Who Abused Jane Doe? Reflection Paper Christy Tran Psychology 1100 Section 5 Fall 2012

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1 Who Abused Jane Doe? Reflection Paper Christy Tran Psychology 1100 Section 5 Fall 2012 Have you ever read an article that physically made your stomach ache? Well I never have until I read this particle article. Who Abused Jane Doe? by Elizabeth F. Loftus and Melvin J.

2 Guyer is an intriguing article about a six year old girl who may or may have not been abused by her mother. Jane Doe was only an infant when her parents divorced, but the custody battle for Jane that followed lasted many years. In 1997 a psychiatrist named David Corwin did a case study on Jane and her situation. Corwin was in and out of Jane s life from when she was six years old until she was seventeen, trying to prove that her mother was in fact guilty of abusing her. Jane started out by living with her mother until her father and stepmom accused her mother of sexual and physical abuse. Specifically, Jane said that her mother would rub her finger up my vagina in the bathtub. Jane s mother was also accused of burning her feet and taking pornographic pictures of Jane and her brother John and selling them, however there was never any proof of the pictures. Her father was an alcoholic and her mother was a financially unstable woman who had several unsuccessful marriages. After interviewing many people: Jane s mother, stepmom, foster mom, half-brother John, and her grandmother, Loftus and Guyer found an interesting turn of events. They began to question whether or not Jane really was abused by her mother, or if her father and Corwin had manipulated her into saying such things. When it comes down to it, all the proof Corwin has, is based on Jane s memories, which could have easily been tampered with throughout the case study. Even Jane herself can never know for sure if her mother actually abused her or if it was all planted into her mind. This is the reason why I could not put this article down while reading it, I was so interested and the suspense was keeping me at the edge of my seat until the end. By definition the word case study is a type of research that brings us to an understanding of a complex issue or object, it can also provide added strength to what we already know through previous research. Case studies give a detailed look at key points in an event/ situation which can lead us to draw further conclusions about the relationships within those

3 events. Social scientists have made wide use of the research method particularly to real-life situations, in this case Jane Doe s situation. Case studies have several important steps within: Step One: Determine and define research question Step Two: Determine data gathering and analysis techniques Step Three: Prepare to collect data Step Four: Collect data Step Five: Analyze data Through these five steps, researchers may or may not prove their case correct. The article Who Abuse Jane Doe listed advantages and disadvantages of these research method, an important disadvantage is that they are misleading. Researchers should not base their theories on a particular case study or accept it as proof because the case study itself may be unstable in their own experiences, in this case, thats Jane Doe. There was no real evidence on whether or not she was abused by her mother, eleven years later after the initial accusation, Jane seemed to have forgotten that her mother abused her, after talking to Corwin she suddenly remembers again, and even added the accusation that her mother took pornographic pictures of her, which has never been brought up previously. Corwin called this repressed memories, but nobody can ever be sure what actually happened. However, case studies or case histories does have its advantages in a sense that they are compelling anecdotes, strong enough to generate theories of behavior. They also offer an opening into human nature and physiology that could not be open any other way. Throughout his case study, Corwin mentions the words repressed memories often. A repressed memory can often occur when the brain experiences an event so traumatic that it blocks it out completely, it can also be referred to as dissociative amnesia. When something traumatic happens, the brain is in such shock that it takes that memory and buries in underground to a place where it can never be repeated. Loftus says that repression is one of the most

4 haunting concepts of psychology and that it is the foundation on which psychoanalysis rests. Corwin uses this definition to explain why Jane Doe may not remember ever being sexually and physically abused by her mother. However, some researchers who study memory disagree with the idea of a repressed memory. In the article, Loftus and Guyer mention that after many lab experiments, these suggestible methods increase memory errors in a sense that they cause people to confuse what actually happened to their imagination. The same researchers brought up a good point on how people who have lived through concentration camps, victims of rape, those who were in the war, etc... They remember these memory, painfully, every day, and they will never forget. So why is it that some individuals repress their memories while others will never let go of it? Some say children are naive, some say children are not mature enough to be trusted, but a preschool child can have an extremely strong testimony, more so than any full-grown adult can. Children say what they see and exactly how they feel. Unless they are told other wise, children have no reason to lie, they have no reason to hide what they have witnessed unless an adult has threatened them to do so. I think its only fair to hear a child s testimony as long as that child is in condition to, meaning that the child s thoughts have not been tampered by someone who wants to hide something. It may take some time to gain that child s trust but once you do, they will tell you everything and anything. I despise those who try to soil a child s clean thoughts in order to keep themselves out of trouble. I can t help but think that either her father, stepmother, or Corwin, tampered with Jane Doe s memories in some way or another, its not a coincidence that she is happy and doing fine mentally until Corwin comes along and messes everything up for her again. He confuses her and manipulates her in a way that may be false and is not her own opinion so much as his own.

5 I know what its like to be passionately driven to reach a goal or find an answer. It is implied that professionals interview children of alleged abuse because they want to know more about the subject. These people are driven to find an answer. It may be that they were abused as a child themselves and they want to prevent it from happening to other children. It may be that they are looking for answers on what kind of people children who have been abused grow up to be. Bottom line is they are out to seek something, either something for themselves, something for the child, or something for others. Professionals and researchers have questions about topics every day, and depending on how curious they are they ll pursue that. I m thankful for those people in the world, in a sense, because they educate all of us. Whether they re result is a positive or negative one, the world benefits from their research because we learn more about child abuse and its background, which hopefully, ultimately, will one day put an end to it. References

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