`You’re aggressive!’ `He’s insecure.’
`She’s intelligent.’ `He’s paranoid!’
How often have you found yourself using such expressions? We all use labels for people in our daily lives, because they help us to classify, sort, and put order into our world, making it easier to understand. One may describe a neighbor as `friendly’, a business acquaintance as ‘ambitious’, and a relative or child as an ‘extrovert’. This form of labeling helps us get a quick picture of what the person might be like, although we are aware (hopefully!) that it is a limited picture. We don’t expect a positive label to tell us a great deal about the individual person, since labels are so general (there are many types of people we might call an ‘extrovert’). Ironically, with undesirable behavior we sometimes apply a descriptive label and then expect that label to explain the behavior.
You have undoubtedly seen highly energetic children who sometimes wear parents down (maybe your own children times)? Their attention span may he short, their interests endless, and they can be ‘wound up’ day and night. Thousands of such children have been labeled ‘hyperactive’ and treated by doctors with drugs, a practice that is ‘now being seriously questioned. The label ‘hyperactive’, originally a name for certain behavior, came to be seen as an explanation in itself.
Do labels really tell us anything about a child’? Do the labels aggressive, hyperactive, artistic, rebellious, brainwashed, silly, head-shrunken, or brat tell you anything useful about what actually happened in this situation? Do the labels really tell why? Indeed, you may consider Norman to be a ‘brat’, but his inexcusable behavior is not caused by ‘naughtiness’. it is maintained by its consequences, including his mother’s inaction. Clearly, labels can lead parents into a blind alley because if labels caused troublesome behavior, then parents couldn’t do anything to change their children’s actions. Fortunately, this isn’t the case.
Some difficult child behavior may have its basis ‘inside the child’ – perhaps a result of body chemistry. Indeed, research is still being conducted to determine if some overactive children could he stimulated by the foods or chemical additives they eat. However, labels have been badly misused. For years we have labeled some people as ‘retarded’. Expecting very little from such people, what did we get? That’s right – very little. Schools, doctors and parents have overused labels such as underachiever, culturally deprived, emotionally disturbed, insecure and educationally handicapped. The result of all this labeling was often that teachers, hospitals, and even parents gave little meaningful help if a child was categorized as ‘retarded’ or ‘disturbed’.
Many people think of behavior as a collection of personality traits that are also inherited from parents and grandparents, much like eye color or hair texture. The best evidence available suggests that, while the foundations for behavior are inherited, most behavior is learned through life experiences.