AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree ofSarjana Sastra
in English Letters
By
DEWI KURNIAWATI Student Number : 034214106
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS
FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY
YOGYAKARTA 2008
(SOREN KIERKEGAARD)
This Undergraduate Thesis is dedicated to My Beloved father and mother My Brother and Sister My dearest Ign.Trisetya Wibisana
single moment of my life. The worthiest thing in my life is having you who always hold me tight and rise me up from the desperation.
My deepest thanks and gratitude are dedicated to my beloved parents, who always believe in me and support me through their hopes and prayers. My special thanks is for my grandfather and grandmother who never forget to call my name in their prayers. It is also dedicated to my beloved brother Fajar and my sister Lusi who always give me ways to see the world wisely and support me to encourage my dreams, without you I can not see how precious life is. Dear my little cute Najma I love you.
My grateful thanks are for my wonderful sponsor, Ms. Dra. Theresia Enny Anggraini, M.A and my co-sponsor Ms. Modesta Luluk Artika Windrasti,S.S, for their patience and understanding. Thank you for guiding me to finish this thesis until it is completed. Without their assistance this thesis would never be better.
I would also like to express my special thanks to other lecturers who have helped me in learning and understanding English in my whole semesters in this university. My deepest gratitude is also to Mr. Heri and Miss Eta who help me understand more about personality.
Sincerely appreciation is extended to dekAni and Ari, the twin…twinkle twinkle little stars who always give me the best friendship,MbakNaina who gives me an inspiration to live on without any fear and worry, Lolin and Meta who give
better, to Yuni and Nina who have accompanied me from the first semester, Mr. Syarifudin, mas Adi, Agatha, Nunuk, Najih, Ketut, ex-GK 1A (mbak Desi Cucum,mbakVika, Mbak Desi Ratna, Didie, Rosa),mbak Niken, Sastra Mungil, Noah team,Konco Rinonceand all students of English Letters 2003 thanks for the friendship, love and togetherness.
Dewi Kurniawati
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN ………iv
A. Background of the Study ………1
B. Problem Formulation ………4
C. Objective of the Study ………5
D. Definition of Terms ………6
CHAPTER II : THEORETICAL REVIEW ………7
A. Review of Related Studies ………7
B. Review of Related Theories ………8
1. Theory of Character and Characterization ………8
2. Theory of Personality ………9
3. Review on Pedophilia ...13
4. Review on the consequences of childhood Sexual Abuse ……14
5. Review on Correlational Studies ………16
6. Review on Personality Disorder ………17
7. Review on three Kinds of Abuse and Neglect………...19
8. Review on Bisexual ………20
C. Theoretical Framework ………20
CHAPTER III : METHODOLOGY ………23
A. Object of the Study ………23
B. Approach of the Study ………24
C. Method of the Study ………25
CHAPTER IV : ANALYSIS ………27
A. Jerry Houseman’s Personality Development ………27
1. Houseman’s Personality before He Becomes a Pedophile ……28
2. Houseman’s Personality after He Becomes a Pedophile ……34
B. Robbie Young’s Personality Development ………42
1. Robbie Young’s Personality before He is Molested ……43
2. Robbie Young’s personality after He is Molested ………47
C. What Pattern can be Depicted from Jerry Houseman’s and Robbie Young’sPersonality………..59
Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2008.
The thesis is meant to prove that past experiences have a big contribution in forming someone’s personality development. Based on Jerry Houseman’s and Robbie Young’s personality development inTouched,the writer tries to show the effects of physical and emotional abuses on Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and the effect of sexual and emotional abuses on Robbie Young’s as his sexual abuse victim. Based on their development the writer also discusses their sexual behaviors that are formed by the past experiences they have in their childhood. It shows how one variable can affect other variables in our lives.
There are three problems that will be discussed in this thesis. First is Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile, second is about Robbie Young’s personality development as his sexual abuse victim and the last is about what pattern can be depicted from their personality development.
In answering those problems, the theories of character and characterization, theory of personality, review on pedophilia, review on the consequences of childhood sexual abuse, review on correlational studies and review on bisexual are used. The approach that is applied in this thesis is psychological approach since this approach give more details about human‘s mind and behavior, it helps the writer to analyze human’s personality.
The characters discussed in this thesis show that human’s personality always changes as the result of the environment and the experiences that they have in their lives. Jerry Houseman as a pedophile and Robbie Young as his sexual abuse victim show personality development as the defensive mechanism in facing some problems in their lives. It can be seen from their personality changing from their childhood into adulthood. Their personality development also show co-relational pattern namely cause and effect relationship. Both characters’ personalities show the reflection of their childhood experiences. Based on the analysis, hopefully people will understand their own personality. This thesis also tries to explain that one thing in human’s life influences another and has a causality pattern.
Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2008.
Tujuan dari skripsi ini adalah untuk membuktikan bahwa kepribadian seseorang mengalami perubahan sebagai akibat dari pengalaman masa lalu yang mereka alami. Berdasarkan perkembangan kepribadian Jerry Houseman dan Robbie Young dalam novelTouched,penulis mencoba untuk menunjukkan akibat dari pelecehan fisik dan emosinal dalam perkembangan kepribadian Jerry Houseman sebagai pedofilia dan akibat dari pelecehan seksual dan emosional dalam perkembangan kepribadian Robbie Young sebagai korbannya. Berdasarkan perkembangan kepribadian yang mereka tunjukkan, penulis juga membahas kehidupan seksual yang terbentuk berdasarkan pengalaman masa lalu mereka dimasa kanak-kanak. Hal tersebut menunjukan bahwa satu factor dalam hidup kita dapat mempengaruhi factor yang lain.
Ada tiga permasalahan yang dibahas dalam skripsi ini yaitu, pertama mengenai perkembangan kepribadian Jerry Houseman sebagai pedofilia, kedua mengenai perkembangan kepribadian Robbie Young sebagai korban pelecehan seksual dan ketiga pola hubungan apakah yang terbentuk dalam perkembangan kepribadian mereka.
Teori mengenai tokoh dan penokohan, teori psikologi, ulasan tentang pedofilia, ulasan tentang akibat dari pelecehan seksual, ulasan tentang pola hubungan perkembangan kepribadian dan ulasan tentang biseksual digunakan untuk menjawab ketiga pokok permasalahan diatas. Skripsi ini menggunakan pendekatan psikologi karena pendekatan ini memberikan penjelasan lebih tentang pemikiran dan tingkah laku manusia sehingga diharapkan mampu memberikan kemudahan dalam mendalami dan membahas kepribadian seseorang.
Berdasar perkembangan kepribadian kedua tokoh diatas terlihat bahwa kepribadian seseorang selalu berubah dipengaruhi lingkungan dan pengalaman hidup mereka. Jerry Houseman dan Robbie Young mengalami perkembangan kepribadian sebagai mekanisme pertahanan atas masalah yang muncul dalam hidup mereka. Hal tersebut terlihat dalam perkembangan kepribadian mereka dari masa kanak-kanak hingga dewasa. Perkembangan kepribadiaan mereka menunjukkan adanya pola hubungan sebab akibat. Kepribadian kedua tokoh tersebut menunjukkan refleksi kehidupan mereka di masa kanak-kanak. Berdasarkan analisis tersebut diharapkan pembaca mampu mengenal kepribadian mereka sendiri. Skripsi ini memcoba menjelaskan bahwa dalam kehidupan manusia tiap factor saling berhubungan dan mempengaruhi dalam hubungan kausalitas.
A. Background of the Study
Human is a unique creature that has been created with both mind and soul. Those things are the significant characteristics of human being that differentiate them from animals, which only have instinct. Although in some cases, biologically human is assumed as animal when they have sexual attractiveness toward other, which is called as sexual instinct or libido, but the sexual concept in human and animal are different. Furthermore, human can find that specific characteristic in psychology.
Human life is closely related to psychology since psychology lies midway between biological and social sciences where particular parts of human being are usually discussed. Human as mono dualistic creature has two aspects in their life, namely individual and social aspects. The individual aspects of human life consist of physical changes and personality development; furthermore, human development itself is influenced by two factors. The first factor is human’s early experiences within the family and the second factor is the importance of environment, or society, on the other hand social aspect consists of culture, environment, or society. Culture explains human’s value, beliefs, customs, symbol and the way human being shares their lives and those essences are forming a good society and environment.
From that description, we can underline that both individual and social aspects are very important and significant in forming human’s attitude and behavior. By understanding those two aspects, we will be able to understand character and characterization both in fiction and reality deeper and clearer.
In studying human being, people should not always observe their life directly from reality but they can also do it based on literary works. Literary works imply human’s life in reality; it is a mirror of our life, a reflection of human life. E.M Forster said that actors in a story are pretended to be human being (1974:30). It means that literary works are the imitation of human life. Deep inside the literary works exist something that should be realized.
Literary works as reflection of reality with its complexity can also be seen in Scott Campbell’s first novel entitled Touched. This novel is very interesting since the author provides a story with complex conflict based on the psychological experience undergone by Jerry Houseman as a pedophile and Robbie Young as his sexual abuse victim.
In analyzing this novel, the writer focuses on the effect of physical, sexual and emotional abuses on Houseman’s and Young’s personality development. Both of them have the same problematic cases in their childhood that finally influence their personality development. Houseman experienced physical and emotional abuse that finally drove him into a pedophile, while Young experienced sexual abuse in his pubertal era, in which that embarrassing experience finally took rule in his personality development. In this study the writer wants to draw a line to give more description for
the readers about the importance of childhood experience to human’s future and this idea will be explained further by using co relational theory of personality development, in which this theory shows cause and effect relationship that lies in human being.
That topic is very interesting to be discussed since it shows the psychological aspect in human life, which is represented by both Houseman as a pedophile and Young as his victim. From psychological point of view, we can see that someone’s personality development is influenced by both his environment and past experiences.
The other reason in choosing that topic is that sexual abnormality is an interesting topic to discuss. Many people have this kind of abnormality but sometimes they do not realize it because its symptoms are very soft to be detected and from this novel, the reader can learn how Houseman and Young deal with it, with their conscious and unconscious feeling.
By seeing on the effect of physical, sexual and emotional abuses in Jerry Houseman’s and Robbie Young’s personality development we can see that personality traits which are observed in adulthood are formed by the cumulative effects of early childhood experiences. This understanding will give us more description about human in their psychological maturity and indirectly it will bring us into deep understanding of our own psychological development as a human being.
B. Problem Formulation
From the explanation above, the writer formulates the following problems. 1. How is Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile
described?
2. How is Robbie Young’s personality development as Houseman’s sexual abuse victim described?
C. Object of the Study
This undergraduate thesis will analyze Scott Campbell’s first novel entitled Touched about a young boy who was molested by his neighbor. The analysis is aimed at discovering the effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuses in Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s personality development as his sexual abuse victim.
The writer also tries to show whether everything in our behavior is moved by our motivation especially the needs of being loved and secured. Moreover in some cases thought and unconscious mind give dominant influence especially in forming sexual behavior. This analysis also tries to show the similar pattern that both the molester and the victim share in their personality development by seeing their past experiences to answer all things that happen in the present.
Since the questions above are formulated into three parts, the discussion will be divided into three parts also. In the first part, the writer will explain Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile, how he grows into a pedophile and how his personality develops after his molestation to Robbie Young.
D. Definition of Terms
There are several terms that will be explained to give reader better understanding of what will be analyzed in this study.
1. Personality
Personality may be defined as the underlying within the person of individual behavior and experience (Cloninger, 2004:3).
2. Sexual Abnormality
Abnormal means “away from the normal”; it implies derivation from some clearly defined norm. On a psychological level, however, we have neither “ideal model” of man to use as a base of comparison, nor are we entirely clear as to just what behavior is or is not normal (Davison, 1996:14).
While sexual abnormality is defined as a sexual dysfunction, which is defined as inhibitions of the normal sexual response cycle (Davison, 1996: 365). 3. Pedophilia
The pedophile is sometimes called the child molester, prefers sexual activity with prepubescent children and acts out his preference repeatedly. The child molester may just undress the child and look, expose himself, masturbate in front of the child or gently touching and fondle the child. Some go further and have oral, anal or vaginal sex with the child, sometimes using force
A. Review of Related Studies
Scott Campbell in his novelTouchedtries to bring a big issue how parents and the justice system deal with a boy touched by a neighborhood child molester. In this novel, Campbell shows his competent as a writer by performing different perspective among layers he creates in his story. Based on Thomas L. Klipatrick from Southern Illinois University Library which is stated in http://search.Barnesandnoble.com/
Bookseacrh/isbninquiry.asp?z=y&isbn=053378228#rev, Campbell is a smart writer who treats his subject creatively by developing an emotional topic about an abusive relationship in a logic way with unambiguous description. Campbell provides the story in four perspectives; first perspective is told by Linda (Robbie Young’s mother), second is by Jeanette (Houseman’s wife), third is by Houseman and finally is by Robbie Young who is molested by Houseman. The four perspectives are connected each other in a coherent description that help readers to understand the story.
From his statement we can see that Campbell has power to create a good book and his novelTouched proves his capability to create a new book with child abuse as its topic and packs it neatly as a melodrama using logical ways so we will not find it as a cheap melodrama but we will find it as more artistic, valuable but indeed understandable one.
=053378228#rev that Scott Campbell is a good writer who successfully delivers a novel about life, people, and love. Campbell provides a story about the complexity of love and affair in two families which are closely related into reality. From that reason, the reader will be able to see the novel as a real action which happens around them so they will understand all characters and include in all actions.
If many criticisms focused on the way Scott Campbell creates the plot and the emotion in the story, the writer wants to show the detail of Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s as his sexual abuse victim in order to show the co relational pattern of their personality development by relating this study with psychological approach.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Theory of character and characterization is very important for us to understand fiction as the imitation of reality. Character is the person in the novel while characterization is the way how the author produces the character. In his book, W.J. Harvey shows the importance of character to form the unity of literary work especially in fiction by emphasizing its contextual knowledge. He said that character is the prime reason for our enjoyment of fiction.
Otto in his book,Science and the Moral Lifesays that character is a human being’s specific identity, which is formed by his environment, and background and those things are very significant to form his/her character.
The method of characterization is the way the writer reveals the character and it can be seen from his action, speech, thoughts, physical appearances and what other characters say or think of him. M.J. Murphy (1992: 161- 173) in Understanding Unseen: an Introduction to English Poetry and the English Novel for Overseas Students states that there are nine ways in which the author presents his character, which are, personality description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reactions, direct comment, thought and mannerism.
a. Personal Description
An author describes the characters through the detail of his/ her appearance. Personal description helps the readers both visualize and understand the characters characterization.
b. Character
We can understand and analyze a character’s nature through other character’s eyes and by giving comment on his/her nature. Other characters will give explanation about his/her character.
c. Speech
An author gives the readers as insight into character in the work through what a person says. The character can give us clue to his own nature through his speaking and conversation with other people and opinion. It can be seen whenever a person speaks, whenever he is in conversation with other characters or whenever he puts forward an opinion, we clearly see his/ her character.
d. Past life
An author gives readers a clue to event that helped to shape a person’s character and form the characters past life we can shape his nature since someone’s attitude can be influenced by their past life.
e. Conversation of others
Author gives readers clue to a person’s character through conversation of other people and things they say about him.
f. Reaction
Author gives readers clues to a person’s character by letting us know how a person reacts to various problems and events.
Direct comment is applied to give straight description of the character to the readers.
h. Thought
Author gives us direct knowledge of what a person is thinking about. i. Mannerism
We can understand a character through the way in which he behaves and talks when he is with other people.
2. Theory of Personality
The term personality can be defined as human’s character both inner and outer and it signs human’s consistency and stability behavior. Ruch in his book Psychology and Life, says that there are no standard meanings of personality but he emphasizes that all definitions of personality attempt in one way or another to include the whole person all the abilities, tendencies, and other innate or acquired characteristics that are more or less consistent from one day to the next and distinguish him from other people. (1967:111).
Heredity is the characteristic of our genetic inheritance and the ways in which it influences personality development. At conception each new individual receives a genetic endowment from his parents, which provides for physical equipment, muscles, glands, sense organs, nerves and so on, essential for his development into adult human being. Thus heredity not only provides the potentialities for development but also determines how individual reacts to his/her environment and how it influences his/her development.
Related to the environment, forces in our environment are constantly shaping our psychobiological development. Our socio-culture environment influences our development even more dramatically through our contact with it. We learn language, we speak, the customs we follow, the values we believe in and the competencies are necessary for dealing with problem in life. Besides participating in a general socio culture environment, we are members of subgroups existing within it, such as family, sex, age, social class, occupation, and religions groups, since each individual belongs to a somewhat unique pattern of sub cultural environment in an individual way.
Self (ego), fundamental to the individual’s self-structure is the assumptions he develops about himself and the world. Below are the assumptions.
a. Reality assumptions -his view of things as he thinks they really are, of kind of person he is and the nature of the world he lives in.
c. Possibility assumption -his concept of how things could be, of possibilities for change of opportunities for personal growth and social progress.
These three sets of assumptions provide individuals with a frame of reference, a consistent view of himself in relation to his environment, essential for guiding his behavior.
Beside those aspects, Clarke et al stated that emotion is also one of the aspects of personality because one’s personality is not only about what one does and think but also what one feels. One’s feeling and thoughts may provoke individual to behave or act in adaptive ways. When an individual behaves in a totally new way, new emotions may be formed and new attitudes may develop (1985: 293). Clare et al proposes that emotions can be aroused from social relationships when one interacts with his physical environment.
Floyd L. Ruch said that to observe psychological changes, we must pay attention to emotional response; emotion itself consists of two aspects. First emotion is as conscious experience and second emotion is as energizer.
Considering all those explanations we will be able to identify the basic emotion of human being and in the following are some theories of human emotion that will support the analysis, first is guilt and second is embarrassment and shame.
Guilt encompasses feeling of having committed a sin, done something evil, subjected someone to an injustice, and of being generally in the wrong and deserving punishment (Clare et al, 1985: 559).
Embarrassment and shame are similar in several ways. Both require the presence of others who realize that some kind of social mistake has been made. Both involve the most acute and psychologically distressing end of the dimension of oneself as a social object. In both there is a loss of self-esteem, but the two emotions differ in many ways and the most important differences is that shame involves morality, that is , a moral lapse, but embarrassment involves more trivial social error (Buss, 1995: 284).
Duane P. Schultz reveals Karen Horney’s personality theory emphasizes the importance of safety need and basic fear in forming human’s personality.
Horney thought childhood was dominated by the safety need, by which she meant the need for security and freedom from fear (Horney, 1973). Whether the infant experiences a feeling of security and an absence of fear is decisive in determining the normality of its personality development. A child’s security depends entirely on how the child is treated by the parents (1998:142).
Basic anxiety is also the foundation of neurosis while neurosis itself is a mental illness that causes depression or abnormal behavior which are effecting someone’s personality development.
endangered, in a world that is out to abuse, cheat, attack, humiliate, betray” (Horney, 1937, p.92). In childhood we try to protect ourselves against basic anxiety in four ways; securing affection, such as trying to do whatever the other person wants, trying to bribe others, or threatening others into providing the desired affection (1998:142).
Susan E. Cloninger in his book Theory of Personality reveals the fundamental issues the psychologists usually use in studying personality. First is descriptive issue which illustrates individual differences, explains the traits that distinguish people in order to find them unique. Second is dynamic issue which concerns with the importance of our thought, unconsciousness, culture and society in shaping our personality and finally developmental issue which is about the importance of heredity and childhood and adulthood experiences to determine someone’s personality.
3. Review on Pedophilia
Psychosexual disorder contains gender identity disorder and paraphilias. The term paraphilias is used to identify a person who is suffering from unconventional sexual activities, for example, pedophilia. Pedophilia is described as a psychosexual disorder in which adult; especially men at least as far as a police records indicate derive sexual gratification through physical and sexual contact with pubertal children.
act (often 18 or older, but in some states may even be 21) (Robert et al, 1983: 602).
According to Neal and Davison in their book Abnormal Psychology pedophile, or child molester is content to stroke the child’s hair, but he may also manipulate the child’s genital, encourage the child to manipulate his, and less often attempt intermission. The molestation may be repeated over a period of week, month or years (1980:298).
Moreover they also explain that in this case, pedophiles generally know the children they molest, being a neighbor, or friend of the family. Usually older heterosexual pedophiles are or have been married at some time in their lives.
Robert Crooks and Karla Baur in their bookOur Sexuality, said that child molestation is the most heinous of crime. Based on investigations most pedophiles are male, perhaps a teenager but often middle aged or older, who is shy, conservative, and frequently very moralistic or religious. The majority of these individuals are family friend, neighbor or acquaintances of the victim. They often have poor social and sexual relations with other adults and they may feel inadequate and inferior (1983:602).
Occasionally, pedophilia involves homosexual adult- child contacts, but the vast majority of such acts are heterosexual in nature, between an adult and female child (Rush, 1980) (Robert et al, 1983:603).
Sometimes the child touches the offender’s genitals. Vaginal intercourse or anal penetration is not very common. However, the potential for violent abuse is present, and evidence suggests that some child molesters may progress to more violent sexual offenses, such as rape (Abel, 1981) (Robert et al, 1983: 603).
4. Review on the Consequences of Childhood Sexual Abuse
Based on Ferrara’s book entitled Childhood Sexual Abuse Developmental Effects Across the Lifespan, a child exposed to abuse may harbor many emotional concerns arising from the abuse. Misperception about the experience, including those about self, the abuser, and the behavior or act that was forces upon the child, linger through out life and can be debilitating. In many instances, total recovery from the emotional trauma may not occur; rather, the victim develops coping skills to help him or her through the highly stressful recalled memories or ensuing flashback that may occur (2002: 74).
with residual issues from the abuse, such as recalled memories, flashbacks and other symptoms, in a self- sustaining manner, whereas other abuses experience severe, acute and chronic reactions, such as mental illness, resulting in debilitating depression, severe psychosis, or dissociative disorder (2002: 79).
Robert Crooks and Karla Baur in their bookOur Sexualityexplain further that child sexual abuse victim may be emotionally traumatized by sexual encounter with an adult; the effects are generally believed to be transitory. Frequently, the major damage in such cases seems to come from parental reaction to revelations or discovery of such activity. The child, when he/ she reports to parent, may merely be relaying a sense of discomfort over something he or she does not fully understand. It is when the parent understandably react with extreme agitation that the child is most likely to develop detrimental emotional reactions. The young person may have a sense of being implicated in what now appears, in light of parental reaction, to be something terrible. She or he may come to feel extremely guilty over having participated in such an event. Children may also feel guilty about such experiences even without parental displays of distress, because they sense the guilt of the person who molests them (1983: 603).
any knowledge about adult sexual activities, therefore most of them sometimes didn’t see it as a great danger.
5. Review on Correlational Studies
Susan C. Cloninger in her review on co relational studies explains that many personality researches is co relational. Correlational research or study, which measures two or more variables to study how they are related, is vital to refining descriptions of personality. Sometimes two measures are studied for a single theoretical construct; in such case, these measures should be correlated. At other times, two different theoretical constructs are predicted to be correlated, because theoretical propositions describe one as causing the other (e.g. “frustration causes aggression”) (2004, 16).
In discussing correlation, we do not merely discuss causality as David G. Elmes emphasized in his book.
The existence of even a sizable correlation implies nothing about the existence of a causal relationship between the two variables under consideration. Correlation does not prove causation (2003: 107).
But basically both correlation and causality are connected to each other since two variables which are causally related will automatically show correlations.
Things that are closely causally related will show correlations that are commensurate with the strength of the relationship. A cause that is both necessary and sufficient for some outcome will be perfectly correlated with that outcome (Sternberg, 1988: 97)
correlation and causality theories in order to explain their personality development’s pattern. InThe Psychology of Human Thoughtwe can see that both theories are interconnected and efficient to explain the relationship between present and past.
Being able to detect the relationship between some condition and outcome accurately is critical both to noticing that some condition (potential cause) is correlated with an outcome of interest and to evaluating whether some suspected cause is actually responsible for the outcome. Whether or not we already have an idea of what the cause is, we must analyze the correlation between the states or evens to infer a causal relationship. Most research on the way people perform his task has focused on the relatively simple situation in which the two events, that is, the possible cause and the outcome, are explicitly identified; in which each has only two possible states, present and absent; in which subjects are not likely to have any prior beliefs about the relationship between the possible cause and the outcome; and in which no other potentially causal variables are involved. The task of the subjects in these studies is simply to evaluate the degree of relationship between the causal variable and the outcome variables, given information about several situations. For each situation, subjects are told (or they observe for themselves) whether the cause is present or absent and whether the outcome is present or absent (Sternberg, 1988: 98).
6. Review on Personality Disorder
Personality Disorder appears when personality traits are inflexible and maladaptive, while personality traits itself is defined as pattern of perceiving and thinking about the environment and oneself. Personality disorders that will be discus in this thesis are schizoid and depression.
have no real friends and no motivation to develop friendships. They are entirely unresponsive to social reward and punishments, and in their dealings with others they seem cold and aloof.
While in the other hand, depression is categorized as mood disorders. Depressive clearly are extremely low in self-esteem and activity. Depression is also marked by an absence of positive affect. This term has been defined by a set of adjectives that has emerged from factor analyses of affectively toned terms: active, alert, attentive, determined, enthusiastic, excited, inspired, interested, proud, and strong. The other factor, called negative affect, is defined by these adjectives: afraid, ashamed, distressed, guilty, hostile, irritable, jittery, nervous, scared, and upset (Buss, 1995:359).
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (American Psychiatric Association, 1994, pg. 733), for research purposes, describesDepressive Personality Disorderas a pervasive pattern of depressive cognitions and behaviors beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:
a. Usual mood is dominated by dejection, gloominess, cheerlessness, joylessness, unhappiness
b. Self-concept centers around beliefs of inadequacy, worthlessness, and low self-esteem
c. Negativistic, critical, and judgmental toward others
d. Prone to feeling guilty or remorseful
7. Review on three Kinds of Abuse and Neglect
Pitchard in his book The Child Abusers states that there are three kinds of abuse and neglect namely physical, emotional and sexual.
Abuse Neglect
Emotional Threats to injure or kill; constant sneering/sarcasm or belittling; throwing away or destroying toys; forbidden to speak or play; scapegoat; favoritism to sibling; locked in room or confined space
considering on those three kinds of abuse and neglect, the writer analyzes some possible factors which create Houseman’s and Young’s personality development.
8. Review on Bisexual
In term of bisexual, there is a tendency to use behavior as the only criterion for sexual orientation and to use bisexual as a catch- all to describe the considerable number of people who fall between exclusive heterosexuality and homosexuality. This grouping falls to take into account within which the sexual experiences occur and the feelings and thoughts of the individuals involved. It is the context, not the contact that may be most significant. Bisexuality can be considered as a behavior or as an identity, and the two are not always the same. He also says that sometimes someone finds the sensation as being homosexual because he ever experiences an unforgettable homosexual intercourse in his past. He explains further that there are two kinds of eroticism in homosexual behavior, first is oral eroticism which focuses on mouth and second is anal eroticism or anal sex or sodomy (Robert et al, 1983:293).
C. Theoretical Framework
theory of personality and review on personality disorder to understand the both Houseman’s and Young’s attitude. Review on three kinds of abuse and neglect is also used to determine the possible factors that form their personality since basically both characters experienced some abuses in their childhood. To solve the first problem, the writer focuses on the review on pedophilia since in this case, Houseman’s sexual abnormality as a pedophile emerges a serious problem and complexity toward him and Robbie Young’s personality development, while to answer the second question, the writer uses the review of the consequences of childhood sexual abuse. In this part, the writer relates the first problem to victim’s life.
Review on bisexual is also important both to answer the first and second problems since both characters show tendency to make sexual intercourse with both man and woman. In this case Houseman with Young and Robbie Young with his boss later in his adulthood.
To support the analysis and to answer the third question, the writer uses a review on correlation studies to draw the importance of childhood experience toward Houseman’s and Young’s personality development. This pattern is functioned to reveal the effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuses in Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s as his sexual abuse victim.
and special trait that distinguish them from others. Second is dynamic issue by seeing the importance of their thought, unconsciousness and environment in shaping their personality and the third is developmental issue. This issue shows how childhood experiences and heredity play significant role in forming our personality, but the importance of heredity could not be applied in this discussion because this research is library research.
A. Object of the Study
The literary work under discussion is Scott Campbell’s novel entitled Touched. Bantam Books publisher published this novel in 1996 and it consists of 313 pages. The novel is divided into four parts in which each part implies both Jerry Houseman’s story as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s story as a sexual abuse victim. The story develops layer by layer as the incidents are recounted and Scott Campbell delivers the story using the characters’ telling.
The first part consists of five chapters voiced by Linda, Robbie Young’s mother who felt guilty for the fact that she was not able to protect her child from being molested. The second part consists of four chapters portraying Jerry’s complexity as a pedophile, imperfect husband for Jeanette and father for his three daughters. Then the third part consists of eight chapters told by Jeanette, Jerry’s wife who showed her unbelievable thought about his husband is abnormality and her disappointment at Jerry’s betrayal. Finally, the fourth part consists of five chapters voiced by Robbie Young himself as the sexual abused victim. He recalled his memory when he was a child and related it into his adulthood.
The story began when Robbie Young told his mother about Houseman’s molestation to him. Young felt uncomfortable and embarrassed about it, more over his mother as the only one he expected to help him recover from his trauma could not help him kept his secret by letting his husband know about it.
His disappointment was getting worse when his parent brought this subject to court, which meant that he must share his shameful experience he should keep inside to the public. This problem also gave a serious impact toward Houseman and his family. He felt guilty to Young, his family and his own family and as the man, who consciously understood that he suffered from sexual abnormality, he blamed himself for failing to keep control of his sexual desire and he also had a self confusion since his love to Young was as highly as his love to his wife and family. In the end of the story he showed his consideration to save Young’s life by refusing his lawyer to fight against Young, unfortunately his decision hurt his family.
The study will analyze the effects of physical, sexual and emotional abuses in Jerry Houseman’s personality development as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s personality development as his sexual abuse victim.
B. Approach of the Study
of literature. In applying this approach, psychology is a study of man’s life together with his mind and behavior (1971: 13-15).
Psychological approach will certainly be helpful to show Jerry Houseman’s character development as a pedophile and Robbie Young’s character development as his sexual abused victim. It means that this study will deal with Jerry Houseman’s traumatic experiences that make him become a pedophile, his attitude as a pedophile, his guilt toward Robbie and his family and Robbie’s attitude and personality development from his childhood into his adulthood as the result of the molestation that Jerry Houseman did to him when he was 12 years old. This analysis is aimed to draw a conclusion about the importance of physical, sexual and emotional abuses in their personality development.
C. Method of the Study
The method used in this study was a library research. It means that the writer gathered the data from some books and references, which are available in the library research or desk research. The main source of the analysis is Scott Campbell’s novel entitledTouched.
Robbie Young’s personality development as his sexual abuse victim become the main topic to be discussed.
Secondly, to answer the problems, the writer tried to find secondary data, meanwhile the secondary data were taken from some books and references that are mainly aimed to support the analysis. The book were A Glossary of Literary Terms by M.H. Abrams, Understanding Unseen by M.J. Murphy, Abnormal Psychology and Modern Life by James Coleman, Personality Development by Elizabeth Hurlock, The Child Abusers Research and Controversy by Colin Pritchard, and some others books.
Then she tried to answer all of the questions by employing the understanding she had conducted by using the first and the second data. The writer tried to apply the theories and the information, which were obtained from the primary and secondary data when completing her analysis of the text.
In the analysis, the writer focuses on Jerry Houseman’s and Robbie Young’s personality development. She identified them by observing their life, which is described in the story directly by the author and indirectly from other characters in the text. The writer also tried to give the detail explanation on their personality by describing them, defining their appearance, their attitude, their behavior and their character that will make a clear definition about their personality development to the reader.
In this chapter the writer will describes Houseman’s and Robbie’s personalities and explain how some factors play significant role in changing them. The writer tries to dig more details about all possible factors that motivate Houseman to develop his sexual abnormality as a pedophile and sees the significance of his molestation toward Robbie Young’s personality development. The writer also considers seeing deeper into Young’s childhood experience as a sexual abuse victim in which finally that experience gives a great contribution to form his personality and his sexual behavior in his adulthood.
The analysis is conducted based on the three problems. The first part describes Jerry Houseman’s personality development, and the general factors that influence his sexual behavior as a pedophile. Then the second part is by relating the molestation Houseman did toward Robbie Young by analyzing his personality development. Finally the third part is to draw their personality development pattern.
A. Jerry Houseman’s Personality Development
The section then presents in details Houseman’s personality development from his childhood, his tendency to be a pedophile that happens during his experiences in the navy and during his marriage to Jeanette, and until he molested Robbie Young which finally comes out to the public. In this analysis, we will
know Houseman’s personality development before he becomes a pedophile and after he changes into a pedophile. There are many factors that influence his personality development; it can come from his inside feeling that includes his consciousness and unconsciousness and also his environment in both his family and society.
1. Houseman’s Personality before He Becomes a Pedophile
Houseman’s personality before he becomes a pedophile can be seen from his childhood experiences into his adulthood before he joins the army service. The evidences that are found in the story, Houseman only has one dominant personality in his childhood before he becomes a pedophile namely inferiority but this personality is not the only one that forms his life since beside his inferiority, he is also considered to have some personality disorder such as schizoid and depressive personality disorder as the result of his inability to adapt with his surrounding and all the changes he faces in his life. Those personalities have different characteristics but they have similar possible factor that motivate them to appear.
a. Inferiority
results of his disability to fulfill his needs from his surrounding especially his family. Family as the closest part of human life especially for children usually has an important role in forming child’s attitude and personality. A child cognitive development is also influenced by his/her family condition and the healthier family condition the better development children will have.
His parental rejection emerges the sense of unworthiness that finally creates low self- esteem and inferiority. Duanne P. Schultz in her book Theory of Personality also discusses Adler’s and Horney’s theories of personality and she focuses on the importance of parental factor in shaping children’s personality development.
Recall Adler’s focus on the consequences for child who feels unwanted or rejected by his or her parents. Such parental rejection leads to a lack of love and security, which leaves the person feeling worthless, angry and lacking in self-esteem.
Horney wrote (based on her own experiences) about how lack of parental warm and affection can undermine a child’s security and lead to feeling of helplessness (1998:472).
Houseman in his childhood has traumatic experience with his family that finally gives strong influence toward his personality development. During his childhood, he was abused both by his parent and his brother. Houseman as the abused victim often feels inferior and has difficulty to make a relationship with others.
shows that he is inferior from his mother even from himself who can not say anything he thinks and feels.
Another evidence of his inferiority is depicted from his story about his father and brother. As the youngest child in the family, he is always treated as the looser. His father as well as his brother usually beats him and that condition brings him into an understanding that they do not love him normally like other brothers and fathers do to their son and brothers. He thinks that he is unsuitable in everything he does since he never sees loving and proud gaze from his parent. He always feels that he has nothing to be proud of and nothing to be shown of in front of his friends that finally make him difficult to make a close relationship with others. Houseman never has any close relationship with others. It can be seen from his story when he recalls his childhood memory. In that time he does not have any real friend to be remembered in his childhood and if we draw a line into a psychological point of view, it happens as the result of his inferiority.
Inferiority: This leaves us with the feeling we are defective, inferior, no good, and undesirable. With this cluster we are sensitive to criticism and rejection and are shamed by our appearance and flaws
(http://emoclear.com/clusters/inferioritycluster.html, 21 June 2007).
Houseman is always afraid if others get closer to him and see the real him. His own uncomfortable feeling and disability to be the master of him strengthen his inferiority.
had any ability to fight back and to protest just like a mirror, which reflexes his own condition in his childhood.
b. Depressive Personality Disorder
People’s purpose in their life is to gain love and security. In facing some problems, they basically have a spontaneous instinct to defend which is psychologically called as self-protective mechanism. Most problems that appear are followed by anxiety that usually appears as the border in human’s personality development. Basic anxiety itself is defined as an “insidiously increasing, all pervading feeling of being lonely and helpless in a hostile world (Horney, 1973, p.89) (1998:142). If they could not defend it can lead to more complex one that finally creates a kind of personality disorders.
“Personality trait is enduring patterns of perceiving, relating to, and thinking about the environment and oneself, and is exhibited over a wide range of important social and personal contexts. It is only whenpersonality traitsare inflexible and maladaptive and cause either significant functional impairment or subjective distress that they constitute Personality Disorder” (American Psychiatric Association, 1987, p.335) (1995:351).
amore complex pattern covering all his feeling which finally influences his attitude and motivation to life. He becomes pessimistic and has low self esteem.
This personality disorder is very dominant in Houseman’s childhood and it develops into his pubertal especially during the age of twelve. Houseman suffers from parental lack of affection and it directly influences his emotion and motivation. When other child gets protection from parents, full affection from his mother and great support from his sibling, Houseman in his early childhood never feels that and sometime he feels that their families often humiliate him. His disappointment sometimes appears together with other emotion such as anger, sadness, fear and shame from his temperament that make him into a depressed person.
His depression as the result of his traumatic experience he got in his childhood is depicted by his motivation to repress that experience into his unconscious mind. It can be seen from his disappointment to Dr. King, his psychologist who tries to help him recover from his sexual abnormality since it reminds him into the blackest part in his life that he really wants to forget. He looks unpleasant to retell it and think that it is unnecessary to do because it will pull him back into the time when he feels shameful and unworthy.
Pitchard in his book The Child Abusers also reports that the most damaging neglect and abuse of children occurs when the abuser is the parent or family.
So often physical neglect and abuse is wrapped in emotional cruelty, or emotional difference to the child’s developmental needs. The corruption and exploitation of a close relationship, the effect of which can be so long lasting and destructive
(2004: 35).
In this case, Houseman shows his instable emotion toward his parent and family, besides loving them; he also keeps great hatred toward them. That condition depresses him, places him in confusion, and until he is adult, he still cannot understand his parent’s intention to him, especially about his father who always treats him as if he were his property and makes him fight with his brother just for his pleasure without considering Houseman’s feeling.
Dr King took a lot of interest in fact that at about age twelve, my dad made us start to fight, Doug and me. He thought it was important that a boy know how to defend himself. In the schoolyard, against bullies, just for his sense of himself. So on Tuesday he took us down to the basement and cleared a space by the furnace with a single bare bulb hanging over it and sat at the edge of the ring of light on an overturned box. Then he rang a bell and we went at it. Every Tuesday night (p.99).
as an abusive act. His father teaches him to be more masculine by hitting and making him fight with his brother in order to see him be able to defend from his enemy, independent and strong, beside that, he wants to get pleasure by watching them fight each other. While his mother always forbids him to talk to others in order to protect him from strangers, gives him the example to speak up without gives him any chance to practice and the main reason and the important one is that she wants to show her competence and her strong position in the family.
As we can see from Pitchard book The Child Abusersthat there are three kinds of abuse and neglect, first is physical, second is emotional and third is sexual. Considering that theory, we can see that Houseman suffers from both physical and emotional abuse from both his parents and his brother. His mother’s treatment who never allows him to speak up his own opinion or even speak with others, represses his life that creates an inferior understanding of being unimportant , neglected and unexpected. This emotional abuse continues until his adulthood. In the other side, his father usually abuses him physically by hitting and making him fight with his brother. Those abuses are etched on his mind and left a traumatic experience.
Everything that he does is still motivated by his consciousness to follow the norm that exists in his family and his depressed personality appears because he presses his fear, pain, shame and all the things he hides in his mind and heart to avoid punishment and any judgment from his parent.
2. Houseman’s Personality after He Becomes a Pedophile
Houseman shows some differences after he comes back from the service. Besides developing the personality he has already had before, Houseman also indicates to have a new personality that he never had before such as schizoid and introversion personality. Although he shows those personalities, he still maintains his childhood personalities since he can not be able to change it into a more positive one because in his adulthood especially after he recognizes his abnormality as a pedophile he suffers from a more complex depressive personality disorder.
a. Introvert Personality
The definition of introvert from Wikipedia is a condition where people are less outgoing and less sociable. They are not necessarily asocial but they tend to have smaller circles of friends and are less likely to thrive on making new social contacts.
others are. He feels all alone with no one cares and the idea grows into low self-esteem that finally creates a difficulty for him to make a good circle link or relationship with other people.
This attitude continues into his adulthood and becomes clearer after he has joined the navy. The characteristic of army which is developing ego-centric attitude where the members only tend to conduct one direct communication and are never allowed to speak up which is actually just similar with himself in his family. It has strong influence in Houseman’s attitude and his experience in Manila shows his unsocial attitude that describes the characteristic of egocentric, which usually appears in army. In manila during his break time, he never tries to spend his time with his friends or making approaches with the civil. He prefers to spend his life to taste drugs and sex in some bars in Mabini Street, Manila. His life’s way in Manila shows that he tends to be relatively non-engaged in social situation and considers placing his own pleasure among others. His belief of being all right to do something wrong in Manila and later with his reputation as a veteran he can automatically abolish all his dirt, contends of an ego centric way of thinking and basically it is appears as the base point of introversion.
I thought I was over all of that after I got back from the navy. Over there, all rules were different and it was possible to slip into a different corner of life.
We experienced with all kinds of these over there, all kinds of sex and drugs. But when we got back to the states, I though I was clean again. I thought I could just return to who I’d been before, that I could leave that version of me in Manila (p.94).
personality but later being alone without any observation from his parents gives him a new soul. Being alone for him in that time means recharged his energy. Finally, he decides to leave his parents and lives alone in Greenwood Avenue. In that place, he enjoys his loneliness and he just does his routine activities without even complaining about it, without any passion for getting the best thing he can do and just lets his life flows naturally.
Remembering that time of my life always makes me happy now. Walking to the Busy Bee down those shady streets in the early summer, just enjoying the fact that I had the time to stroll along in the morning without anybody shouting at me, Do this or do that. I remember going out with my hair still wet and getting the paper at the drugstore that air-conditioned hospital smell, and ambling into the coffee shop (p.86).
From the discussion of introversion in (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introvert), we know that an introvert person likes to take pleasure in solitary activities such as reading, writing, watching movies, etc. An introvert person also tends to enjoy for being alone and spends less time with large groups of people although they may enjoy one- to- one or one- to- few interactions with close friends.
Jerry Houseman also tends to have that consideration and from his routine activities that he always does after he discharged from the navy, proves that he increases his introvert personality. From his story, we can see that he enjoys being alone, does unvaried activities and avoids contact with other people.
The grill cook was a showoff, loved making a production of breaking the eggs and dumping them on the grill, like he was doing magic tricks, then serving them up in pool grease. It didn’t take long for him to learn my name and start greeting me every morning as soon as I walked in the door. He always did it with the: name game.” “Hey, Jerry!” he’d call out. Then he’d start sashaying back and forth in this funny bump-and grind way, singing “Jerry-Jerry bo-Berry, Banana-Fana-Fo Ferry. Fee-Fie- Mo-Merry, Jerry!”It was a little family in there, I Got to know other regulars. It was like the navy was at its best: close-knit. But it was better. You could get away from them (p.86-87).
As an introvert, Houseman does not have a sensitive feeling about each attention and love other people give to him. The worse thing he does, as the impact of his less social sensitivity is that he never recognizes whether Jeanette always gives him too much attention and cares each time he comes in coffee shop where she works as a waiter.
To tell the truth, I did not especially notice Jeanette at first. She took my order and brought me my food and she was very pleasant, but I did not take an interest at first. I was too preoccupied, I Guess. As much as I like to remember that time, I was not in a good way then. I was pretty confused about what to do (p.87).
come around with his family and finds a relaxation, the sense of family there that he misses for all his life.
b. Serious Depressive Personality Disorder
His depressive personality disorder develops until his adulthood it can be seen clearly from his attitude after he gets out of the navy. He never feels comfortable around his parents. He thinks that they always watch him out all days and direct his life since they want everything run perfectly as they expect to be.
When I first got discharged I went back to my mom and dad’s house in Napoleon, but I knew within a day I wasn’t going to be able to stay there long. For one thing, the house is tiny- barely big enough for a gerbil. And when you add my mother “hovering” over me the way she did, standing there in the doorway with her hands a ball at her waist, and my dad leaning back in his recliner, going on about WW II and all the buddies he lost there….(p.85).
Another category of his depression can be seen from his nervy respond and his less confident and self esteem to face the world.
I have always had a tendency to feel crowded in small places. I have always hated elevators, and tunnels make me nervous. I feel like I am just too big to be confined in those little spaces. I am not-not literally. I mean. I am only five foot eight and weight only145 so it is not about physical size. I just like to have space around me. I have been that way as long as I can remember I feel so cramped in myself. I guess that I just need room for all this stuff in me to get out and get away (p.86).
adulthood is his awareness of having a sexual attractiveness to boys. His failure to handle his emotion, desire and his sexual needs confuse him and give him more complicated feeling that drives him into a more complex depressive personality disorder. His awareness of being a pedophile who has sexual attractiveness toward boys as well as his wife is confusing him and sometimes it is very painful and destructive for him. This condition is depicted clearly from the nerve, scare and fear characteristics he shows whenever he faces the problems especially when he is aware that he has unusual sexual behavior. Sometimes he asks himself about it but nothing is explainable and understandable. He finds something fading and when it becomes clearer, he is getting sick and scared.
This thing I have about boys. I do not know. I like kids. I have always liked kids all sizes and shapes of kids. In addition, there is nothing funny about it, nothing
Nothing unusual about it, part boy, part man, or not even part man, more like just containing a hint of the man that’s going to come-the way the air in the fall carries a hint of the winter to come- there’s something about a boy at that age that touches me in some way, some really deep-seated way. I do not understand it.I understand this desire as a sexual desire only after I was in the navy. Up until then I understood it only as an interest, even an obsession. I mean, I was certainly aware that I got a strange tingle around these boys, some of these boys. It was exciting, really trilling. It made my breath come faster, made me pitch forward slightly when I was near them, so I could be that much nearer to them. This was when I was an eagle scout, working with younger scouts. But I never understood that excitement as sexual. It made me goofy; it felt different from how I felt about girls. It came from a different part of me (p.91-92).
But I had never seen Jerry so scared before, not scared so much that this Tony might tell-by the time he told me he was pretty sure the boy wasn’t going to say anything but scared of himself, his own impulses. Scared of what he’d let himself do and of what that might mean he’d do in the future (p. 146).
In facing the hardest time, Jeannette always accompanies Houseman but since it relates to his psychological needs about love, pleasure, and desire, it usually appears repeatedly. For a moment, he thinks that he is able to deal with that unusual interest by focusing his attention just for his wife and daughters but that feeling does not stand for a long time.
And for a long time I did. I still felt that interest about boys, but I wasn’t about to act on it. I had a wife, then a daughter, then two. I was a family man. I wasn’t going to mess with that (p.94).
the sense of guilt in Houseman’s mind. He feels guilty toward his family, Robbie Young and himself for bringing them into a big problem. Hurlock says that the feeling of guilt can make people lose their confidence to achieve what they want and when this sense of guilt develop, he tries to blame someone else for his self protection and in this case Houseman blames God for all that stuff he has in his life.
As Robert M. Miller says in his article Analysis of the Spectrum of Depression, we can see clearly about Houseman’s consideration of being depressed person since beside he has low self-esteem, nervy, fear, guilt and anxious feeling, he also has a suicide thought.
Depressed patients often cannot continue working and have difficulty dealing with family and friends. Other symptoms of major depression are deep despair, misery, irritability, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, change in eating and sleeping habits, fatigue and inability to concentrate. Other mental illnesses, such as anxiety and alcoholism are also associated with major depression (http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro98/202s98-paper3/Miller3.html, 21 June 2007).
pedophile soaks him into more confusion that finally influences his way of thinking and seeing his life. He begins to put a condemn on his condition, blame God and think that he is rejected not only by his family but also God who is believed as the most merciful one.
Before he becomes a pedophile, he only shows a gloomy attitude that indicates his depression but after he becomes a pedophile, it increases into fear, anxious, hatred to God and himself and the worse thing is his decision to commit suicide.
c. Schizoid
People who are diagnosed with schizoid are called loners. They have no real friends and no motivation to develop friendship. Arnold H Buss also explains this disorder in his bookPersonality Temperament, Social behavior and the Self.
They are entirely unresponsive to social rewards and punishments and in their dealings with others they seem cold and aloof. This is a description of those at the extreme low end of the sociability dimension. Recall that unsociable people are only weakly motivated to be with other, would just as soon be off by themselves, are generally not susceptible to social rewards and being unresponsive to others, are seen to lack warm (1995:352).
concept of being different from others. His finding of being different makes him feels as an outsider from normal people so he tries not to show who he really is in front of others. He does that in order to be accepted since he worries that they will not like him if they know that he is a pedophile so when finally he meets Jeanette he does not tell her his consideration of being bisexual who is interested to boys.
He also has no sensitive respond toward other’s attention and tends to stay cool in order to save his privacy and to cover his disability to accept the changes and new people around him. His insensitiveness is getting worse when he can not identify Jeannete’s attention as love. He never considers others’ feeling and reaction toward him and never gives more attention toward the alert people show to represent some meaning in conversation and in this case, Houseman always plays as the second person in the conversation and just reacts only if other people stimulus him first. Schizoid is also categorized as an alienation since people who are identified developing this disorder always feel impair from the society and alone with low ability to keep in touch with others.
While alienated person are identified to have feeling of being an outsider, different from others, lonely, never fit in anywhere, unlikable and unlovable, weird around others and feel as an odd person in which those feelings are owned by Houseman.
B. Robbie Young’s Personality Development
his childhood into his adulthood by other characters’ story and by himself. Robbie is an example of a child who suffers from sexual abuse as well as emotional abuse that gets some difficulty to step forward in his future. Little Robbie shows a perfect and ideal development but after he is molested by Houseman, his new neighbor who has already be friend of him, he seems to have a psychological problem and shows unbalance development moreover his mother reports this case to the police in which later it makes everyone knows his amusing secret as a sexual abuse victim.
In this section, Robbie’s personality will be discussed into two parts. First is before Houseman molests him and second after Houseman touches him where in that time he must face both public opinion and his own judgment about himself. Houseman’s molestation triggers many conflicts in Robbie’s life and besides creating unbalance personality development, it also leaves a great traumatic experience for Robbie that indirectly changes his attitude and his whole life.
1. Robbie Young’s Personality Before He is Molested
a. Extrovert Personality
Extrovert is defined as a type of personality that shows human as more gregarious, assertive, talkative and enthusiastic. Extrovert persons tend to enjoy public community and tend to think to speak. They are likely to enjoy time spent with people and have less time spent alone.
Based on Duane P. Schultz in Theory of Personality, an extrovert person tends to have high sensation seeking; they will concern other people as audience or as a source of stimulation and they will like to experience new things and tends to be an adventurer.
Robbie also indicates to have that kind of personality. He is a lovely person who likes to make new relationship with people. Different with other children in common who only think about themselves with big ego, Robbie shows having more social attitude. He likes to help others and makes a good relationship both with children in his age and adults. His mother, Linda also reveals about his wonderful personality.
He has always been a friendly kid. When he was small, he used to wander up and down and strike up a conversation. Just like that, no fears, no shyness. It always amazed me about him (p.12).
Robbie child is talkative too even sometimes he is a little bit boastful but that condition is actually one reason for him to be famous.
By the time I found him there, he would have told them all about Danny and Ken and the cat that lived in the woodpile. He did not always get the facts right- once he’d told them we owned a horse_ but he never left anything out.
