Teletubbies

"The Teletubbies" is a children television series, targeted pre-school viewers that appeared in the late nineties. It is based on four main characters: Tinky Winky, Dipsy, Laa-Laa and Po, each one with a respective color, with antennas of different shapes, each with a TV in their belly and another character that is a vacuum cleaner named Noo-noo. Takes place on a field surrounded by grass, artificial flowers, real rabbits all over the place, a sun with a real baby face on it and a strange house with some technological base. You may wonder why this topic in a blog based on psychology, well this have an explanation. This children's program has caused quite controversy not only for parents who allow their children to watch TV but also for psychologists. Psychologists seem interested in this topic, they had asked: why this show is categorized for twelve-month-old children’s? It has any educational purpose? How this program helps in the development of a child? Why so many parents have created a negative controversy regarding to this show?

At first the "Teletubbies" show, seems harmless, very colorful and happy for early childhood, which aims to help preschoolers, acquire skills, prepare for school, to help in their language development, find comfort in technology and to stimulate imagination and facilitate motor development. Psychology research has concluded that there is no evidence that the program is educational in any aspect for a one-year-old child, that don’t contribute in their language or help them to feel comfortable with technology. In conclusion there is nothing to suggest that can facilitate motor development of a child 12 months old or that it has an educational value at all. On the contrary, it was found that children 12 months old shouldn’t be watching TV, but after being three years old, because early television results in obesity, decreased school participation, causes changes in the arteries located in the eyes, increased risk of high blood pressure, among other consequences.

I had read so many articles in relation to this subject and it appeared to have so much controversy regarding to this show such as; the history, symbols, characters, setting, etc. One of the controversies which many agreed about was referring to the character Tinky Winky (the violet one) for being gay and Dipsy (the green one) for being black, but as I have no homophobic or racist problem I will not go into detail. Not only this, it is said that the characters are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, also identifying them as demons. It is said to that it shows subliminal messages that go directly to the subconscious of the child using collective hypnosis, which is quite interesting, since I had previously made an entry regarding to hypnosis. Recently had read an article by a mother who said that her son after seeing this program attacked her at midnight, describing that his son was possessed in some way. The last article that I read about the “Teletubbies” was that the show was inspired by a horrifyingly true story based on children of an institute of mental disability in Bulgaria that have a sad/horrible end and the show was created to make this a happy ending for the children’s that had suffered in the past.

Ignoring all these numbers of stories and articles relating to this popular toddler program, I found the task of seeing an episode of “Teletubbies” to be able to jump into my own conclusions. After watch a whole episode I concluded the following: It is a very absurd program without any logic at all, the characters are creepy as hell, not a sign of any early childhood education, moral or teaching, and the language used in this case the babbling does nothing regarding to the child development of language. The “Teletubbies” are not the only infant program that lacks education and contain subliminal messages, there are many others like this but at least in this case there have several psychological researches. I'm not a mother, but I’m an aunt and I care about the education and development of my niece and if I understand that there is a programs that are unsuitable for them is my responsibility to prohibit the access of it. It is very important if you are in charge of an infant and you let them watch TV, make sure is something appropriate to his age or appropriate at all. 

The Stanford Experiment

Some psychologists decided to do an experiment with the participation of students from the University of Stanford. This experiment was carried out in the prison of Stanford University who was located in the basement of the psychology building. The experiment in the psychology of imprisonment occurred in the late seventies, in order to see what happen to good people when they deal with a bad situation, which in this case is the prison. The volunteers were examined to verify that they were physically and mentally healthy, and then randomly selected who would play the role of prisoners and guards.

This whole process made it look very realistic, the future prisoners were arrested in their own homes and then took them through a process, like everything was real. The results of this experiment were surprising and caused great controversy in the world of psychology. Fantasy became reality, as the results of many changes in their behavior. Young good college guys became brutal guards, healthy boys got sick and active boys became passive prisoners, almost like zombies. Many of them had to be released because of the extreme situations they were in but they never said that wanted to voluntarily leave the experiment because they were so catch up in that fantasy. They abandoned the experiment in six days when it supposed to last two weeks.

This experiment gave so much to talk about, because many psychologists believed that this study broke the ethical principles of psychology and expressed that the experiment should never happened. Is quite odd because the participates otherwise expressed that they were fascinated by the results, because they could not believe that they were able to do the things that they did, now they know their bad side.  I believe that despite of the problems with the professional ethics that a psychologist should have, the experiment was very good and was very successful, as it explained things that were unknown and participants learned about this experience. I understand that there are two important points in here: when you live a fantasy role you may end up believing it and there are parts of us that we not know about, that are hidden unless we see our self in some sort of extreme situation. 

Bipolarity Disorder in Children

Bipolarity is a mental disorder marked by episodes of mania and depression. In children, the disorder can be much difficult to define and treat. Bipolarity can be seen as a series of outbursts and tantrums that may be daily or temporary and in disproportionately form, compared to other children who do not suffer from this disorder. A child with bipolarity can be identified for their constant tantrums; the face change, look constantly at the floor, roll their eyes almost blank, clench their fists and make grunting; in some cases. The change in the mood is another factor, first it’s happy and calm and suddenly the mood changes drastically, can get depressed and enrage for not understanding what is happening.

They are by episodic nature, meaning they begin to have manic and depressive episodes. When they are angry, they do not measure what they say or do because it is hard for them to control it on their own, and may even cause harm not only to itself but also to others. The worst thing of all is that these children can destroy the benefits and welfare of their family. The problem of treating children with this disorder is the medication, because this has to be treated with so much carefulness, although it is proven that sports help them as a therapy.

This mental illness is very worrisome because it plays with the life and innocence of the children’s. Their lives are like a roller coaster; it goes up and down their emotions so constantly. In consequence of this disorder children’s are being bullied, don’t have friends because other kids don’t know how to handle the episodes situations, they tend to become depressed and find it difficult to be at social events. I remember being in situations in which children have tantrums and outbursts, not saying that necessarily mean they are bipolar but people tend to judge, thinking that is nurturing that is given to the child, without having in mind that the child could be suffering from some type of disorder, that’s why it is so important to be informed.

Psychosis

The concept of psychosis is used to refer to those mental disorders characterized by some loss of contact with reality. When a person suffers from this type of disorder is said that the person had a psychotic episode. Psychosis is a common disorder that affects mostly young adults. Often cause changes in mood and mindset, causing abnormal ideas and this make it difficult to understand what the person with the disease is felling.

This disorder can be identified by the following symptoms: confused thoughts, false beliefs, hallucinations, emotional changes and perceptual and behavioral changes. It’s important to emphasize that psychosis affects each person differently. This is extremely complex, since there are to many different types of psychosis, which differs each one and have different ways to be treated. Some of these might be: drug-induced psychosis, organic psychosis, brief reactive psychosis, delusional disorder, schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder, bipolar disorder and finally psychotic depression.

This disorder is extremely complex and the strangest thing is that it can come from nowhere. I don’t know anyone who suffers from this disorder, but I've seen so to many movies, read about cases, as I have also read articles regarding this and I find psychosis in general extremely fascinating. It is so different to read the information that Internet provided to us and compare it to real complex cases of people who suffer from this disorder, because the Internet makes you see this problem as something appease and normal, but the reality is different. The problem is that many people with this disease do not seek for help, don’t have any professional help or simply do not follow their treatment or don’t take the medications. As a result of this, the disorder may increase to the point of putting at risk the lives of others or putting the person own life at risk.