Good point, 00Dad. They do know what they are doing. I guess my point should be that they don't understand HEALTHY child psychology.
The WT proves again that it does not understand Child Psychology
by Christ Alone 29 Replies latest watchtower bible
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00DAD
Three months ago Cedars created a thread with a video clip of when Anthony Morris III released the Sparlock DVD ("Become Jehovah's Friend") at the Special Convention in Dublin, Ireland.
Cedars wrote, "Anthony's remarks aren't all together that interesting in this clip, although he does relate a disturbing story of a two-year-old girl who was allowed to watch the DVD eight times in quick succession. It's a shame her parents saw nothing wrong with repeatedly exposing a child of that age to this sort of highly-manipulative material." - [Emphasis mine]
In response, I made the following comments. This was at the time when I was just coming to believe that the WTBTS deliberately and knowingly creates things that are harmful to people, even small children:
We could alternately call it the "No Toy Story!" video.
[Governing Body members] are encouraging parents with very young children, under 2 years of age, to have their children watch this video. Apparently they either don't know or more likely are completely disregarding the advice of nearly every expert on child development concerning the adverse affects of watching TV and/or videos by the very young:
"The American Academy of Paediatrics discourages TV viewing in the first two years of life" - Letting Infants Watch TV Can Do More Harm Than Good, ScienceDaily (Jan. 16, 2009)
Professor Dimitri A Christakis, from the Seattle Children’s Research Institute and the University of Washington, USA, has also expressed considerable concerns about DVDs aimed at infants that claim to be beneficial, despite a lack of scientific evidence.
And he points out that France has already taken the matter so seriously that in summer 2008 the Government introduced tough new rules to protect the health and development of children under three from the adverse effects of TV.
Professor Christakis’ extensive review looked at 78 studies published over the last 25 years and reiterates the findings of numerous studies he has carried out with colleagues into this specialist area.
Here's the full article:
Yes.
In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement about media and children. In it, the organization discussed the benefits media education can have as well as the health risks TV poses to children, especially those under the age of two. Specifically, the AAP said:
"Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years. Although certain television programs may be promoted to this age group, research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant caregivers (eg, child care providers) for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills .Therefore, exposing such young children to television programs should be discouraged." - Emphasis added
I also found this disturbing bit of info regarding the manipulative affects of propaganda on the very young:
Can a very young child understand what's on TV?
Children as young as two years old were found to have established beliefs about specific brands that were promoted by television advertising and parental behavior . One-year-olds avoided an object after they watched an actress react negatively to it on video, suggesting that infants can apply emotional reactions seen on television to guide their own behavior.
Translation: toddlers see Caleb's mommy's reaction to Sparlock and use her "emotional reactions" in the video "to guide their own behavior". The intentional manipulation of children in this video is really evil.
Clearly the members of the WT Propaganda Development team are aware of this and are deliberately using these highly manipulative, controlling devices on the very young to further indoctrinate them. Mr. Morris even began his presentation discussing various WT publications specifically designed for parents with children "ages 3 and under". He stated that the new DVD is a tool directed to "small ones ... they don't have an attention span that is very long." He described it as a "provision to assist parents to inculcate God's word into little hearts." (See video @ 2:13) Translate that into "inculcate" JW doctrines into little hearts and minds.
This is one messed up religion!
It is very disturbing that their need to indoctrinate and manipulate is more important to them than safeguarding the developing brains of the very young. The fact that the WT blatantly disregards the needs and concerns for "healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills" is disturbing in the extreme. It's a form of psychic abuse tantamount to rape. The WTBTS and it's leadership are psychological and emotional abusers, a different form of pedophilia if you will.
Sick bastards just getting sicker!
00DAD
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LisaRose
Christ Alone, I would like to praise you for doing a good job on this thread and others. Your posts are always well thought out and balanced. I am sorry your parents can't appreciate you now because they are still brainwashed, hopefully some day they will come around, but if not, you know you did the right thing in leaving.
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00DAD
CA, I doubt you meant to suggest it is wrong to praise someone's accomplishments. Clearly that is a good thing.
The problem in JW-land has several components:
- Confusion of a person's IDENTITY with their ACTIONS, meaning: confusing WHO you are with WHAT you do
- The highly selective nature of Organizationally Approved Actions:
- Pioneering is Good, being a "low-hour publisher" is Bad
- Going to all the meetings is Good; being "inactive" is Bad
- Believing WT approved doctrines is Good; doubting or even questioning them is Bad
- .....
The list is long, but you get the idea.
Conversely, anything and everything that a person does or even might do that expresses their unique individuality is also BAD. Creativity and original thought are not only discouraged, they are actively crushed.
00DAD
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Christ Alone
Your posts are always well thought out and balanced.
Thanks LisaRose! It hasn't always been that way. It was a rough start a few months ago. I'm still working on it, but I see my own tendency to only want to prove my own point and not listen to valid points that others are saying. I'm trying to change that. I also don't want to hurt anyone even though many believe that I have that "right" since it's just a discussion board.
00Dad, you're right. I was speaking of praising accomplisments OVER effort. Effort should be focused on in praising. A child should be made aware that efforts are what count and they will usually lead to great accomplishments. But if we ONLY praise accomplishments then it can lead to a child's stress and feelings of self doubt or self worth if they don't specifically find success in what they were trying to accomplish. If we only praise their accomplishments, a child will be made to feel that they just didn't try hard enough and THAT is why they didn't accomplish what they were trying to accomplish.
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mamochan13
Interesting thread. I agree with Oodad that they know enough child psycholoogy to manipulate vulnerable little minds. But the point about healthy psychology and self-esteem is right on, CA.
In reflecting, my non-JW dad was less likely to offer praise. My mother did. In fact, in some areas she praised me too much and built me up to think I was better than other kids, when I wasn't. For example, she encouraged me to audition for the role of the young Mozart in some stage production because she thought I played piano so well. I was mortified when I had to go up against a kid who played at a grade 10 level compared to my grade 2 plunkings. Part of it was her own naivety, I think. But certainly the religion led her to teach us that we were better than those who did not know "the truth"
My self-esteem was always tightly connected to the religion. By pioneering and going where the need was great, I felt better about myself. Same when I made insightful comments, or played the piano at the hall. When those things were taken away, it was devastating. I think that's why getting reinstated was my turning point. I realized that although they had destroyed my false, JW-connected self-esteem by DFing me, in reality I was still the same person. It took me a long time to develop self-esteem outside the religion.
Now, on the topic of over-praise, I think it definately can be problematic, although Watson's attachment theory (and those poor Rhesus babies) demonstrates the other extreme. But I see far too many parents praising their children for things that should be expected behaviours. If you learn to expect praise for everything you do, it can cripple normal development and your ability to interact socially. it can cheapen the value of the praise and remove incentive for self-improvement. There are a lot of factors involved - the types of things you offer praise for, whether it's reasonable and balanced, whether the child also receives constructive criticism.
And kids know the difference. When I praised my grandson's artwork, his older brother piped up and said, "actually, grama, it's not that good" and he proceeded to point out areas needing improvement.
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Londo111
What other kind of advice can be expected from those in a hermetically sealed existence? Can we expect good advice for those at the core of a cult? Hardly!
I suffer from extreme low self-esteem to this day. Whenever I see a picture of J.F. Rutherford, I see my father. Though he was born after Rutherford, the ghostly imprint Rutherford left on the organization and its adherents lives on. He didn’t care about people’s emotional health in the least. He perpetuated the machinery that churns out spurious, sometimes deadly advice.
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kurtbethel
The Watchtower knows exactly what they are doing. They desire a crop of beaten down children who will be docile enough to comply with their ridiculous dictates, and they produce material that is designed to accomplish that outcome.
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Vidiot
Christ Alone - "One of them was so off that I was actually shocked (couldn't believe they could still shock me). It was on how parents overpraise their children. It really showed how little they know about human psychology."
Christ Alone - "While a few years ago the worry was that overpraising leads to narccisism, it has now been shown that a narccisistic person usually does not have proper self esteem and to compensate puts on a show of being entitled in order to survive."
This is just a symptom of a larger problem with the WTS, and it's not unique to them.
Most conservative groups are extremely uncomfortable with rapid change or new ideas, and often proceed from the assumption that the latest scientific theory or medical discovery is probably, at best, just a fad, or in extreme cases, a shady and (in the case of fundamentalist goups) diabolical ploy to undermine their convictions.
Coupled with internal bias in favor of academic (or more often than not, pseudo-academic) assertions that reinforce said convictions, this inevitably results in the tendency to subscribe to concepts that are often years out of date, superceded by more recent and accurate findings, and/or easily refuted as just plain wrong.
Sometimes, it takes decades for a group to shed some of its bigger misconceptions.
In the event that an idea's fundamental wrongness becomes more and more apparent, the leadership will often try to leave the issue ambiguous (rather than disavow the older, and usually wrong ideas) by reasserting just enough to reassure old-school members that - for example - the "Creative Days" are still 7,000 years each (according to WT canon), whilst paying just enough lip service to the fairly established fact that the progression of life alone on this planet was way, waaaaaaaay longer, which the majority of youngbloods are more comfortable with (even if they're still "Old-Earth Creationists").
It's a fairly successful technique that lets the leadership have its cake and eat it too.
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00DAD
Vidiot: Sometimes, it takes decades for a group to shed some of its bigger misconceptions.
"Millions Now Living Will Never Die" - Judge Rutherford, March 1918
Still waiting for them to officially shed this one! Don't hold your breath.
- Q: How many Witnesses are in your congregation that were Witnesses in 1918?
- A: Zero. (Sorry. That's a trick question. They weren't known as "Jehovah's Witnesses until July 26, 1931).
OK, so here's a more reasonable question: How many people do YOU think that were alive when Rutherford said this back in 1918 are still alive today? It was only 94 years ago. What percentage of them are currently Jehovah's Witnesses? (Remember JWs are only 0.1% of earth's population).
What percentage of THEM do you think that actually heard Rutherford deliver this message are still alive?
My educated guess is: Not many. Certainly NOT millions. This is a major fail. Let me re-phrase that: MAJOR FAIL. How can the, sorry "THE" spokesman for God's Visible Organization on Earth get this wrong?
I have only one answer: He was NOT God's Spokesman. End of story.
I'm getting hungry. What shall we have for dinner?
00DAD
