore cowboy and a transient laborer working within a nearby dam. On the other hand, Manson mother Maddox is alleged to be a heavy drunkard. Manson reveals that her mother was so addicted to the extent that she one day sold him to a pitcher just for a bottle of beer to a waitress who had no child. However, Manson was retrieved after some days. Maddox started showing signs of rejection to her own son when she decided to place her son to a foster home claiming that she was not able to provide for him. This landed Manson in Gibault School for the Boys in Indiana. Ironically, the son run away from the foster home after 10 months and his mother rejected him. Manson became so frustrated and started stealing. His first offense occurred at age 13 in Indiana while he was burglarizing grocery store to get money for survival. He reported that he wanted the cash to pay for a room. He managed to make a second successive burglary and he was sent to Indiana Boys School where he escaped in 1951. Ironically, Charles Manson possessed a greater IQ of 121 and still was illiterate even after attending 4 years in school. Integration Behaviorism school of thought believes that behaviors can be described in a scientific manner without referring to either internal psychological events or hypothetical dispositions such as beliefs. Ivan Pavlov played a major role of distinguishing behaviorism from psychoanalytic and Gestalt movement although he did not agree with the behaviorists. Pavlov’s research on classical condition influenced Skinner, which led him to conduct several behaviorism researches on operant conditioning (Malott, 2008). Many children are exposed to risks of exposure to violence at home. In the case study regarding Charles Manson, we conclude that children who directly view their parents engage in greater aggression towards other adult’s will, themselves, demonstrating greater physical and verbal aggression as adults. Research has shown that determinants of adolescent aggression are diverse and range from genetic to environmental factors such as peer influence and socialization in the family (Dodge, 2006). At his teen, Manson took a razor blade and held it against another boy’s throat while he sodomized him. This was happening just before his parole hearing in 1952. Other studies have emphasized child effects. For example, although (Kerr, 2003), showed that there was a reciprocal relationship between adolescent behavior and parents reactions between the age of 14 and 16, the adolescent was found to be stronger compared to the parental effects. This is evident with what happened to Charles. This finding provides support for (Maccoboy, 1983) suggestion that as children go through adolescence, parents’ influences on children start to diminish compared to adolescents’ influences on parents. Parents can influence the aggressiveness of their children in different ways, by their genes inducing preconditions for aggressiveness, by mother’s behavior during pregnancy, by parenting style, by emotional family climate as a possible trigger of children’s aggressiveness and by socioeconomic and cultural environment facilitated by income, education that they offer to children (Hurbert, 2000). According to Dishon and Bullock (2003), nurturance is a highly salient aspect of parenting. With regard to the parenting style, Charles Manson was raised in a very poor background. His mother was a drunkard who could not take care of him. She ended up rejecting him. This influenced Manson’s aggressiveness to the extent of burglarizing, stealing cars, sodomizing his mates and even committing murders. It involves pervasive attention emotional investment, and behavior management, by caregivers to foster children’s social and emotional development. The socio economic and cultural environment affected Charles life turning him into a murder and a hardcore prisoner. In Manson’ biography, he started stealing at age of 13 because her mother ditched her into some foster home. Manson stole in order to support himself and this landed him into more trouble. In addition to this, due to lack of proper guidance, Manson decided to worship Satan while in prison and this formed the basis of his faith both while in prison and out of prison. Manson was so abusive sexually and during one occasions he order that Lyntte Fromme have ex with an 80-year-old man by the name Goerge Spahn. Little is known about the relationship between parental nurturance and aggression during adolescent as most research has examined this relationship during childhood (Dishon, 2002). Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969) provides some basis for the understanding of the relationship between nurturance and aggression during adolescence. Attachment theory (Bowlby, 1969), provides some basis for the understanding of the relationship between nurturance and aggression during adolescence. Parents can influence the aggressiveness of their children in different ways, by their genes inducing preconditions for aggressiveness, by mother’s behavior during pregnancy, by parenting style, by emotional family climate as a possible trigger of children’s aggressiveness and by socioeconomic and cultural environment facilitated by income, education that they offer to children (Hurber, 2000). Family interactions are important in socializing children and early adolescents to manage anger and for protecting children against exposure to violence. According to Dishon and Bullock (2003), nurturance is a highly salient aspect of parenting. It involves pervasive attention emotional investment, and behavior management, by caregivers to foster children’s social and emotional development, which Maddox fails to give his son. According to Erikson Psychodynamic, theory identity vs. identity confusion occurs at the adolescent stage. During this time adolescents are seeking to identify themselves with people they admire. However, if good parental care is not provided, most adolescents end up with identity confusion and mimic wrong culture. This is what happened with Charles Mason. Due to poor parenting he lacked somebody to guide hi and ended up identifying himself with bad culture that ruined his life. Little is known about the relationship between parental nurturance and aggression during adolescent as most research has examined this relationship during childhood (Dishon, 2002). It was found that the children greater exposure to aggressive scenes on the television and maternal depression was associated with increased aggressive behaviors towards sibling. In addition, it was also proven that father to child physical aggression, played a significant role towards increased community violence. Exposure to violence in children and early adolescents is associated with poor emotion regulation, psychological mal adjustment, pessimistic expectations for the future, and symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (Jones, 1997). This is also evidence when Mason formed the Helter Skelter synonym that he used as a basis for his murders and criminal acts. With a deep relationship with Satanism, Manson did not care making offenses in fact any time before serving a jail term, he reminded the prison warders that jail was his home. References Bowlby, J. (1969). Attachment and Loss. London: The Hogarth Press and Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Dishon, T. (2002). Parenting and adolescent problem behavior:. New York: Sage Publishers. Dodge, K. (2006). Agression and antisocial behavior in youth. Hoboken: John Wiley and Sons. Emmons, Nuel. as told to. Manson in His Own Words. New York: Grove Press, 1994. Hurbert, M. (2000). Psychometric properties of the Parental aggression Scale. Psychology Monthly, Vol 6 499-522. Jones, D. (1997). The physical aggression questionnaire. Psychology Journal of Aggression, Vol 63 467-480. Kerr, M. (2003). Parenting off adolescents action or reaction. Mahwah New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaun. Maccoboy, E. (1983). Socialization in the Context of the family:Parent Child interaction. New York: Wiley and Sons publishers. Malcom Knowles. (2008). The mOdern Practice of Adult Education: From Pedagogy to Andragogy. Cambridge: Prentice Hall Regents. Read More