This is Robert: A Study of Personality Growth in a Preschool Child (1942)

for children's play in this projected technique with the experimental miniature Life toys helps us understand how the world looks in their eyes we may learn whether the private world that is the psychological environment of each child is friendly or hostile orderly or casual simple or complicated this little girl uses space freely here is an excessively rigid pattern of domestic organization but this is a child who needs such order so that she can feel safe and within it she feels free and can be created this s of a sports loving family appropriately makes the horse thoroughly home even to a good hot tub the entire collection of household furniture and dll people seems too complicated and too oppressive and Robert goes far away with a small boat Perhaps it is fanciful to suggest that this is the 4-year-old equivalent of leaving home to run away to Sea at any rate let us see now what he is turning his back on this is the family into which Robert will soon be born in these scenes of his family life you must endow these dolls with the appropriate drama and action Robert's parents are about 40 and have been married almost a dozen years they both have professional careers his mother sewing tiny garments is a friendly party woman his father more reserved and wrapped up in his work here he is a busy commuter catching up on the family bills Robert's mother says of herself that she is too tense and too busy with her job but she adds I would rather be busy than playing bridge like my Suburban neighbors the family income and small house also maintain the mother's parents the grand father is a nervous thin Old Gentleman often depressed or extremely irritable and here as usual demanding everyone's attention grandmother is an in who suffers from art trouble Robert comes into an already crowded household geared to the needs of adults but with the compensating richness of life in a large family thus a baby makes his presence more than normally felt is mother holds him crying on her lap and is tense with the awareness of the other's disapproval for the mutual protection of Robert and of the adults his mother is taking him away an outsider KN the situation can predict greater difficulties more tension and the need for more maternal intervention between Robert and the rest of the family when he is older at the age of about three Robert is banging block on the floor he is a small boy bursting with a small boy's energy and an outsider is again aware that his activity will not fit smoothly into the crusted pattern of older personalities Robert himself is becoming dimly aware of this and of the power he has to irritate and upset the household everyone in the family is fond of Robert it is no one's fault but but it is a fact that Robert is in a tense and proud situation Robert sees very little of his father except on Sundays and attempts at relaxation are broken by Robert's insistent demanding to sit on his lap pestering to have the funnies read to him and so on and on later a close tie was formed between Robert and his father but not until Robert was old enough to share an interest in tools and carentry and the family mve to a larger house Robert's mother has to hurry so much she has to rush Robert to school in the morning before her own work she dashes home with him at noon during her lunch hour and then hastens back to work Robert feels this extra pressure and it is part of the tension that he naturally resists and Which shapes his personality the mother welcomed the opportunity to give Robert the relaxation and fun of M to the good Nursery School from the time he was 2 and a half the grandmother feels that she too should take a hand in bringing up Robert with his parents away so much but Robert feels the erratic nature of her discipline and feels also her weakness and uncertainty his mother has asked her not to say no to Robert as he is stronger than the grandmother and she can't handle him physically Robert's grandfather who died when Robert was poor had very positive and repressive ideas about the place of a child in the family many children can cope with this and thrive on it the difficulty for Robert is his grandfather's unpredictable Behavior one moment he is loving and playful and the next moment bored or furious with Robert these Keynotes of inconsistency and irritability have their strong effects on Robert and one unhappy result is a mutual teasing relation between him and his grandfather here Robert is stealthily slipping into the room to turn on the radio and startle his grandfather this was repeated several times until his grandfather completely lost his temper and spanked him this pattern of gradually building up to an emotional blowup occurs often as his teacher commented Robert had to work hard to get stuff there was a constant working up to emotional crisis in this scene Robert is being put to bed by his mother and a moment later he appears downstairs on this occasion which was typical of many situations he got out of his crib 25 times until he was finally spank and the boundary firmly set the maid who is actually in charge of Robert much of the time is blustering and ineffective she alternates between Indulgence and anger when his mother comes home the maid turns Robert over to her with relief and a list of Robert's misdemeanors Robert himself when he is 4 and a half shows us how large punishment and restraint loom in his life now he is not turning his back on the miniature life toy version of home since we last saw him playing with these toys the family situation has improved and there is less crowding and tension Robert himself is older and more confident the momy spanks the baby who does not stay in bed Robert shows how exaggerated the punishing aspects of life look I'll step on the baby until he is dead he's gone I'll sit on my lovely couch such a realistic handling of the toys suggests even more clearly that this is Not Mere make believe but a reenactment of life as Robert sees it we have seen the same emphasis on punishing in Robert's own anxieties following his own real aggressions he says sometimes in playing with other toys the teacher kills Robert ascribing to the teacher the extravagant punishment that seems appropriate to him here too the crowded home situation is reflected in the close tight lining up of the furnit and Robert asks repeatedly is this the maid as though she were a very important person to him only maid and mommy and baby appear by name consider too how this child's problem is Complicated by the moral burden that is beyond his years to carry from the time he was two his father would offer him candy when he came home at night Robert could have it if he told his father he had been a good boy here we can take part in his dilemma he recalls that day's bad Deeds he thinks again of the candid and his father's approval what does he say to his father such a response then as we saw with the stick is not surprising in a child who is both emotionally active and physically vigorous who has been encroached upon and is therefore on his guard this sort of open expression of hostility Is frequent in children who doubt the possession of a really free life space and who are constantly testing out clear limits of adult restrictions Robert's aggressive behavior may be understood as a strong defensive Counterattack with this concept of Robert's defensive counter attack on the whole world in mind it is possible to understand the outstanding features of Robert's first year in nursery school but he was not yet free all this was reported by Robert's teacher on his first day in school and was fully confirmed by later observations one other characteristic that was noted in Robert's first year in school is worth stressing a Psy alternation between cheery Jolly Blissful days and sultry gloomy periods of tension shown in violence or occasionally in advoc e there was also frequent mention of Robert as timid or fearful with a special fear of loud noises traits which later almost disappeared even those traces of his basic anxiety remain let's meet in the middle how can my car pass this set of projective techniques called blocking games suggests what children will do can face with playful obstacles for instance what is the effect of the mild frustration of not quite being able to complete something You' started in the second game the experiment says my doll stops your car what happens this child gives in complete even enthusiastically through the [Applause] expir this boy thoughtfully devises a Live and Let Live solution while Robert shows us the defensive Counterattack in action he responds with extravagant violence even to a symbolic and Abstract frustration like this one because he is expressing a cumulative displaced aggression Robert has an Apple for the teacher but he is no apple polisher he is genuinely affectionate and in addition especially fond of his teacher in the light of what we have seen we can Now understand better why a consistent Dependable affection is important to him Robert seeks acceptance of himself and his teacher meets his needs not for approval or kisses as a reward for being good but for Assurance that he is valued that he is loved regardless of his behavior that even adults who discipline and control him do not turn against him like all children he must be valued in terms of who he is not for what he does or does not do Robert's teacher has helped him handle his aggressions too we have seen how his own hostility bothers him makes him anxious unlike some other children for him there is no value in release and expression of aggression he is too worried and afraid of himself he needs to be stopped and stopped without the demoralizing feeling that he is bad and unloved for he responds to direct handling the positive cheerful command his teacher has aboly used his own emphasis on rules and routine and his Delight in formulas once for example in Robert's third year in Nursery School he was on the verge of demolishing a boy who had bumped his block building he stopped took a bread was it an accident if it was was an accident I play with you was it an accident Robert's teacher built upon his fondness for rules and when Robert was ready helped him Tau a freedom from Rules by the end of nursery school he enjoyed routine without being possessed by it he could say it don't matter do it he needs adult attention and affection and responds warmly to it and his relation with his teacher which was so important in helping him to Clarity and calm was compounded of love and affection on both sides of wisdom and understanding of an appreciation of Robert's warm humor and poetic and Vivid terms of speech I'm hot Robert says I'm hot as meat in the oven or we're on a high Rocky Mountain place where you can can see the far away mountains little of the old compulsiveness remained and his voice was now more Serene with almost no stutter a good sign of increasing inner stability and Clarity Robert's first period of strife and stress the first adolescence of the preschool years is coming to an end a year after he has left Nursery School Robert and his teacher meet again Robert is leaving the preschool age the age of many Alternatives the age when a boy is both over-dependent and eager for Independence one moment very mature the next extremely babyish sometimes boyish sometimes girlish sometimes affectionate and constructive at others appallingly d destructive and antisocial now they are both enjoying reminiscences of undergraduate days do you ever feel like doing that to your teacher no do you ever feel like beating your up yes oh dear why don't you ever try it I want don't get trouble did you ever feel like beating me up in the olden days I bet you do I didn't why do you think I did well people get cross at other people lots of times all the times when I was cross at you the warmth of Robert's enjoyment of this reunion confirms our earlier impression of the importance of his teacher in his development and I saw I was on the top of the not on the top and and and those buses down there look like f buses bet they did up there or car look like Play Cars yeah did you see people yeah I think I did my B look like play people did you see the boat playing higher and higher the balloon experiment is a projective method used to study the aggressive impulses the children carry around with them there is no frustration and no aggression of anyone else's to which to react some children who are not aggressive break no balloons at all they are simply not interested in the idea of breaking other children who are also not particular particularly aggressive are like Terry they like the fun of breaking balloons but they are easy and Casual about it like how they pop you like how they pop did you ever pop any you want to pop them is it fun to break them is it nauy to break them to break you want to break some more I know that I'm not going to break it yellow cuz I love yellow why did you give me these people why did you pick up you want to break some more all right break I know the world aggressive children also show two varieties at least two varieties of behavior one child will act as though he had been released from a gun he will smash the balloons with gusto with almost lustful aggression did I break it did you no other aggressive children are like Robert they continually refer to balloons in terms of breaking but do not permit themselves to do so the strength of their resistance to Breaking suggests that they are working hard to hold in check equally strong impulses to do so what would you like to do with it have anything to break it well what would you like to break them with if I if you sat down would they break I think so you want to try it no why not I want to make a big bag Robert in refusing to break balloons shows again his old fear of loud noises but he is overemphasizing it he is using it as a rationalization he uses others too such as the expense of the balloon and he finds ways of delaying the breaking by measuring the balloon when the experimentor does break one rob it is aners and accepts some of the responsibility you like me to break one no you know why because I hate to use a bang though m is it all right if one Breaks by accident today just can't help it is that all right then yes I as when you break one I break one I just can't help some children like to did you know that some children like to break lots of balloons but you know why I think it's a waste of money to break them well these are here just for breaking so you can break any ones of these you want and I have some more outside for later can I break this one mhm I break this one mhm I bre this one mhm like this one mhm like this one mhm this one that one that one break that one break you want one yeah break One One MH do you want to break every one yeah break every single one would you like to break every single one you like to break one all right what is the tiniest one I think that's the tiniest one well let's measure I let's measure I'll take this first oh my W what happened who's broke yours too bad as it mine was that fun I just like that that you mind BR but I I did you break it no I just want pick it up it is important that in Robert's second year at Nursery School he behaved in just this way with the balloons yet this was at a time that Robert was at his most violent when he was described as a naked roaring Force at home and in the nursery school that is he kept talking about breaking the balloons but each time he was invited to do so he changed the subject invented rules or avoided doing so from this it was possible to predict a decrease of aggression to predict the ability to keep his impulses under control to predict the behavior that Robert began to show in the next year ushering in the end of Robert's most turbulent day the actual calming down is also shown by the dramatic contrast between Robert's earlier attack on the experimenter in the blocking Game and his behavior at six middle after my caret I can like got P I want or up your track a little bit I'll go P you find go you TR yes all right now another time meat in the middle and how my car P how my car got mine stuck on the yours what I think I'll have before [Music] yours [Music] in the spring of the year he was seven we now see Robert smoothly adjusting to the first grade of a fine Public School Robert as we know values a clear-cut situation with definite simple consistent rules but this is a skillfully taught class with a teacher who knows the children are not simply vessels to be held as still as can be while knowledge is poured down their passive throats these children can concentrate watch the girls reading while block buildings crash about their ears in a more rigid school too Robert would now fit in would be a good boy but such a school would put on him the great burden of restraining not only his aggression but all his healthy outgoing energy and this would be done at the great personal price of accentuating the compulsiveness the overconformity the emphasis on rules which Robert has to an even greater degree than most 7year old your said look on you look like me Tom said look on you look like me and now you say do you want me to read Sally all right you go same chapter is it the same chapter fr read the next part run run and run and man look for skip man look and look when where are you where are you PA name comeer so how he you man walk in the house Skipper Skipper she called David looked in the garden he whistled and whistled for Skipper what where are you Skipper come Skipper come he called Skipper is not in the house s man but here is Robert still with a great capacity for fun still delighting in forplay still excitable and noisy is he still inflammable and quick to strike out ouch an accidental kick will there be a salt and Battery as in the old days Robert keeps a tight grip on himself the storm is subsiding you can see some signs of the internal battle between Robert and Robert understanding intelligent teachers his mother's fond Firm support more space and time for Robert at home all these have helped him pass the turmoil of his first adolescence I don't like that I don't like all all [Music] and the [Music] po this is fun and it supplements more direct approaches to arithmetic 7year olds are legal experts on the rules of games and so quals are frequent a game we see that Robert keeps the peace the conflict is arbitrated by the teacher watch Robert especially his hands there are many signs that in spite of outward control there is still much inner tension in fact Robert's new teacher even thinks of him as overcontrolled as a child who is reserve and conceals his feelings evidence of the great change in Robert but we know that Robert is an emotionally vulnerable child and that what the future will bring is very uncertain because he is very sensitive to outside pressure very much will depend on how calm or strain the home and school situations will [Music] be but we have a right to feel glad for Robert several paths were open to him he might have become cruel and violent and bitterly antisocial he might have become tense and terrified but it looks as though he is on the right Road this is Rober