writing 1133 - essay 1 final

8/7/2019 Writing 1133 - Essay 1 Final

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Natalie Roche

Writing 1133

April 5, 2011

Rough Draft

Text-Based Research Paper 1

Is my child normal? This is a common phrase we hear in commercials, in books on child

psychology, in help magazines, in the media all reflecting on the inner thoughts of parents with high

hopes for the futures of their children. This sentence is one that we see in a positive light, assuming it

shows the dedication the family has to give their child the best life and ability to grow. However, this

phrase can also be interpreted differently, from the essence of the word normal to what we perceive

to be natural reactions of parents and caretakers. But does anyone really even know the definition of the

word normal? Dictionary.com describes it as conforming to the standard or the common type; usual;

not abnormal; regular; natural. And yet upon finding a natural trait in our child is outside of what is

considered socially acceptable, the usual reaction among parents would be to strive to fix it. Such traits

include attention deficit disorder (ADD), anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), dyslexia,

disruptive behavior disorders, etc. Some issues do need to be fixed and redirected, and some are not a s

big a deal as people tend to make them, and the person can live with them without problem. The

specific trait I mean to focus on in this essay is shyness in children. The extremity of this supposed

abnormality ranges drastically between people, and the way that it should be handled varies between

parent's reactions as well as psychologist's findings through experimentation.

Society, the media, and having children of their own will easily lead a person/parent to having a

biased view when it comes to their beliefs behind shyness being a worrisome characteristic. This stems

from an endless cycle parents (commonly) have a tendency to hope the best for their kids (relative to

the society they live in), which set the standards of children in that society, and if a parent's offspring

falls out of this standard due to shyness, in this case they automatically question how this trait will

negatively affect their children later in life. Shyness can be easily seen as a trait that will allow their


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interactions with other children. They found that maternal positivity and negativity did directly

influence the children's social functioning, and not only that, but the overbearing parents who tended to

push their kids further out of their comfort zone and natural tendencies tended to perhaps become even

more shy.

Rubin et al. (2002) examined the role of parenting in the stability of behavioral inhibition from

the age of two to four and showed that the relation between behavioral inhibition in toddlerhood andreticence at the age of four was significant and positive for those children whose mothers were

psychologically over-controlling and derisive. Toddlers who were behaviorally inhibited but whose

mothers were neither controlling nor derisive were not likely to be reticent during the preschool years.

(Hane, Cheah, Rubin, Fox)

In the next trial, where experimenters tested the language skills of children depending on their levels of

shyness, psychologists discovered that though these children were less likely to speak up for

themselves, then they did, their speech was more sophisticated and polite than the more casual form of

those who were more outgoing. Lastly, experimenters discovered that both the nature of the child and

their home situation and environment will affect their levels of shyness. Ultimately, all three

experiments concluded that shyness (NOT social phobia) is not a disability, but the children that are

outgoing are simply more advanced when it comes to social situations.

So, what we can we conclude from these experiments and hope to improve on in the future? In

society, it's easy to get wound up in trying to be perfect and trying to be the best (instead of settling for

average) because it seems how that is the only way to get a job and survive in the world. However, we

can now see that shyness is not a disability and not something to try to rid of as a parent, it's

important to encourage your child and accept them no matter how outgoing they may be. Normality is a

broad impossibility when it comes to human existence, and shyness is just another trait that makes a

person who they are.

writing 1133 - essay 1 final

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