Blythe Reske 1
DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
Childhood Abuse, Poor Self-Concept, and the Adult Inclination to Violence
Ariel Blythe Reske
COM252-401
April 15, 2014
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
ABSTRACT. There has historically been a strong correlation between a parentally-led
development of self-concept and the behavior of the resulting adult. In the advent of violent
culture, the relationship between the development of a negative childhood self-concept as a
result of distorted parent-child relationships and the prevalence of violent behavior during
adulthood has become a subject that has gained attention among social scientists. Self-concept,
defined as a stable set of perceptions one holds of oneself, is heavily influenced by the people in
the life of a person especially during early childhood. Several experiments as well as testimonies
of internationally notorious murderers demonstrate the influence of negative childhood selfconcept on the development of pathological interpersonal communication skills in the resulting
adult. These results have important and possibly life-saving implications within the field of
psychology and communication.
One of mankind’s darkest truths, tucked clandestinely away within the darkest corridors
of his nature, is inherently known to every human being: we all have the capacity to kill.
Whether it be out of urgent self-defense or in defense of loved ones, out of all-consuming anger
or jealousy, or under the orders of a superior, the reasons that men and women would be driven
to end the life of a fellow person have historically proven disturbing the international community
of social scientists as well as the common man. However, in the recent advent of public mass
shootings, and considering the emergence of serial killers like Fred West and Jeffrey Dahmer in
the last several decades, we are forced to ask the following question: What turns a person into a
murderer?
There are many psychological and communicational elements that play into a person’s
adulthood behavior. Killing for the sake of killing is an extremely pathological form of
interpersonal communication that an individual cultivates over the span of a lifetime. One factor
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
that profoundly affects the way a person develops psychologically is his or her relationship with
his or her parents. A positive and loving relationship can be instrumental in the development of
a healthy adult who communicates in constructive ways, but any negative relationship, especially
a neglectful or abusive one, can spell disaster for the resulting adult and people with whom he or
she interacts. This paper, therefore, begs the following questions: can the development of a
negative self-concept due to childhood abuse lead to distorted or even dangerous interpersonal
communication habits in adulthood?
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
There are a number of elements that help sculpt and define the personality of an
individual. Out of all of them, self-concept is the most important. Self-concept, defined as a
relatively stable set of perceptions that one holds of him or herself (Adler, 2013), is a critical
element in the way we communicate with other people. It encompasses not only a person’s
physical features but more intangible personal qualities: emotional states, talents, likes and
dislikes, values, social roles, etc. (Adler, 2013). It is our most fundamental possession: the
intimate knowledge of who we are at our core. (Adler, 2013).
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
The development of self-concept, consequently, begins when life begins. Children are
born without an identity; therefore, they pick it up in pieces during their childhood (Adler, 2013).
As soon as a child is born, its environment and the people in it begin to shape who that child will
become in the future, and in part how he or she will behave as an adult. Understandably, the
development of self-concept within the life of a person is heavily influenced by significant others
(Adler, 2013). Some of the most obvious and important significant others in the life of a person,
especially during the formative childhood and adolescent years, are nuclear family members.
Parents in particular play an enormously important role in the development of a child’s identity.
If those parents are positive influences and offer a solid support system and reinforcement, they
can be extremely important in helping children develop a stable and durable positive sense of
self. On the other hand, if they are negative influences, do not provide a safe or constructive
home environment, and either unintentionally or intentionally hurt their children in a physical or
emotional manner, “their ego busters can be particularly hurtful as a result (Adler 2013). This
claim is backed by years of research. One study, published in the Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry by Jocelyn Brown in 1999, showed that
adolescents in young adults with a childhood history of abuse are significantly more vulnerable
to depression and suicidal behavior. Brown made the statement that “Adolescence is the most
vulnerable time for those youths that may attempt suicide repeatedly (1999)”. These kinds of
tendencies towards self-harm and social withdraw are strongly indicative of poor or distorted
self-concepts.
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
The problem with the development of a self-concept during childhood is that, as selfconcept by definition is resistant to change, a negative childhood self-concept projects itself into
adulthood behavior and relationships. Abuse or neglect from parental figures, which is an
unfortunately prominent source of negative childhood self-concept, can affect the way that
people express emotion in their adulthood. According to a research study which incorporated a
sample size of over 200 youths, incarcerated young males reported a lower level of material
warmth and involvement during their childhoods. (Kimonis, 2012). They display a higher level
of unemotional and callous behavior, explained by the article as “a lack of remorse and empathy,
inability to express emotion, and uncaring attitudes and behaviors”. (Kimonis, 2012). Another
experiment conducted by Nathan Kolla entitled “Childhood Maltreatment and Aggressive
Behavior in Violent Offenders with Psychopathy” shows that children who were abused or
neglected by parents figures have a higher likelihood of displaying reactive aggression. In an
experiment conducted on violent offenders, convicts who suffered physical abuse (emotional
abuse is not considered in this particular experiment), they have a prominent behavioral pattern
of reactive aggression (defined as violent behavior with little regard for consequences) (Kolla,
2013). These experiments are concrete statistical reminders that early family life can have a
profound effect on the development of a child’s self-concept, and that self-concept plays into a
person’s adulthood interactions with other people.
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
Even more than research findings, however, real life accounts of the manners in which
negative self-concepts manifest themselves can be the most compelling and the most terrifying.
Many of the world’s most notorious serial killers have a history of abusive or corrupted
relationships with their paternal figures, resulting in a distorted self-concept and therefore a
negative perception of other people. Christopher Berry-Dee’s book How to Make a Serial Killer:
The Twisted Development of Innocent Children Into the World’s Most Sadistic Murderers
explores exactly that. By discusses in detail the private lives of children who would grow up to
become some of the world’s most infamous and depraved serial killers (1). Many of these
individuals had dysfunctional family lives and either witnessed the abuse of siblings or parents or
suffered abuse themselves. These early experiences had toxic effects on their interpersonal
communication skills, contributing to their conversion into notorious international figures. The
book makes the following claim regarding parental relationships and childhood self-concept:
“It is a long established fact that the structure and quality of family
interaction is an important part of a child’s development, especially in
the way the child itself perceives family members. According to the
FBI, ‘For children growing up, the quality of their attachments to
parents and to other members of the family is most important as to
how these children, as adults, relate to and value other members of
society. Essentially, these early life attachments (sometimes called
bonding) translate into a map of how a child will perceive situations
outside the family.” (Berry-Dee, 5)
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
This quotation confirms that the book supports the idea that early self-concept is shaped
by familial interactions. The next quotation details Berry-Dee’s stance on how the nature of
those interactions and the resulting self-concept can influence future behavior:
“For some children, early experiences are neither supportive nor
predictable. The synapses that develop in the brain may be created in
response to chronic stress or other types of abuse and neglect. When
children are vulnerable to these risks, problematic early experiences
can lead to poor outcomes. For example, some children are born with
the tendency to be irritable, impulsive and insensitive to emotions in
others. When these children’s characteristics combine with adult
caregiving that is withdrawn and neglectful, their brains can wire in
ways that may result in unsympathetic child behavior. When these
children’s characteristics combine with adult caregiving that is angry
and abusive, their brains can wire in ways that result in violent and
overaggressive child behavior. If the home environment teaches
children to expect danger instead of security, then poor outcomes may
occur…” (Berry-Dee, 5)
Berry-Dee therefore makes the argument that certain negative personality traits coupled
with childhood negative reinforcement from the home front can push an at-risk youth from
troubled to dangerous. This trend has been observed time and time again not only in research,
but in past and modern-day murderers whose histories provide fascinating and terrifying case
studies for social sciences. Berry-Dee outlines the lives of several serial-killers who
experienced abuse at home:
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
1) Ivan Milat, considered the most notorious serial killer in Australia’s history,
murdered and tortured seven backpackers in Australia between the years 1989-1992.
His father, Stephen Milat, believed in beating his sons, stimulating in Ivan an
aversion to authority and a craving for control. (Berry-Dee, 26)
2) Fred West, considered one of the most depraved serial killers in history was raised
by an incestuous father who taught him bestiality, and it is very likely that Fred lost
his virginity to his mother. These experiences instilled in him a distorted perception
of sexual relationships. He grew up to sexually assault and murder several young
women in the 1970’s. (Berry-Dee, 58)
3) Jeffrey Dahmer, later known as the Milwaukee cannibal, bitterly described his father
as “highly controlling and a strong character”, and his father and neurotic mother
fought constantly. He felt abandoned by them when his brother David was born. He
later would kill several young men and feast on their flesh (Berry-Dee, 82)
4) Myra Hindley watched her father beat her mother and would also get beaten if she
interfered. She later commented how she “learned a lot about dominance and
control from her abusive father”. (Berry-Dee, 111)
Whether these nightmarish individuals were doomed from the start, whether they had
psychotic tendencies to begin with, or whether other factors in their lives contributed to their
descent into madness, the fact that distorted parental relationships were present in the lives of
many of these notorious individuals forces the social science community to acknowledge that
development of self-concept during childhood plays an instrumental role in how people will
communicate as adults. Sometimes the results of childhood abuse, when committed against an
already troubled child, can destroy the lives of many people.
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DOES A BAD EARLY SELF CONCEPT LEAD TO ADULTHOOD VIOLENCE?
There is not only extensive research, but terrifying real world accounts that demonstrate
the importance of parental relationships in developing self-concept, and how family-instilled
self-concept impacts a person’s adult interpersonal communication skills. While higher selfesteem is associated with less verbal aggression (Rill 2009), several studies explored in this
paper observed that childhood abuse and neglect is associated with the development of a
negative self-concept, higher levels of adulthood reactive aggression, and inappropriate or
underdeveloped emotional behavior and relationships. Accounts of some of the world’s most
infamous murderers show that many of these individuals have a history of strained or abusive
parental relationships that distort their perception of society and exacerbate psychological issues
which make them more inclined to unprovoked violence during their adult lives. Delving further
into how parent/child relationships impact childhood self-concept and adult interpersonal
communication has important implications for developmental psychology. It could help the
general public understand the how crucial a supportive family system is for raising secure
children who will become adults that understand how to communicate in a healthy way.
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Works Cited
Adler, R.B. & Proctor, R.F. (2013) Looking Out Looking In. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cenage
Learning.
Berry-Dee, Christopher. (2008). How To Make a Serial Killer: the Twisted Development of
Innocent Children Into the World’s Most Sadistic Murderers. Berkley, CA: Ulysses
Press.
Brown, Jocelyn. (1999). “Childhood Abuse and Neglect: Specificity of Effects on Adolescent
and Young Adult Depression and Suicidality”. Journal of American Academy of Child
and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38(12); 1490-1496.
Kimonis, Eva R. (2012, September 11). “Maternal Care, Maltreatment and Callous-Unemotional
Traits Among Urban Male Juvenile Offenders”. J Youth Adolescence, 42; 165-177.
Kolla, Nathan J. (2013, August). “Childhood Maltreatment and Aggressive Behavior in Violent
Offenders with Psychopathy”. Can J. Psychiatry, 58(8); 487-494.
Rill, Leslie. (2009). “Exploration of the Relationship between Self-Esteem, Commitment, and
Verbal Aggressiveness in Romantic Dating Relationships”. Communication Reports;
102-113.