old, and had at that time been going on for at least two years. Arthur's abusive behavior toward his siblings involved children (one boy and one girl) who are younger than he is (the brother is now nine years old and the sister is now 12 years old). Arthur's abusive behavior involved both physical violence and sexual contact.
The problem involved in this situation was three-faceted. First and foremost, there was a need to stop the behavior for the protection of all of the children involved in the situation. Second, there was a need to minimize the potential for any recurrence of the behavior on Arthur's part. Third, there was a need to allow Arthur to develop an understanding of the motivations for his behaviors so that he would be able to conquer both the torment that drove him to such behavior and the self recriminations he experienced as an outgrowth of the behavior.
There also was a fourth facet to this problem, which was the provision of therapy to the two abused children. While this facet of the problem was equally as important as the other aspects of the problem, dealing with this facet of the problem was not the responsibility of this researcher. The problems of the two younger siblings were dealt with by another therapist.
Sibling abuse is a frequently occurring phenomenon. Thus, at a general level, the findings of the proposed project will have relevance beyond the narrow confines of this project. As the proposed project also will involve helping the patient to identify the sources motivating his aberrant behaviors, as well as helping the patient to conquer these issues in his life, the findings of the proposed project also will be relevant for counseling therapists specifically.
Human Development from Infancy through Age 12
The origins of social learning theory lie in attempts to combine psychoanalytic and stimulus-response theory into a comprehensive explanation of human behavior (Grusec, 1992). Va...