| Revision as of 13:18, 30 July 2019 editMelcous (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Page movers, New page reviewers, Rollbackers123,229 edits WP:DOCTOR← Previous edit | Revision as of 21:24, 31 July 2019 edit undoChinnes2 (talk | contribs)1 edit Added an interesting incident to his legacy in child abuse advocacyTags: possible BLP issue or vandalism Visual editNext edit → | ||
| Line 5: | Line 5: | ||
| Prescott also served as assistant head of the Psychology Branch of the Office of Naval Research (1963 to 1966) and as president of the Maryland Psychological Association (1970 to 1971). In 1973 he was one of the signers of the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |title=Humanist Manifesto II |publisher=American Humanist Association |accessdate=October 10, 2012 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |archivedate=October 20, 2012 |df= }}</ref> | Prescott also served as assistant head of the Psychology Branch of the Office of Naval Research (1963 to 1966) and as president of the Maryland Psychological Association (1970 to 1971). In 1973 he was one of the signers of the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.americanhumanist.org/Humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |title=Humanist Manifesto II |publisher=American Humanist Association |accessdate=October 10, 2012 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121020110719/http://www.americanhumanist.org/humanism/Humanist_Manifesto_II |archivedate=October 20, 2012 |df= }}</ref> | ||
| Prescott's view of child abuse was controversial and innovative. In 1980, he published an article with shocking illustration in Hustler Magazine on child abuse to reach an audience outside of the scientific community<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://violence.de/prescott/hustler-new/article.html|title=Article: Child Abuse in America: Slaughter of the Innocents|website=violence.de|access-date=2019-07-31}}</ref>. For this, NICHD fired Prescott, and he protested in front of the U.S. Senate and House Appropriations Committee. Prescott testified that "we are producing more criminals . . . 'by the manner in which we are raising our children ... than we will be able to house in all the prisons that we can build<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newspapers.com/newspage/372856298/|title=Is Isolation a Hidden Form of Child Abuse: Touching Seems to Make a Difference|last=Innes|first=Charles|date=8/26/1983|website=Newspapers.com|language=en|archive-url=|archive-date=|dead-url=|access-date=2019-07-31}}</ref>.'" | |||
| ==References== | ==References== | ||
Revision as of 21:24, 31 July 2019
 | This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libelous. Find sources: "James W. Prescott" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
James W. Prescott (born Jan 21, 1934) is an American developmental psychologist, whose research focused on the origins of violence, particularly as it relates to a lack of mother-child bonding.
Prescott was a health scientist administrator at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), one of the Institutes of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) from 1966 to 1980. He created and directed the Developmental Behavioral Biology Program at the NICHD where he initiated NICHD-supported research programs to study the relationship between mother-child bonding and the development of social abilities in adult life. Inspired by Harry Harlow's famous experiments on rhesus monkeys, which established a link between neurotic behavior and isolation from a care-giving mother, Prescott further proposed that a key component to development comes from the somesthetic processes (body touch) and vestibular-cerebellar processes (body movement) induced by mother-child interactions, and that deprivation of this stimulation causes brain abnormalities. By analogy to the neurotic behavior in monkeys, he suggested that these developmental abnormalities are a major cause of adult violence amongst humans.
Prescott also served as assistant head of the Psychology Branch of the Office of Naval Research (1963 to 1966) and as president of the Maryland Psychological Association (1970 to 1971). In 1973 he was one of the signers of the Humanist Manifesto.
Prescott's view of child abuse was controversial and innovative. In 1980, he published an article with shocking illustration in Hustler Magazine on child abuse to reach an audience outside of the scientific community. For this, NICHD fired Prescott, and he protested in front of the U.S. Senate and House Appropriations Committee. Prescott testified that "we are producing more criminals . . . 'by the manner in which we are raising our children ... than we will be able to house in all the prisons that we can build.'"
References
- Moffet, Penelope (25 March 1986). "Sensory Stimuli Vital for Young, Speaker Says". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 19 January 2011.
- "Humanist Manifesto II". American Humanist Association. Archived from the original on October 20, 2012. Retrieved October 10, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - "Article: Child Abuse in America: Slaughter of the Innocents". violence.de. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
- Innes, Charles (8/26/1983). "Is Isolation a Hidden Form of Child Abuse: Touching Seems to Make a Difference". Newspapers.com. Retrieved 2019-07-31.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help)