Growing up in a small, rural town and coming from an immigrant family played a significant role in me wanting to understand how my environment affected my behavior. In my community, most of my peers were familiar with, or related to, one another, and the cultural values and customs with which I grew up in my immigrant family were discordant from what the majority of my peers experienced. Because of this discrepancy, balancing my familial identity with the social identity that my peers approved of was often a very difficult task. Eventually, I grew to understand myself from the crowd and became resolute about respecting values such as excelling academically and treating others with deference. However, when the majority of my peers were not as …show more content…
in psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi, my psychology courses kindled more curiosity in youth psychological development, and I became cognizant of many unanswered questions that I had as an adolescent. Periodically, I pondered questions such as, “What characteristics of my friends helped assuage the concerns of my social environment? “Why did a large number of my peers not appreciate the morals that were important in school or as a well-rounded person? Was it because of their home environment, peer pressure, personality, or a biological disposition such as raging hormones or an underdeveloped prefrontal cortex?” I was also engrossed in courses where the theories of psychologists and researchers such as Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget provided insight about probable explanations for general life experiences and how such experiences are developmental in nature and can be accredited to a variety of factors such as culture, age, environment, and gender. By studying psychology, I felt that those burning questions I had as a teenager were sometimes answered by innovative research findings that were described in my textbooks and in academic journals. As an avid learner swayed by the soundness of prominent psychological theories, I then became interested in clinical child research and joined Dr. Christopher T. Barry’s Youth Personality and Behavior (YPB) laboratory as a volunteer research assistant during my sophomore year of …show more content…
For example, I participated in my first independent research experience at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign through the Summer Research Opportunities Program (SROP). While participating in SROP, I conducted research under the guidance of Dr. Mark Aber in the clinical/community division of the Psychology Department. My research focused on how juvenile delinquency, ADHD, and perceptions of youth’s control in choosing their own mental health service impacted the magnitude of caregiver(s) strain. My project evaluated an issue within a community-based mental health service implemented to serve high risk youth and their families in Urbana-Champaign. From my SROP experience, I learned a wealth of information about tabulating data, from coding variables to running statistical analyses in SPSS. The graduate students in the lab were also helpful as I took heed of any positive advice about research that they offered me. SROP was a wonderful experience, and it catalyzed my progress an undergraduate
The biopsychosocial theory that I chose to apply is Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development. Erikson’s theory places more emphasis on social than sexual influences in development of children. The theory proposes that there are eight stages of development which last until birth to old age. Erikson also argued that we all consistently move through each stage methodically and don’t skip stages (Rogers,
As repeated by several philosophers, childhood is a vital time period which truly shapes an individual. The University of Pittsburgh conducted several studies and concluded that parental guidance and behavior
McMahon’s “Inside Your Teenager’s Scary Brain” discusses how adolescent’s brains are delicate and can easily affect their development in a good or bad way, depending on the individual’s experiences. According to Jensen, a Harvard neuroscientist and senior neurologist at two Boston hospitals, “teenage years comprise one of the brain’s most critical periods of development”. She parallels her experiences with her own children with observations of teens in general. With new research continuing to surface, studies illustrate how susceptible juvenile’s brain are and how this could generate different techniques on how society, parents, and teachers handle them.
Both Erik Erikson’s (1963) theory and Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby (1973) theory support the idea that early life experiences impact the person across their lifespan. Both theories believe that personality begins to develop from a young age and therefore occurrences in early life can have lasting impacts on the developmental of an individual. An individual’s social and psychological development is significantly influenced by early life and childhood experiences. The experiences an individual has as a child impacts on the development of social skills, social behaviours, morals and values of an individual.
Erik Erikson formulated a model to understand the developmental tasks involved in the social and emotional development of children and teenagers which continues into adulthood. Each stage is regarded by Erikson as a “psychosocial crisis,” which arises and demands resolution before the next stage can be satisfactorily negotiated. Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a
One Kid went through all of this and his name was Jason Kim. Jason Kim show an example of this when he sees all of the kids playing around and him sitting alone. The quote that i have to support is when he says pg2“Outside on the playground, sitting alone at recess”, Therefore this is affecting his social health. Another example is when Jason is going through motions because he is asian and learning to hate his culture, to support this Jason says pg2“I learned to hate being asian”. But then he graduated and moved to another city which changed his environment , then from there he learned it wasn't bad to be different than other people. The quote i pulled out to support this explanation from the story was when he said pg2“being different was an asset,not a risk” and pg2“I didn't have to be ashamed about being an Asian immigrant”. Overall this tell us that he learned a lesson and that you should accept who you are.
Not unlike most immigrant children forced to grow up in a foreign land, I struggled for self-identity while being pressured by my parents to assimilate and “fit in” as quickly and quietly as possible. I was to blend into my environment like a chameleon perched on a low level branch, waiting to strike at its next prey, but never knowing who that might be. Assimilate, just exactly what does that even mean to a five year old? I had already slain my festering Chinese accent within my first year arriving here. My remedial levels of reading and writing were forced to march the plank until they too were snuffed out in less than ...
It wasn't until I arrive at FSU that i understood the different aspect of my identity that affected the way I interacted with others. I am a 17-year-old hispanic female and so much more. However, these three identities are the most impactful in my life. Being Hispanic never meant so much to me before I got college. Since I lived in South Florida I was always surrounded by others minorities; but now, here in Tallahassee I am a racial minority. Sometimes, this affects how I interact with people that aren't minorities because I never know what to expect. Some people don’t come from diverse backgrounds and have never experienced diversity and therefore don’t know how to be respectful of others. I tried my best to educate those who aren’t educated on such topics. On the contrast, I also have to stand up to others minorities groups. I take a lot of pride on saying that “I am Hispanic, but I am not Black”. I haven’t experience the life of a black female and therefore I cannot identify with it. As a 17-year-old in college things can be difficult because people assume that you are not mature enough for the environment. This had always frustrated me and affected the way I act around people. Most of the time I never tell people my age because they start to act different and treat me like a kid. I always try to be mature about
During infancy and childhood years, the brain's development has the most rapid growth and is affected by the treatment that the child receives through abuse or nurture treatment. The distinction between what is right and what is wrong is learned during these early years; as well as the rewards and punishments that follow behavior. During the adolescence years, independence and the influence of peers increase. Juveniles try to have their freedom, but at the same time they try to be like an adult. This causes psychological stress and can be understood through the development of social cognition.
Shaffer, D., Kipp, K., Wood, E., & Willoughby, T. (2010). Developmental psychology childhood and adolescence. (3rd ed.). USA: Thomson Wadsworth
One’s ethnic identity is crucial in the way one acts within his or her surroundings. Fitting in with a group never seemed to be a problem for me as I get along with all races just fine. Especially in elementary school, at that time it did not matter what the color of your skin was or how you acted, you were just you. Though as the years progressed into middle school and high school, I began to go through an identity crisis.
We often wonder why we are who we are, why we think the way we think and act the way we act. Are our behaviors more influenced by the genes we were passed down, or the environment we were raised in? When attempting to discover where your behavior traits came from, you simply need to reflect on the various factors that caused you to develop into who you are today. If only people were more aware of how important something as simple as a touch from a mothers warm hands on their child could have such an impactful effect on their child’s psychological behavior in the future. Out of all the development stages I’ve went through in life so far my memory only allows me to recollect one specific stage more vividly than any other, the psychosocial development in middle childhood. I tend to recall this stage in my life more vividly because this was around the time my parents divorced and I would say that event definitely sparked a drastic change in my behavior. A major contributing factor in the psychosocial development in middle childhood is the environment you were raised in. The environment you developed in can be anything from the people in your life, the home you lived in, your mother and father’s parenting styles, and your parent’s employment and socioeconomic statuses. All these factors play a major influence on your development and potential behavior in the future. I found this to be quite interesting when looking back at how my family was structured and reviewing the type of family atmosphere my parents gave me growing up. In chapter 10 of our textbook Experience Human Development it states that “The most important influences of the family environment on children’s development come from the atmosphere in the home.” (p. 326, 2012) G...
From the ages one to eighteen child and adolescent development has progressed in numerous of ways. There are various theories in reference to the development of children and adolescences. In order for children to mature, they have to feel protected and safe. They must also have explorations of their actions as well as their feelings. To thrive in this type of environment it must also be stimulated physically as well cognitively all while experiencing and maintaining concepts that are innovating and unique and familiar. Also, a child, in this environment must be able to experience the norms of society as well as grow into a functional adult. A child will be unsuccessful in functioning in this society without this important part.
Adolescent students at the middle school level experience a tremendous amount of growth and development during this time in their lives. These adolescents are intellectually and physically developing at different times throughout this stage of development, experiencing a more rapid and complex rate of development than at any other time in their lives. Their social, emotional, and educational experiences affect their development and as well as influence their future decisions. These social experiences can also affect a young person’s moral development and educational experience as they begin to look to their peers for influence instead of their parents.
The study of child and adolescent psychology in terms of educational achievement is a complex one. This is because students’ educational achievements depend on a complex and interwoven set of factors that include their intrinsic characteristics like physical and genetic makeup, the environment they are brought up in, the emotional status of their parents, the outlook of their teachers and peers, and their cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic factors.