Are
love and affection essential for survival?
Is
there an association of depriving of an infant of love and
affection and later illness? Are nutritious food and other good
physical condition s the only requirement for normal physical and
well- being? Another , more question popular way to pose this basic
question is: can someone die of broken heart? Such questions focus
our attention on the role of emotional deprivation in the process of
development. They touch upon the broader issue of how psychological
and physical processes relate to each other.
Long
before the science of psychology was born , Fredrick II, a thirteen
century ruler of sicily and a master of languages ,believed that
every person was born already knowing the original human language.
According to him, a child would begin to use this built in language
without any training or experience as soon as he or she was old
enough. To test this hypothesis Fredrick conducted an experiment. A
group of foster mothers were put in charge of a number of new born
infants. They were to care for the babies in silence, never speaking
to them or allowing them to hear human sounds. When at last they
spoke, it would reveal, according to Fredrick, the true nature of
language the inherited, since nothing could be attributed to their
upbringing. His story gave us the sad results of this experiment:
“But he labored in vein, because the children all died. For they
could not live without the petting and the joyful faces of their
foster mothers.”
A
fable? Folkore? Could emotional deprivation really have had such
profound effect? Writing in 1760, a Spanish churchman noted, “In
the foundling home the child become sad and many of the die of
sorrow.” Since the early years of century, a number of studies have
found signs of physical as well as psychological deterioration in
young children who were hospitalized for long periods of time. One
study of children in two postwar German orphanages traced the
relationship of weight changes to quality of care. Although group of
children received the same basic rations for the first 26 weeks,
those in orphanage A, with kind kind and loving matron, showed
greater weight gain than those in orphanage B, where their matron was
harsh and stern. This stern matron transferred to orphanage A at the
same time a better diet was begun. A t orphanage B the diet was not
changed, but the weight gain increased sharply after the stern
mother left. The data showed that growth accelerate with better die
of good food and loving care.
The
most direct evident for the link between emotional factors and
physical development comes from an intensive study of six “thin
dwarfs”. Researcher Lytt Gardner 1972 studied children who were
underweight and short. These are undersized children also had
retarded skeletal development with “bone age” much lesser the
their chronological age. All had come from family environment marked
by emotional detachment and lack of affection between parents and
children. Gardner this condition which which has called deprivation
dwarfism , was indeed the physical consequence of emotional
deprivation. He found that such children gain weight and begin to
grow when they are removed fro their hostile environment, and their
again become stunted if the environment is unchanged when they are
returned to it. Since the growth problem reappear in children who
are returned to a hostile situation, we have “experimental”
evidence that deprivation dwarfism is indeed the consequence of
emotional deprivation.
Not
only has a relation between emotion deprivation and defective
physical growth been demonstrated experimentally but physiological
link between them has been found. Two structures in the brain are
involved in this link with emotional starvation. A region called the
hypothalamus (which play a central role in emotional arousal) fails
to have its usual stimulating effect on pituitary gland (which
secrets growth hormone). Its through such a mechamism that lack of
love and human attention at critical, sensitive periods in the
development of infant can affect the body-producing deprivation
dwarfism in those babies who manage to live at all. Gardner
concluded: “deprivation dwarfism is a concrete example-an
‘experiment of nature’, so to speak-that demonstrates the
delicacy, complexity of infant-parent interactions.”
The
exact process by which deprivation dwarfism works is not yet known.
However it seem to be related to impact of emotional on the
production of pituitary and growth hormones. Most growth hormones is
secreted during sleep, these children may note sleep properly in
their stress-filled homes. Recent study with infant rats shows
clearly that maternal deprivation lead to immediate suppression of
growth hormone, which will increase when the rat pups are returned
to the mother(Kuhn, Butler& schanberg, 1978). Apparently,
maternal deprivation is bad for all living creatures. But can we
extend this tha a person can “die of broken heart”? Psychologist
James Lynch believes we can. After reviewing the evidence link
loneliness and isolation to health, Lynch assert that “there is
biological basis for our need to form human relaltionships. If we
fail to fulfill that need, our health is in peril” (Lynch 1977 p
xiii). He points to the greater coronary death rates among widows
than married womens, among divorced men than married men. Cancer and
stokes as well as heart disease, occur twice as often among the
divorced as among the married. The ultimate cause of death is, of
course, a physical malfunction, such as ventricular fibrillation. But
in some still be be discovered way, the likelihood of that breakdown
when that person is isolated from the touch,trust, and tenderness of
fellow human beings.
CONCLUSION:
Many factors combine together to affect the health of individuals and communities. Whether people are healthy or not, is determined by their circumstances and environment. To a large extent, factors such as where we live, the state of our environment, genetics, our income and education level, and our relationships with friends and family all have considerable impacts on health, whereas the more commonly considered factors such as access and use of health care services often have less of an impact.(WHO)
REFERENCE:
- Psychology and life 10th edition Philip G Zimbardo
- WHO
nice work!
ReplyDeleteVery fascinating stuffs.......psychiatry and psychology are the queens of medicine!!!(prof. Kilonzo)
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