Individual Development - Article Example

Individual Development ADOLESCENCE ‘Major Stages in Psychosocial Development’, in the Life Cycle Completed Erik Erikson (1982) supposed that everyone goes through a several number of stages to get to his or her full growth, theorizing 8 phases that a human being undergoes from birth till death. According to him, the human environment in which children live in is crucial to necessitating growth, adjustments, a basis of self-awareness and identity. He laid the following stages, Basic trust versus basic mistrust - This stage takes up a period of infancy from 0 to 1 year of age. Autonomy versus Shame – wrap up early childhood. Purpose - Initiative versus Guilt - 3–6 years of age. Competence - Industry versus Inferiority - School-age / 6-11 years. Fidelity - Identity versus Role Confusion are adolescents / 12 years till they are 20. Questioning of identity. Who they are, how they do fit in? Where they are going in a life? Erikson believed, that if the parents were to allow their children to explore, they could conclude their own self. Conversely, if the parents incessantly push him/her to be conventional to their views, these teen will face personality confusion. This is the stage that relates to this paper’s topic of discussion. Others include; Intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation and the eight and last stage being Ego integrity versus despair (Erikson, 1982). Young Masculinities As the authors have noted (Connell 1995; Frosh, Phoenix, and Pattman 2002; Svahn 1999), ideal masculinity and stereotypical is often connected with hardness and strength. It is true that events stem from the past, but still, nearly all girls and boys would likely not be pleased to speak about their weak spots so explicitly, but would rather try to turn them into assets, into unpleasant experiences that in the end prepared them to be more independent and stronger, that is, something putting them more in conformity with masculine standards or ideals. Their nests are normally permeated with political awareness in various ways, and according to them, there is nothing not to be viewed as political. This case is a clear example of how adolescents may reflect upon matters of gender roles and identity, and make personal decisions about what they desire be like, not necessarily as boys or girls, but as individuals. Conversely, there is always a cost to pay for those deviating from ideals and norms. Though no generalized claims may be made on the foundation of this matter, it is still a fact that adolescents, who contravene gender stereotypes, besides tells tales of bullying and/or social exclusion (C. Frosh, et al, 2002). The issue here concerns the reasons and the consequences. Were these young men and women excluded or bullied because others in their immediate environment depicted them as deviants? Or was it their choice to become deviant given that they were by now excluded, and had realized that they held nothing to lose by moving outside the normal? Stereotypical masculinity or manliness has been mostly associated with being independent and mature (which generates insults such as (mothers boy), “morsgris”,) allude to), and traits such as strength, courage, power of activity and initiative generally seen as masculine. Moreover, in the masculine typecast also lies a stronger focus on a heterosexuality; lack of attraction to women is a sign of unmanliness, evident in the abundance of insults alluding to non-heterosexuality and impotence (Frosh. et al, 2002). Therefore, four keywords that may be used to précis stereotypical masculinity are independence, hardness, heterosexual desire and activity. Juxtaposing the presentations of boys and girls, one will see that the young men are in the greater part regarding course towards humor, motor vehicles, and sports, exposure of status, politics, technology, and heterosexuality. The girls, alternatively, are in the majority in the basis relationships, feelings, and exposure of the physical body, animals, work, partying, education, and cooking. In other words, the welfare and orientations that these adolescents display follow stoutly gender stereotypical patterns as described by writers such as Frosh et al, (2002). The author for example, indicated that for young British teenagers, men, it was significant to demonstrate interests in football so as to be seen as suitably masculine. The young men who lacked this interest (or either pretended to posses it) often ran into trouble with their peers and often being seen as womanly. As Frosh et al (2002) drew; young men would sometimes reimburse their apathy in football by being tougher and harder than their peers. The same belief would probably be pertinent to femininity and women as well. Masculine characteristics are often deemed as positive; moreover when possessed by girls, whereas feminine boys will not encounter the same course of acceptance and understanding, they may even to some extent, be ridiculed and bullied (Frosh, 2002). Identities and Achievement of British Chinese Pupils The dispersed settlement model of the British Chinese pupils makes conventional forms of mobilization more complicated, though many of these make new communication technologies for instance the Internet more momentous for British Chinese comparative to the other minorities. In this research study explores the emergence of British Chinese sites and their prospective to enhance the political participation and social inclusion of British Chinese public (Archer. Et al, 2006). These matters are usually disregarded in relation to a class that appears to be well successful and integrated. Unlike the African Caribbean and the South Asian populace in Britain, whose political and cultural presence is undeniably regarded, there is barely any reference to the British. The logic of British Chinese students largely lacking from British public institutions and civic life is borne out in official figures. Given good statistics, this study can only be considered as a timely exploration of the scope to which new media may facilitate to promote the political contribution of a British Chinese age group often unseen in debates about, social cohesion, multiculturalism, and changing cultural identities. The research contributes to a number of further areas of contest in contemporary social sciences. Firstly, there is a need to augment discussions on the implications of emerging technology on social interaction. Most researchers have shown concern directed whether the Internet encourages disintegration among socially harmonized enclaves. Others emphasize the latent for the Internet to tie together the power of networking and nurture new forms of society, drawing previously marginalized minority communities for instance the adolescent youths and ethnic minorities into public conversation (Archer. Et al, 2006). Analysis in political communication has explored the newer forms of communicative civic engagement and competence that the Internet assists, enabling a more unrestrained public sphere of deliberation and dialogue. Within the information age bracket, political participation is drifting from involvement in institutionalized activities organized by political groups, to more supple political participation during individualized access to electronic social interaction and information. The capability of online communication to hook up a detached population is predominantly important for the British Chinese, unlike several other marginal ethnic population, they are highly dispersed throughout Britain, lacking any local authority area with more than 2% of its residents being of Chinese origin. The second theme this work drives to is the growing examination fields of transnational identities and practices. This paper recognizes how the developing traffic in both symbolic and material cultural cargoes is “qualitatively transforming the characters of immigrant’s transnationalism, turning it into a more dynamic and dense cross-border trade than everything that would have been made possible earlier”. Thirdly the examination of British Chinese youth’s Internet activities plays a cast to ongoing debates on the position of minority or ethnic communities in Britain now and in future as a multicultural society (Archer. Et al, 2006). That relationship amongst social networks, community formation, and social capital has turned into a major focus in this prose. Due to the lack of a longer history on the social connections to powerful figures and institutions in Britain, parents moved to, these children of migrants may face higher hurdles in securing labor market positions matching with their educational levels. In this event, the need to both find and forge strong social networks with subjects of a related background may become a major whim looking for co-ethnics online. The benefits of particularly ethnic systems have not gone unmentioned. The potentially unpleasant consequences based on social insularity have been analyzed through bridging and binary of bonding social capital. Bonding of the social capital is the societal “glue” that emerges from interacting and talking with like-minded natives. The gains likely from vesting massive belief in co-ethnics may be outweighed by incarceration to safe, though marginal social areas. An excessive degree and exclusionary practices of social termination along ethnics may prevent contribution in wider grounds beyond the involved minority group (Archer. Et al, 2006). Discussion of the themes and findings It is clear in identity development that present society has created the requirement for a psychosocial moratorium—a break during adolescence from excessive obligations that may restrict the adolescents pursuit of self-realization. During this break, the adolescent can try out with different identities and roles, in circumstances that allow and encourage this exploration. The testing involves attempting on different personality and behaviors. At times, parents portray their teenagers as going through "stages." Most of this behavior is in fact experimentation with personalities and roles. For most adolescents, developing a sense of independence is as crucial a part of the emotional evolution out of babyhood as is establishing logic of identity. Throughout adolescence, there is a shift from the dependency classic of childhood towards the self-sufficiency typical of adulthood. This is evident in various ways suggesting that the growth of independence be discerned at in terms of these adolescents growing sense of personality. The procedure of individuation, that commences during infancy and goes well into late adolescence, engages a progressive sharpening of their sense of individual as autonomous, as proficient, and as part from ones guardians. Individuation, consequently, has a great deal to play with the growth of logic of identity, in that it involves alterations in how one comes to see and feel about themselves. The process of identity understanding does not involve internal turmoil and stress. Rather, it entails relinquishing babyhood dependencies on parents in support of more responsible, more mature, and less dependent affiliations (Erikson, 1982). Adolescents who have been triumphant in establishing individuation normally accept responsibilities for their actions and choices instead of looking to their seniors to do it on their behalf. Explaining the psychological approach to the development of adolescent is complex due to the lack of practical research and the wide variety of adolescent behavior modes. Nevertheless, developmental psychologists did formulated ways describing adolescents’ psychological developments that are helpful in understanding them. They demonstrate chronological patterns of growth and make some uneven estimates about the age brackets at which they should display particular developmental trait. Just as in the British Chinese case, many communities are more transient and impersonal, giving less support and supervision to adolescents. They lack visible positive adult mentors. The media such as the internet tend to compound this issue that fascinate adolescents habitually glamorize violence or unhealthy behaviors. Communities also differ in their efforts to institute and enforce regulations covering the health or safety of adolescents (Frosh et al 2002). References Archer, L. and Francis, B. (2006) ‘Challenging Classes? Exploring the Role of Social Class within the Identities and Achievement of British Chinese Pupils’, Sociology, 40(1): 29-49, London: Sage Erikson, E. H. (1982) The Life Cycle Completed, New York: Norton Frosh, Stephen, Ann Phoenix, and Rob Pattman. 2002. Young masculinities. Houndmills: Palgrave. Read More