Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Hoarding
The video on hoarding was something I have never seen before. I had no clue it was such a problem for some people. The lady could not throw out a cardboard box because "they don't make them like this anymore." To me that is crazy. I understand the box could be very sturdy, but she is not going to use it, it is just collecting dust in her home. All the stuff to me is ridiculous. I understand it is a mental problem, but what causes that mental problem? Is it observational learning? To me all that stuff was just too much. I can understand saving some things, but she had ridiculous reasons for some of it. I hope she has learned to cope with her problem.
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I consider myself to be similar, but not as severe. I don't hoard garbage, but I have a hard time throwing old clothes or other items away, because I feel that I might be able to salvage them or use them for some other purpose in the future. I think that the problem is caused by one's upbringing. I know that my parents would use something until it couldn't be used anymore, so that's how I view things today. However, I agree with you that keeping garbage is a bit over the top, and I cannot even understand why they think that they can save it to use again in the future.
ReplyDeleteHoarding can definetly be a result of observational learning. I watched the show Hoarders all time, and I remember one episode in particular that was an example of how hoarding can be learned through observational learning. There was a mother and her 8 year old son living alone and the mother had an extreme case of hoarding. She had said over the years, her son started to develop these habits as well because he watched her get so upset when trying to throw something away, and he thought of this as the normal thing to do. At this point, he had developed the disorder just as bad as his mother's was, and had panic attacks throughout the whole show while trying to throw away papers, toys, and even pill bottles. This just goes to show how serious hoarding is, even if these people do seem "crazy".
ReplyDeleteHoarding is a problem that seems to be gaining a large amount of attention lately due to the TV show on the A&E channel. Many people are collectors of some sort but have no idea why they collect what they do. Some collectors have an emotional connection to their objects but these hoarders are very confused as to what their connection is and are collecting for all the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Chelsea’s idea that hoarding could be observational learning. Although they are not as bad as the women in the video, my parents do exhibit some forms of hoarding. They throw out truly useless items but they do hold onto many old things like clothes or even technology like old computers they do not use anymore. I feel that as a child, I learned some similar traits. When I was younger, I often kept most of my old toys and clothes I outgrew. As I have grown up, I started to identify the hoarding traits I exhibited and have begun to remove them.
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