Week 9 homework

Lb127 Homework Week 9 Euan McAleece 30/11/10.

Summary of Series

Child In Our Time

‘Child In Our Time’ is an ongoing BBC production in conjunction with the Open University presented by Professor Robert Winston. It follows the lives of 25 children from their birth at the millennium until they are 25 years old. It examines in a coherent and scientific manner the ways that environment and genetics shape their personalities, as they progress through infancy to become young adults.

Summary of Programme

Child In Our Time (Special) The Big Personality Quiz

In this special edition the programme makes use of a scientific personality test. This is given to the children from the group, their families and the viewing public.  The public interaction makes this the largest ever scientific study into personality. The test examines the five core traits of personality; openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.  Through group experiments in the studio with the families, examining the wider results and exploring the differences of the children in relation to their results, Professor Winston asks the question: do our personalities mould our lives or does our life mould our personality?

Programme description for Informed Consent

The issue of ‘Informed Consent’ will have been at the very core of the relationship between the producers and the parents of the children who are the focus of the series.

The parents would have to agree on behalf of their children that aspects of their whole childhood would be studied in an in-depth scientific manner. As well as the scientific research, every year the family would be involved in filming for broadcast. The producers would have to make the parents aware of all their plans for the production. Their contribution will be very significant to the series, so a lot of detail would have to be given. Each child featured in the programme would have a tailor made informed consent, taking into consideration anything that could have an adverse effect on their private lives.

·         What would be the research?

·         In what way will their private lives be portrayed in the series? 

·         What will be the nature of their involvement?

·         What are the aims of the series?

·         In what context will any film of their family be used?

·         How could their contribution to the series have any potential negative result on the children, and how can this be avoided?

·         What are the moral rights of the contributors in relation to the Ofcom guidance on fairness?

In relation to this specific programme; all of the parents would have already given full agreement for their children and themselves being part of the production.  They would have already signed a legal agreement with the production company, after they had gone through a stringent process of informed consent and where therefore able to make an informed decision. An interesting consideration is will the informed consent need to be reassessed when the children reach the age of adult responsibility?

Briefs on two of the contributors

To highlight the personality trait ‘extroversion’, the two children with the largest contrast in scores in the relevant section of the personality test, have their lives investigated in more detail. This takes the form of interviewing them and their family now, and looking back at relevant archive material from the series.

James scored the highest out of the group of children for the trait extroversion. He was born into a poor working class family in a deprived council estate in London. He makes friends very easily but also seems to lose them just as easily. He likes to take control of situations and is most definitely a thrill seeker. He is a very talkative boy and holds his own in social situations. His mother Carol also scored very highly in the extroversion section of the test. Studies have shown that genetics is 40% of the reason behind an individual’s extroverted personality. His environment has also played an important role in fostering this trait.  His household is a very loud and social place and being an extrovert helps James assert himself in his surroundings. Interestingly it has been shown that those who suffer trauma in childhood tend to exhibit extrovert tendencies. James was kidnapped at an early age by a violent ex partner of Carol’s.

In contrast to James we have Helena; she scored the lowest and would be considered an introvert. Her upbringing is very different. She comes from an affluent middle class background. Helena was the only surviving Triplet and was born so premature the doctors suggested she had very little chance of survival. She had to spend 17 weeks in intensive care and when she got home she had to be protected from infection and thus could not go outside or socialise with other infants. This had a marked affect on her early development.  She could not crawl until 18 months and did not utter her first word until two years. However her parents provided her with lots of stimulation and love during this period. When she was able to leave this form of necessary isolation she quickly caught up in development and became very intellectually advanced. At school she was very confident and had no problem making friends. Unlike James however she only needed a few close friends and developed a very deep friendship with them. She is now a very confident girl who is equally happy reading a book on her own as going out to play.

For both children there are advantages from being either an extrovert or an introvert and it appears that scientific theories about ‘Nurture Vs Nature’ apply to both of them. This example illustrates the idea that environment as well as genetic predetermination plays an important role in determining personality.

Reflection

An interesting documentary and an interesting idea reminiscent of the Up series of films made in the 1960’s which I have seen before.  A criticism I have is they possibly overplay the science, however I can understand the balancing act needed to broadcast an entertaining show that involves science for a mainstream peak broadcast BBC 1 family audience. No mean feat to pull off I reckon. On the whole I think the premise of the series is fantastic, and in the programme I watched the interactivity with the audience really promoted the show to a new level.