Altruism in society campaign

Andrea Bonanza, Sandra Martin, Samantha Craig, Shinall Van Ross, Jeanine Jones, Caryn Abraham

PSY/400

September 29, 2015

Sherri L. Sedler

Introduction

Child Abuse is a huge issue that is on the rise all over the world. In the year 2007 "Child Protective Service in the United States has received 3.2 million cases of child abuse reports." (Noremy, Zulkarnain, Kelvin, Adanan, & Sarah, 2012) What many do not know is that many of these reported cases usually involve a family, member. There are signs that show when a child is being abused, and usually these children are young and go to a pedestrian. In 2009, there was a recorded "6 million children referred, 702,000 confirmed cases of abuse, and 1,770 child deaths." (Levi, Dellasega, & Boehmer, 2012) These deaths happened in children who were too young actually to tell what happened, and the doctors overlooked the problem. Considering Altruism is when individuals do acts that help others without any personal gain. Providing doctors and new parents with information on what child abuse is and what the signs. This is considered an altruistic behavior because it is giving information out freely to help parents and their children.

Nature of Child Abuse

An individual who abuses a child has a significant impact on the past and future well-being of an innocent child. Physical force is not the only type of child abuse. The nature of child abuse can be either mental or physical abuse that can take place in a public or private setting. Mental abuses consist of yelling, threats, name-calling, and intimidation. Physical abuses consist of hitting; kicking, pinching, poking or it could be sexual that involves intercourse or touching inappropriately. After the victim experiences child abuse, he or she will feel a sense of guilt, pain, confused and being shameful (Nico Trocmé, Harriet Mac Millan, Barbara Fallon, Richard De Marco (2003).

History of Child Abuse

Child abuse has an extensive history. Children have been abused by parents or caretakers since the beginning of time. Many centuries laws ignored to protect children from child abuse. In the 1800s the English common law believed children were the property of their fathers and women were the property of their husbands (Rodriguez CM, Tucker MC (2011). In 1974 federal law, Child Abuse Prevention & Treatment Act (CAPTA) was developed to decrease child abuse, recognize and report child abuse and to provide shelter and other protective services to victims (Rodriguez CM, Tucker MC (2011). Children's world revolves around parents or the caretakers. It is the parents or caretakers responsibility to provide love, understanding, security, nurturance, safety, and support. When a parent or caretakers fails to provide those things, it violates child's trust and affects relationships with the world. Child abuse history results in a negative impact physically and mentally on the individual. Unfortunately, the impact on child abuse doesn't end when the abuse stops. Long-term depression, anxiety disorders, poor self-esteem, aggressive behavior, suicide attempts and use of drugs will effects their daily living.

Effects on Society

Child abuse no matter what form, verbal, physical, or sexual all have long term effects on society that can be seen worldwide in our children, and the adults they become.Child sexual abuse is considered a modifiable risk factor for mental disorders across the life course (Norman, Byambaa, De, Butchart & Scott, 2012). Exposure to non-sexual child maltreatment, namely, physical abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect is associated with increased risk of a wide range of psychological and behavioral problems, including depression, alcohol abuse, anxiety, and suicidal behaviors, and with increased risk of HIV and herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV2) infection (Norman, Byambaa, De, Butchart & Scott, 2012)

Behavior and psychological problems can cause the abused child to grow into an unproductive adult. The shame, guilt, anger, and depression can make it difficult to maintain employment and good social relationships. The shame and guild can cause a person to withdraw for society. The anger can cause people to become bitter, and unremorseful of taking their frustrations out on anyone that they may encounter including other children. Depression can be so deep that it leads to suicide that can be permanently other family members and loved ones.

Any form of child abuse has obvious negative effects on the child, the family, and society. There is a body of that supports the idea that the experience of physical abuse during childhood increases the likelihood that one will become a child physical abuse perpetrator in adulthood (Wapner, 2011). The popular press assisted in making child sexual abuse the scourge of society, imminent and almost inevitable, and with predicted severe short- and long-term effects in all cases (Veraa, 2009).

Child abuse can be a continuous cycle that needs to be broken. People who were abused as children, can and sometimes do become the abuser in adulthood. Zero tolerance for abuse is a positive step to help combat child abuse and its effects on the family and society as a whole. Child abuse creates problems that reach out into society, by causing the abused to seek outlets to help them deal with their inner feelings of anger, inadequacy, unworthiness, and the emptiness of not belonging, that no one deserves to feel, all because of how they were mistreated as a child.

Elements of Persuasion

Persuasion is "The process by which a message induces a change in beliefs, attitudes, or Behaviors" (Myers 2010)". There are four different elements of persuasion. The four elements consist of the communicator that is who is presenting the message. The second is the message itself. The third is how the message is being conveyed. Lastly, we have the audience, which is who the message is being directed to. For this paper, the two elements that will be discussed are the communicator and the audience. The communicator's role is crucial in getting the message out. There are several factors That can help the communicator to get the audience to be persuaded by their argument. There are two routes to persuasion the central route and the peripheral route. The central route happens when audience members are interested in the topic and engage with favorable comments or responses. The second route of persuasion is called the peripheral route this "Occurs when people are influenced by incidental cues, such as a speaker's attractiveness" (Myers, 2010). We see examples of this two routes of persuasion all the time. For example, if a speaker is giving a lecture on a child abuse and the audience is filled with people who suffered from child abuse or knows someone suffering from child abuse. The audience will be more attentive, interested and engaged in the discussion. The message is also spread and received more effectively when the communicator is credible, trustworthy, attractive, well liked and high knowledgeable about the topic being discussed.

The audience is the group of people receiving the message. Two factors that impact the effectiveness of the message from the communicator are self-esteem and the age of the audience. "People with low self-esteem are often slow to comprehend a message and, therefore, hard to persuade" (Myers, 2010). Younger audience members tend to be more willing to adapt and change while older audience members tend to hold on to the beliefs they were brought up with, making them less likely to change. It also helps the message to be received more effectively if the audience frame of mind is good. For example, what the audience is thinking about while receiving the message. The audience needs to be focused and not distracted in order engage in the topic. It also helps if the audience members were forewarned, meaning they were aware of the topic beforehand and had the opportunity to form a counter argument.

Justification of Elements of Persuasion

Altruism is what motivates individuals to act in a way that increases the wellbeing of another without regard for one's self. To help children of abuse, people need to become motivated to act. However, to motivate this altruistic behavior, elements of persuasion are needed. According to the social exchange theory, human interactions are based off social exchanges that aim to "maximize one's rewards" and "minimize one's costs" (Myers, 2010). The campaign against child abuse starts with informing people, then persuading them to act by using the elements of persuasion, the communicator, and the audience.

The social exchange theory explains why humans act and interact in social relationships. According to the social-exchange theory, when a person helps another they are rewarded externally or internally. External rewards can be in the form of material objects, appreciation from others, or improving public status. Internal rewards can be self-congratulations, feeling good about oneself, or to decrease negative feelings, such as, guilt or distress (Batson, 1987). When people decide to help others, they do a cost benefits analysis based on what resources they can gain in exchange for help. Love, status, information, money, goods, and services are six types of resources that can be exchanged (Cropanzano & Mitchell, 2005). So how can one motivate altruistic behavior?

In regard to the social-exchange theory, motivation for altruistic behavior can be to boost social status, increase sense of self-worth, feel good for making others happy, and to reduce distress or guilt (Myers, 2010). Using this information one can persuade individuals to act.

Two elements of persuasion used in this campaign will be the communicator and the audience. The communicator of the message will affect how the audience receives it. The communicator must be credible, knowledgeable on the topic, speak confidently, trustworthy, and liked by the audience (Myers, 2010). These traits are important when persuading the audience. The campaign to intervene child abuse will be directed towards a large audience. However, to effectively persuade individuals the message from the communicator must stimulate the audience and provide them with information and motivation to act against child abuse.

Intervention and Prevention Strategies

"Recent research has revealed that early life trauma, including abuse (sexual and physical) and neglect, produce lasting changes" (Gould et al., 2012). Child abuse should never be justified. There is no excuse, and with this in mind there is a responsibility to report and speak up against even miniscule signs of abuse. A small tap can lead to the death of an innocent child because someone decided to pass a blind eye to warning signs of abuse. Often, abusers were abused in the past, but this is not an excuse for their actions. There are a few strategies that can be implemented to intervene and prevent child abuse. These strategies will allow concerned individuals to speak up and speak out. As intervention and prevention are discussed, it is important to strategize, so the plans are known and made available for persons who are reporting cases of abuse.

Many times abuse is reported by a health care professional when the child is brought to the hospital or doctors office. But many abusers also neglect their responsibilities. The Department of Children and Family Service has many channels available for suspected child abuse. To properly and safely intervene, it is important to familiarize yourself with this resource, because it allows a trained professional to step in and protect the suspected abused child. There is another manner in which concerned individuals can intervene, and it is very simple and well-known call 911. Child abuse intervention is very important because it can prevent further episodes and most importantly it can protect lives.

To prevent child abuse, new parents should enter a program while in the hospital to educate them on child abuse. Child abuse affects a child forever; it is a scar that never heals. Research shows, "an impact of child maltreatment on emotion processing into the middle adulthood" (Young & Widom, 2014).

This educational module will focus on how to deal with depression, anger, frustration, and crisis. By implementing this session, new parents will know there are ways to handle and channels that are willing to help in times of need. It is important to reach out to the parents at an early phase this way, the child abuse prevention seed is planted and when they raise their hand to strike their child the parent us reminded of the options he or she has to deal with the underlying issues. Child abuse is very serious, and because many times the children are too young or too scared to speak up for themselves, it is important for them to have still a voice that is heard. Too many children are losing their lives to a battle they had no chance of winning.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Child abuse is a serious crime that does not seem to be going away. Each year children are being abused, and it is usually by someone close to them such as a family member. The history of child abuse has been traced back all the way to the 1800's and even has large effect on the child psychologically. There are four elements of persuasion these are the person who is giving the message, how the message is received, and the audience of the message goes to. Persuasion can also end child abuse if the message from the communicator and the audience is heard clearly. Prevention is the key and if a child is not old enough to speak out against the abuse it lies in the hands of the others around them to do so. Therefore, since even just a small hit on the head, fall, or even a shake can cause serious trauma or death doctors should report any and all signs of abuse to be checked out.

References

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