PBL QUESTION: Does abuse carry on through generations?
Entries For Our Project
Question we asked Mr.Todd and Mrs.Buchanan Have you ever worked with an abusive teen? (Meghan) If so, were there parents also abusive? (Keysean) Do you think that this is the reason that they are abusive? (Meghan) Have you noticed abuse carrying on through generations as a common correlation? (Keysean) Any other thoughts on the topic? (Meghan)
Notes to Create Our Infographic Research Notes for Infographic Source #1
To say that people who abuse others are unaware might sound crazy but, if they belong to a family of abusers, it could be very true. And it is hard to believe that someone could cause another to experience such pain and suffering while being completely oblivious to the consequences of their actions. But, this happens a lot.
It Generational Abuse. It happens like this: If one is not aware of their behavior or what is going on inside their own mind; there is the potential for abuse. And so out of this lack of awareness, one can end up abusing their children and other people around them. At a surface level, we can see that the reason someone is abusive to everyone is that they were abused. And so they are continuing on the same behavior that was passed onto them by their parents.
While the above description sounds valid and largely true for people who are abusive, it doesn't answer why people are not aware enough to put an end to generational abuse.
Although awareness is what can bring abuse to an end; if one was abused as a child, they are unlikely to have been aware while they were being abused. During the moments of their abuse, there would have been the need to repress and to deny what was going on.
Source #2 The cycle of violence is made up of four phases: Build-Up:
Some stress (eg: job, money or bills) begins this part of the cycle. The stress causes the abuser to feel powerless. The abuser chooses to act out toward a spouse or partner through name calling, insults, accusations.
Act Out:
The tension that builds up leads to severe verbal abuse, violent physical or sexual attack.
It may happen once or again and again.
Abuse is always intentional and never an accident. The motivation for any type of abuse is to hurt, humiliate or have power and control over an individual.
Rationalize/Justify:
In this phase, the abuser uses defense mechanisms such as blaming others or minimizing violence.
Defense mechanisms are used to turn blame away from the abuser and make him/her feel better. The abuser defines the abuse and interprets how things “really are”. The abused partner begins to believe this interpretation.
Pretend Normal:
Once the rationalize/justify step is in place, both partners try to make the relationship continue in a normal way by pretending that everything is alright. However, the cycle of abuse will continue, if the problems in the relationship are not addressed.
Source#3 Five steps to take when trying to break the cycle of abuse with your children:
Make a coherent narrative out of your story. You can become a far better parent by facing the full pain of your own childhood and creating an account of your life that makes sense.
Learn techniques to calm yourself. Certain tense moments with your children can trigger emotions from your past. At these times, you are more likely to fly off the handle or act irrationally in response to the situation. That is why it is essential to learn ways to calm down before reacting. Take several deep breaths. Count to 10. Take a walk. Listen to music. Think before you act.
Lead by example. Aggressive behavior toward young children makes for more aggressive children. Teach your children to use their words.
Take steps to build a secure attachment. Your children need limits, but they also have to know that they can trust you. If they are afraid of you, they are unlikely to feel relaxed in your presence.
Repair. After we mess up we can repair. This means first listening to how your child experienced the interaction then, explaining how you felt in the situation and apologize for any mistreatment.
Brainstorming Coming up With a Question
Driving Question/Problem to answer: Does mental illness ever get cured? Is mental illness worse than physical illness? Is physical illness easier to recover from than mental illness? Does abuse carry on through generations? Is abusing other people or your children ever okay?
Worklog Blog #1
Today as a group it was really about brainstorming and coming up with ideas we think would be a good idea. With all of our ideas coming together we started to create a script for our newscast. We’ve accomplished all the questions we are going to ask Mr. Todd. Mr. Todd is going to be used as a person/ witness because of the question we're asking (does abuse carry on through generations) like a newscast. Some problems we have come across is making sure that we’ll do everything on time and make sure that everyone has a role that is somewhat effective. While brainstorming all of our ideas we started to use each others ideas and make one really good idea everybody likes. One thing we are struggling with is making sure that Mr.Todd is okay with us interviewing him about something that he might not want to talk about because it’s too personal for some students. As we talk to each other it’s becoming a lot easier to create a script because we are all on the same page and all have different, new ideas.
Worklog Blog #2 Today as a group we were creating small clips for our video and interviewing Mr.Todd. With staring our video we have the intro’s for each person, we have the video with Mr.Todd and we’re planning on interviewing somebody else who is more familiar with abuse and how it carries through generations. He suggested us to go to Mrs.Buchanan a teacher who’s more familiar with the type of questions were asking. Right after that we emailed her and started to edit our video. With all the small clips we have created the introduction to our newscast along with starting to research for our infographic. Although we did have trouble with planning a day with Mrs.Buchanan because it will be tight with time. Today we are starting to put our infographic together, while others are collecting research. We also realized one of our clips didn’t work out so we had to re-do that causing us to be behind our schedule.
Worklog Blog #3
Yesterday we all started fixing up and putting things together in our video. A couple videos needed to be fixed so we went to create new videos. We also went to go see Mrs. Buchanan to talk to her because Mr.Todd told us she would be a better resource. While we were there we learned lot's from Mrs.Buchanan talking about how abuse really happens and the different ways others can abuse. After we finished talking to he we started to put our infographic together and finishing up final touches. As we finish up our video we start to finish our infographic. The video was done so we had extra time to make bloopers. Overall I think our final project has turned out really well.Working on all these interviews and editing we were having trouble with timing. We were struggling to think if our project would be done on time, but turns out we are back on track and we should finish earlier than we expected.
Worklog Blog #4 Today we are ahead of our schedule and finished all of it. We made improvements on our infographic because we had so much time. When we finished our infographic we watched our video and looked for any last minute editing. Once we finally felt confident with our video and infographic we started to watch any deleted films just in case we missed anything and wanted to add extra clips. After we finished our whole entire project and felt like we had an A+ quality project we began to work on blogs. Since some of us missed on or two we had to go back and help each other recap. As we recap we start to remember small things we forgot about which really helped me because we all collaborated really well and got lots of work done.Since we also talked to Mrs. Buchanan that was never apart of our plan so we got to do even more than we expected. Overall I think this project was a team effort.
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Reflection This group project has been one of the best and most collaborative I’ve been in. Everyone, for the most part, did their share of work and had fun doing it. Our project was a group effort because everyone had ideas and we kept talking about different ways we can improve upon and it ended up really well. I learned a lot about abuse through generations. For example when we were talking to the teachers, specifically Mrs.Buchanan she explains how being the victim of abuse causes you to be more likely in an abusive relationship again. I never knew this because I’ve always assumed that being abused you start to abuse others. The reason this carries on through generations is not just obvious thing like I thought, for example, it can be alcohol and drug abuse but I also learned it can be just from influences at home. Both of the teachers we talked to gave us real-life examples that no website could provide us with. Although we learned lot’s from the teachers we needed more scientific information. This is why we did an infographic. The infographic gave us information that is very professional. This is because the website we were on gave us very straightforward things like how to break the abuse cycle, it says a lot of ways calming yourself down or thinking before you act. Personally, one thing I never knew before this project was in the cycle of abuse the abuser tries to defend themselves by making up excuses. This makes a lot of sense but was never something I thought of.