on.The structure of the brain is delicate, especially during the maturation years of development. If the brain is traumatized in any such way within the first years of childhood, those traumatic events will shape the brain as it would have they been jovial ones. These events change the structure of the brain in numerous ways. Though these changes are internal, they have a tremendous outcome on behavior as well. “Trauma elevates stress hormones, such as cortisol, that wash over the tender brain like acid, as a result, regions in the cortex and in the limbic system are 20 to 30 percent smaller in abused children than in normal kids.” (Begley, p.20) This 20 to 30 percent difference generates enough anxiety to induce spouts of stress hormones at the slightest thought or reminiscence of a previous traumatic situation. This kind of reaction often causes problems with attention, concentration, and impulsive behavior. The ability to learn can also be altered via early childhood trauma. It is from this trauma that neurotransmitters, “that play a key role in telling growing neurons where to go and what to connect to” (Begley, p.32), are matted and cause insufficiency in learning capabilities. “Only in rare cases of extreme isolation is it possible to observe concretely separated two factors in the development of human personality which are always otherwise only analytically separated, the biogenic and the sociogenic factors.” (Davis, p.437) Therefore, the biological and sociological aspects of personality cannot be separated and are dependent upon each other. Just the same as a child were to be born with a mental deficiency, a child could suffer the same from not being stimulated in the early childhood years. As stated by Kagan on page 90 of Three Seductive Ideas, “Experience in the first year of life lays the basis for networks of neurons that enable us to be smart, creative, and adaptable in all the yea...
