Personality of Jenny Curran

Individuals who experience a traumatic event are often plagued by negative self-views that can turn into negative behaviors. Diehl and Prout (2008) write that sexually abused children often exhibit cognitive distortions as well as negative self-attributions. These same distortions and attributions develop in these children due to the timing in which these events take place in their lives. Often the child is not able to make sense of the abuse because they are not developmentally ready (Diehl and Prout, 2008).
In the case of the character that will be analyzed in this paper it is not distinguished if the character was sexually or physically abused, but the event is traumatic enough either way to bring about the same outcomes. Significant research has been done when it comes to children who are maltreated or abused. Out of this research it has been suggested these individuals often describe themselves in a negative light, have lower self-esteem, and incorporate beliefs of inferiority (Diehl and Prout, 2008).
The character of Jenny is one of a child who has grown up without a mother and has endured abuse since she very little. She takes this into her teen and adult years, until finally her decisions she has made in her life result in her death. Many determining factors of Jenny's decisions were based on her childhood trauma and not having a good view of herself. She was never good enough for the one man who would give her everything positive and nothing negative, this is due to her own negative thinking.
Self-efficacy or self-esteem is the belief an individual has that they can perform a desired or positive behavior under certain conditions (Pachankis, 2007). Jenny is always wanting to do the right thing but as seen later on in this paper it is obvious the view she has of herself keeps her in bad situations. Swann, Chang-Schneider, & Larsen-McClarty (2007) suggest, since self-views play a vital role in guiding behavior, people will do their best to preserve these