Attachment Theory. Genie: A Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day "Wild Child"

Genie was in completely isolated from everybody, and everything. She was in a room strapped to a potty chair with nothing but walls to look at and nobody to talk to and form bonds with for over 10 years. Her parents even beat her for talking, giving the the impression that talking was bad. When she was rescued and taken to a hospital, psychologists hoped that they would be able to nurture her back to normality. Genie is not one of the rare cases, but similar cases happen around us such as orphanages.

This research reported that children in orphanages for the first years of life subsequently exhibited difficulty in forming close relationships, and indiscriminately friendly behavior toward unfamiliar adults. The results of this early research contributed to the decline of such forms of institutional care. Furthermore, these results supported the notion of a critical period for the formation of the attachment relationship.



Video about Genie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEnkY2iaKis

Book
http://www.amazon.com/Genie-Psycholinguistic-Perspectives-neurolinguistics-psycholinguistics/dp/0121963500