Measuring Behavior 2002: Volodarskaya

Communicative problems of orphaned children and tutors in situations of frustration

N.D. Volodarskaya

Laboratory of Psychology, Scientific Research Institute of Psychology, Kiev, Ukraine

The subjects in this study were two small groups of children: one containing 5 girls and 3 boys, and one containing 2 girls and 4 boys, all between 8-15 years old. These children, from two boarding schools for orphans in the Ukraine, were sent to the medical-sanitation Center of Tarara (Cuba) in 1999-2000. The aim of this research was to investigate how they helped each other adapt to life in a foreign country with an unfamiliar (tropical) climate where they did not understand the native language (Spanish). Only the children’s tutors and one doctor could speak their native language (Ukrainian). I studied the specific characteristics of communication between the children and local inhabitants, medical personnel and interpreters. The prevailing environmental conditions created many problematical situations for the children, allowing detailed analyses of their interpersonal transactions in various stressful situations.

Each study situation involved one child and one tutor. I observed the dialogue of the child: (a) with the tutor, and (b) with the other children. These observations allowed me to analyse the dialogue of ‘atypical’ children with other children. It was especially interesting to compare the construction of accusatory dialogue of orphaned children with those having parents. This was achieved by comparing the various reactions of orphaned children in problematical situations via transaction analysis (after Berne [1]). The methods of Rosenzwaige [2] were also applied, to analyse the subjects’ reactions in situations of frustration or impediment (either spontaneously occurring or deliberately created).

My analyses focused on the three different types of solution reached in situations of impediment:

the subject took personal reponsibility for resolving the situation

the subject placed responsibility on the other person to resolve the situation

the subject assessed the situation before deciding it had little significance and therefore did not require his/her participation, i.e. he/she avoided taking responsibility for resolving it

I applied this form of transaction analysis in combination with various other projection methods. For example, I used the modified projection method, which involved asking each subject to draw a non-existent animal. The children were then asked to describe their drawings and explain how their animal communicated with other animals. In stressful situations, the children subconsciously modelled their own method of communication: imperative, dictatorial, democratic, subordinating, etc.

I also drew diagrams representing the interations between the children and different people. In diagrams of the relations between the tutor and the children, vectors of ‘crossed’ transactions prevailed, e.g. "I am adult" - "I am child", "I am parent" - "I am child". Such crossed transactions represent classic transferral reactions, which create many problems for psychotherapists by interrupting the process of communication. In most cases, the tutor attempts to resolve the situation by taking the position "I am parent", because it is simpler and facilitates many automatic reactions in different educational situations (e.g. encouragement, punishment). It also saves time and energy, and removes the need to make non-trivial decisions in non-standard situations.

References

Berne, E. (1992). Games people play: the psychology of human relations. St. Petersburg: Penguin Books.

Rosenzwaige (1996). Anthology of psychological tests. Moscow.

Paper presented at Measuring Behavior 2002 , 4^th International Conference on Methods and Techniques in Behavioral Research, 27-30 August 2002, Amsterdam, The Netherlands