Characteristics of My Virtual Child, Gavin

Introduction to Gavin

My virtual child is a male, named Gavin (Manis, 2008). The name Gavin was chosen because it is a personal favorite and it is also similar to my paternal grandmother’s maiden name, Gavaghan. Gavin has one virtual sibling, a younger sister named Chloe. There is a three year age difference between the two siblings. According to the program I had a partner and we were married. Unfortunately, when Gavin was four years old we continued to argue and decided to separate. Two years later, we finally decided that the relationship was over and to get a divorce.

Gavin’s personality is very closely related to the overcontrolled personality type (Manis, 2008). The overcontrolled category states that the child is “cooperative, and follows the rules, but is shy in social situations and anxious and clingy under pressure” (Manis, 2008). Gavin shows these characteristics at home but mainly at day care and eventually school. In preschool Gavin showed signs of shy and clingy behavior with his peers. He would watch the children at first before joining in and then once he was comfortable enough to play with the other kids he would cling to a few particular classmates. When Gavin was screened again at age five for kindergarten, he was reluctant in joining activities with unfamiliar children. Gavin is able to follow rules and this is shown through his participation in scouts. He is disciplined and focuses a lot of his time in the scouts and must cooperate with his troop leaders to participate. Overtime I feel that Gavin’s personality changed bot not juristically. When Gavin is twelve he starts to argue more about chores and bedtimes. He also starts getting into trouble with his friends when they have the idea to prank passin...

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...g a close bond with me because there was more one on one time spent together. As Gavin grew older though there were times when our relationship was not as close as before. At age six Gavin began to imitate his father frequently. He would copy his behaviors and even mimic gestures and copy sayings (Manis, 2008). Gavin wanted to do everything and anything he could do with his father and showed very little interest in me at the time. At age eight though the relationship become stronger again, Gavin and I would bond every night talking turns, reading before his bedtime (Manis, 2008). Confiding in me about his dislike for his father’s girlfriend also showed how comfortable and well our relationship was. Even though we had a close relationship Gavin’s senior year we were able to become even closer during his first semester while taking a psychology class (Manis, 2008).