Psychosocial Development In The Roommate

"Reason only controls individuals after emotion and impulses have lost their impetus." ~Carlton Simon. The idea presented by Simon is evident in the movie, The Roommate starring Leighton Meester, as Rebecca. Throughout the cinema, her fear of abandonment is exemplified by her emotionally driven actions. She faces the challenge of being able to form a connection with someone in particular, her roommate Sara Matthews. The trigger of the challenge resembles the application of Erkison 's and Freud 's theories to Rebecca 's situation. Rebecca comes off as a steady individual. She is friendly and sociable. She is able to be popular but often acts antisocial. In addition, once she "marks her territory" she begins to experience clingy behavior.

She seems to be present in two stages. It may be possible that while one of her parents hovered over her, another parent was absent. It is clear she is primarily in stage 2, autonomy versus shame and doubt. In this stage, the child begins to declare their independence. The child uncovers that he/she has several skills and capabilities thus, begin to grow a sense of freedom or independence. At this stage, the relationship between a parent and a child are delicate. The parent(s) must allow the child to do things on their own while helping them when in need of assistance to prevent constant failure. Rebecca is in the stage because of her condescending attitude towards herself. As stated in the stage, she may have not had the ability to asset herself when she was younger. Her parent(s) instead of allowing her distance and the ability to form her own ideas were most likely clingy as well. This behavior causes the child to begin to feel like he/she is not enough in their ability to carry on, therefore may become overly subordinate to others, lack confidence, and feel doubt in his/ her own skills. Rebecca proves this when she calls herself derogatory terms and self-harms when her affections are denied or resisted. The current challenge she is going through could be due to a failed attempt at an important milestone within the current stage and previous stage. The

Freud 's personality theory characteristics is also apparent in her disorder. Freud 's personality theory characteristics of the ID dominates her actions. The ID is led by the self indulgence standard, which aspired for immediate possession of wants, needs, and longings. She tends to utilize regression and projection as defense mechanisms within her cognitive processes, feelings and behaviors. She either would take brutal honesty from Sara 's friends about herself and insult them or throw a temper tantrum and kill them or injure greatly when she witnessed close interactions with Sara and her friends. Her personality traits clearly led her to her challenge. The parent who was present most likely fed into her every want driving her to create unhealthy, strict, and clingy relationships. She was clearly spoiled and reacted to not always getting her way by projecting that anger onto her present parent and regressing to previous stages in development to get her way. The over dependence Rebecca experienced led to her disorder and her focus on establishing a connection/bond with her roommate. Her continuous use of defense mechanisms will make her challenge eventually get worse. Society promotes independence, such clingy behavior will be resisted and will make it harder for her to form connections the way she desires. Regression and projection will cause others to distance themselves from her because