Individuation of the Adolescent Brain - Term Paper Example

Several studies have assessed the causes and effects of risk-taking behaviours of the youth on themselves and others, particularly with regards to use or abuse of substances, such as alcohol and illegal drugs (Gerard and Buehler, 2004; LaBrie et al., 2005), and the conduct of other risky behaviours, such as excessive partying and having sex with multiple partners (protected or not) (Yip et al., 2013). Young people’s risk-taking decisions and behaviours and exposure to risk raise concern, particularly in relation to their own safety and wellbeing and that of others (Smith et al., 2007). The concept of risk assumes human responsibility and that something can be done to prevent or minimise risk (Lupton, 1999b). Risk, however, does not exist in a vacuum and has a context that impacts its conceptualisation, analysis, and resolution, as well as how it is portrayed in the media (Lupton, 1999a, 1999b). Risk should also be studied in connection to relevant personality and sociology theories to further understand its development and reduction for the youth. Modern western psychology indicates that youth from individualistic cultures generally aim for “individuation” or a sense of independent self (Gibbons and Stiles, 2004, p.78). Individuation is a process of shaping a personal identity that has autonomy and freedom in making decisions. Individuation, however, has its risks if done in the context of alcohol use/abuse, frequent and uncontrolled partying, and multiple sexual relations (France, A., 2007, p.137). In the advertisement, Binge Drinking: Girl’s Night Out, a young woman prepares for a party, but she does something radically different. She puts on make-up and other signs of self-abuse and abuse from others (PIFs and that, 2008). This video clip is an advertisement for women from the Home Office Campaign and it has the main goal of warning them of the risks of binge drinking, which usually happen when girls have a date with their girlfriends or mixed-sex friends and/or strangers. This paper will use individuation theory to determine and interpret the implicit messages and themes of the video. The themes are individuation, self-blame, and risk. The video shows that the youth increase their physiological, sexual, and psychological risks, if they do not conform to the social norms of their society about gender and age. This argument indicates that the advert also encourages self-blame and does not address and resolve the underlying social causes of risks for the youth. Source and Causes of the Advertisement The video comes from the series of TV advertisements from the Home Office Campaign in 2008 in response to the increases in alcohol consumption among the youth from 2006 to 2007. The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) (2013) showed that, for surveyed individuals aged 16 to 24 years old, more women and women drank on 5 or more days in 2007 than 2006 including heavy episodic drinking (pp.6-7). Heavy episodic drinking refers to drinking twice the recommended value of units of alcohol per day (IAS, 2013, p.8). The data shows that people from the age group of 16 to 24 years old, including women, drank more alcohol than people aged 45 to 64. The context of the advert is the pressure on the government to promote reduced risk-taking behaviours among the youth. The Home Office aimed to reduce alcohol consumption and reckless behaviours among the youth to prevent these actions’ various social and health effects and risks. This campaign targets adolescents and young adults and focuses on the negative effects of binge drinking. The effects of drinking too much alcohol per se are higher hospital admissions and alcohol-related deaths (IAS, 2013, p.11). Alcohol has been related to higher deaths and illnesses, as well as poor mental health. The government is concerned that the youth are increasing these risks for themselves through engaging in binge drinking and through dressing and acting inappropriately when interacting with others. The target outcome of the advert is to increase fear and self-awareness among women, so that they will reduce or stop engaging in risky behaviours, especially drinking and partying excessively and dressing provocatively. Description of the Character and Events in the Video The video shows a beautiful young woman who does things in reverse, as she prepares for a night-out party. The advert says “girl’s night out,” so it means that she is going out with her friends. Instead of preparing for the night out, she does to herself the possible risks of binge drinking. In a jazzy musical background, the woman rips her stocking and upper garment, vomits on her hair, smudges her make-up, pours wine on her floor, breaks the heel of her shoe, and leaves with a limp. Her make-up runs down from her cheeks. She walks towards the door without looking back at the camera. The video ends with these words on the screen: “You wouldn’t start a night like this, so why end it that way?” (PIFs and that, 2008). At the lower right side, it says: “Alcohol: Know your limits.” The logo of the Home Office is at the left side. Theme of Risks of the Advertisement The modern conception of “risk” has shifted from deity- or God-made risks to the assumption of human responsibility in its creation and management (Lupton, 1999b, p.7). The modern meaning of “risk” in its technical wording depend conditions where people can determine or estimate the probability of events and it also indicates that risk can good or bad (Lupton, 1999b, pp.7-8). This paper uses the modern laymen use of “risk” that refers to bad risks, particularly harm and threats (Lupton, 1999b, p.8). The advert is trying to communicate that young people are increasing their risks for numerous harms if they practice binge drinking. Based on this video, the risks can be classified into physiological, sexual, and psychological risks. The physiological risks are vomiting and chocking which are health-related risks. Vomiting is a harmful consequence of over consumption of alcohol and if drunk, people can also choke from their own vomit. Too much drinking can also lead to disorientation and poor balance, which can result to the woman in the advert breaking the heel of her shoe. Without her shoe, she can step on glass or other sharp objects that can give her infections. Apart from the physiological risks, the sexual risks of binge drinking are more implicit. The woman wears skimpy clothing, which increases her risks of being sexually harassed or even raped. The advert frames the message in a way that she takes the risk of being sexually harassed because of how she consciously dresses herself (Smith et al., 2007, p.220). In particular, she is the one who chooses what to wear and how to act, and so the advert suggests that she increases her risks through her own decisions in clothing and behaviours. She might just want to have fun or to be pleased with how she looks, but these decisions are risk decisions already, as the advert connects skimpy clothing and provocative behaviours to sexual harassment (Smith et al., 2007, p.220). Furthermore, though looking sexy is not a direct invitation of rape, the advert can send the wrong misogynistic message to men who believe that skimpy clothing means that women want to be harassed or raped and that women who like partying and socialising with men are “fair game” for rape or social harassment. The implicit value is that the woman is increasing risks to herself because she chooses actions that are not appropriate to her gender and age (Bond and Mosher, 1986). If a young woman goes out late at night, dresses sexily, and drinks, the advert is saying that she is increasing sexual risks on her own. The potential physical signs of assault or rape are smudged make-up, dishevelled hair, torn clothing, broken heels, and limping behaviour. For instance, it is possible that she is limping because of the physical force used on her before and during rape. Her heels may also be broken from running away from her rapist. Moreover, once raped or sexually assaulted, the woman may get sexually transmitted diseases. The rape may also produce an unwanted pregnancy. These are physical manifestations of sexual risks that the advert suggests that the women did to herself because she did not conform to what is socially accepted for her age and gender, which, as a young woman, she should not be partying outside or drinking or wearing sexy clothing. Besides the sexual risks, if raped or physically and/or sexually harassed during the night out, the advert shows that the psychological risks can have immediate and long-term effects on the youth’s wellbeing. Victims of sexual harassment and rape might suffer from guilt, fear, embarrassment and anger that can result to depression, violence towards the self and/or others, and, sometimes, suicide. Many rape victims feel guilty because they think that they did something to ask for the rape to happen to them. This is common in what is called “rape culture,” where society designates gender and age norms, which, when violated, accuse the victims of sexual abuse for being responsible for their sexual harassment and rape conditions. Furthermore, rape victims may also become more fearful and lose trust in other people in general. They may also be embarrassed that they develop poor self-esteem and enter into abusive relationships. They might see themselves as damaged goods, so they may feel that the only relationships that they are worthy of are with abusive partners. Moreover, rape victims may feel anger towards society. They may act it out through rebellion that may harm them even more, such as when they turn to alcohol or drugs or both and drop out from school. These are only some of the possible psychological harms of binge drinking that increase because of the possible bad events that happen because of parties or events where this drinking happens. Theme of Self-Blame The main blame of the advert is on the woman, as seen from how she does things on herself. She is the one who smudges her makeup and ruins her hair and clothes. She is shown as the perpetrator and victim all in one. The advert does not show the true perpetrator at all or the social factors that contribute to the woman’s actions. Instead, as she does things to herself, the advert implicitly says that she is the main culprit for the risks she experience. She should blame herself if anything bad happens to her. A number of studies supported that some people feel that victims of rape and sexual harassment must also be blamed for what happened to them because of how they act and how they look. Davies et al. (2009) conducted a survey on 164 men and women aged 19 to 69 years old. They used a hypothetical rape scenario to study the impacts of victim gender, victim sexual orientation, victim response, and respondent gender, on attributions of blame in the hypothetical rape. Findings showed that male respondents blamed gay people and women more for being raped than female ones, particularly when these victims were sexually active or provocative. Strömwall et al. (2013) confirmed that victim blaming is higher than perpetrator blaming for 164 community respondents. Masser et al. (2010) added that women who were seen as bad women were blamed for being raped than women who did not violate traditional gender norms. These studies underline that women must blame themselves more than their perpetrators because their actions increase risks to their lives. The advert echoes this sentiment of rape culture, where traditional gender and age norms provide the boundaries of social behaviours, which, when women do not follow, they should expect to be raped or sexually molested. Another example of the evidence that the advert is blaming women in general is when it says, “You wouldn’t start a night like this, so why end it that way?” (PIFs and that, 2008). At the lower right side, it says: “Alcohol: Know your limits.” The written text is an explicit assertion that women should practice self-blame, so that they would be more mindful of their actions. The advert mirrors the explicit blaming of women for what happens to them when they drink and wear sexy clothing. Wakelin and Long (2003) learned from their survey that victim gender and sexuality affected attributions of blame for rape. . Strömwall et al. (2013) confirmed that victim blaming is rampant in society. These studies support what the advert says. Women should stay within social expectations or else, they should expect to be harmed, and they should blame no one else largely but themselves. Theme of Individuation versus Integration Individuation is a concept with numerous meanings, but this paper chooses the concept of psychologists, particularly Jung, who focuses on the process of being different from others. Individuation is the process by which the youth want to form their individuality that is distinct, if not always separate, from their social personality or social self (Furlong, 2013, p. 19). It is a process of shedding the image of being a child, by creating an independent identity. An important aspect of individuation is self-regulation. The child internalises beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours from early interpersonal experiences (Tucker and Moller, 2007, p.89). The youth can self-regulate themselves if they pursue an individuation process that allows them to build healthy self-regulation beliefs and practices. The society, however, may derail healthy individuation courses. The youth in the UK, as well as other parts of the modern world, often face peer pressure and social problems that hinder their ability to individuate in a healthy and positive manner. On the one hand, society tells them that, as the youth, they must conform to traditional gender and age norms (Lyall, 2007). These norms prescribe dress codes and social and sexual behaviours that the youth may feel are against their individuation process. The goal is social integration so that the society remains stable culturally and socially. In this context, however, poverty and social disintegration happen, which remove the role models and social support and resources for healthy individuation (Lyall, 2007). On the other hand, the youth is growing up in a culture where drinking has become part of socialisation and a ticket to social acceptance in their social circles (Lyall, 2007). Many youth drink as a rite of passage to adulthood and as a way of shedding their childhood identity. They drink because they believe that this is part of their creation of a new independent identity that is separate from their family and social identity (Engler and Wiemann, 2010, p.275). They may also drink because they have family and social problems. The irony in engaging in risky behaviours as a form of individuation is that the youth is creating a new social identity, instead of an independent one, a social identity that is based on risky attitudes and behaviours. The youth want a more independent self by making decisions against the general social norms, and yet they are following new social norms from sub-group, their peers, and they form a new social identity. If they follow risky behaviours that result to harms, they are creating a social identity that does not contribute to better welfare but to various harms (Tucker and Moller, 2007, p.89). The product is an unhealthy individuation process that creates fragmented youth identities and, consequently, fragmented societies. Besides the irony of losing individuation through risky behaviours, the advert is articulating that individuation has its costs, thereby perpetuating that social traditions regarding gender and age must be maintained to avoid risks to the youth. The video is basically saying that drinking too much is not good for the youth, as well as sexy clothing and other inappropriate behaviours to gender and age. The articulation is in images and actions that embed integrationist notions of social and personal identities (Tucker and Moller, 2007, p.89). The target outcomes of the advert are promotion of gender and age norms and the reduction of risks to them and to society at large through emphasising the negative effects of overconsumption of alcohol. The video promotes gender norms that women should avoid drinking and wearing skimpy clothing. It has underlying beliefs that women are not supposed to have an individuation that matches that of young men because doing so would lead to physical and sexual risks. The advert is also saying that female individuation must be controlled or else they must be blamed for their experienced harms. This video underlines the protection of social norms that affect the models of individuation that are socially approved. The impacts of the advert for young women are creation of fear for the self and against society and the challenge for a healthier individuation process. The video wants to incite fear among women, so that they would no longer want to binge drink. It also wants them to feel fearful against society that may abuse their drunken states. The advert seeks to scare women into thinking that risky actions can ruin their lives and identities forever. Besides this negative feeling, the advert can also be promoting greater mindfulness. It suggests that it is possible to pursue individuation without losing the sense of self in a bad way. The advert is saying that the youth should also think of the consequences of their decisions (Tucker and Moller, 2007, p.89). Even a small decision such as going out with friends can lead to catastrophic life-changing events if they are not careful. The emphasis is on the “I” or the individual who can and should make rational decisions. In effect, the advert is not saying that the youth who are at the legal age to drink should not drink, but that they should drink responsibly and act responsibly as well. The advert tries to leave a message of self-responsibility. It argues that the youth must take responsibility for the consequences of their actions because the effects can last for a lifetime. Conclusion The advert is made in the context of rising alcoholism and sexual activities among the youth in the UK. It reflects implicit values that promote traditional social norms for women and youth. It also shows explicit values of self-responsibility and self-criticism that are typical for individualistic western cultures. Moreover, the themes are risk, self-blame, and individuation. The advert wants the youth to take control of their individuation through preventing risks to themselves. It places the blame on victims, which underlines self-blame, but it also reminds the youth effectively through fearful imagery that binge drinking is too risky, especially for women. Finally, though the advert does not analyse and respond to social factors that impact youth risks, it helps the youth think about their self-responsibility toward a better individuation path. References Bond, S.B. and Mosher, D.L., 1986. Guided imagery of rape: fantasy, reality, and the willing victim myth. The Journal of Sex Research, 22(2), pp.162-183. Davies, M., Rogers, P. and Whitelegg, L., 2009. Effects of victim gender, victim sexual orientation, victim response and respondent gender on judgements of blame in a hypothetical adolescent rape. Legal & Criminological Psychology, 14(2), pp.331-338. Engler, J.N. and Wiemann, C.M., 2010. 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