Developmental Psychology - Case Study Example

Developmental Psychology Introduction The case study refers to the condition of John, an architect aged 49, with symptoms of lack of enthusiasm amounting to tiredness and disinterest to his job. His life has been described from childhood to adulthood with clear indications of his being forcibly put to career options according to attributed elements of emotional conflicts Behavioral constraints often pose depreciating levels of self motivation alongside aging in most professionals – and psychologists have explained reasons for most of such issues. John’s problem is a case of symptomatic changes in professional interest levels. As from the clinical point of view, every patient is a case which has to be seen through different angles for the remedial evaluation. Here, John’s case is analyzed in accordance with the Theories of Developmental Psychology of Freud’s, Erickson’s and Piaget’s along with references from citations of Austrian, Salkind, Sigelman, Ryder, Shaffer, Kipp and Wright. Theoretical perspectives John’s current problem of disinterest to continue his architect’s profession can be seen as a correlative difference between chronological age and role identification problems. Erickson’s developmental theories of epigenetic principle as a relationship with the constraints during maturational process of life stages can be considered as a plat form for analysis. John’s case is an example of lack of acquired abilities to stand against challenges as taught by life at different stages. According to a Freudian thought, an unsuccessful process of completing a stage of childhood would develop a stagnation that would later influence his or her adult personality. This developmental psychology is true with John as he was forced to encounter challenges on his intellectual growth process involving discovery behavior. He says that his father had once prevented him from seeing the birthday gift for his mother. A denial of interest thus affects the growth and the child gradually loses enthusiasm to explore new horizons of things around him. According to Austrian (2008, p. 3), some or other sorts of expectations are always set on how an individual should formatively manipulate his/her personality traits at different stages of life; and in most cases, cultural concerns as well as differential levels of parental attention and learning patterns influence the growth of personality, thereby the levels of expectations need to be changed as well. Erickson’s thought was, “Psychological development results from the interaction between maturational processes or biological needs and the societal demands and social forces encountered in everyday life” (Salkind, p. 140). John’s early childhood was a period of circumstantial forces pertaining to his family ambience that restrained him from accessing to social environment. During the stages of psychological development from teenage to adulthood, it is necessary to have same age groups or siblings in the peer group. A larger proportion of the various causes for John’s failure as a satisfied architect can be directly attributed to the intervention of his father during his course selection. His being the ‘only child’ adds to his low potential to resist competitive conflicts about selective ideas formulated by role identity crisis. Intensive parental guidance can sometime lead the growth of a child’s personality in a slow rate. System theory of development is of the opinion that development is vulnerable to complex interplay of multiple influences. (Life Span Theory) therefore many psychologists challenge the attitude arrest imposed on children by their parents over their behavior structure with intent to develop a virtual security circle. “Children are not born with innate ideas about reality, nor are they simply filled with information by adult as leading theorists believe. They actively construct new understandings of the world based on their experiences” (Sigelman & Rider, 2011, p. 48). While every child has its own growth mechanism along with chronological aging, it becomes less meaningful to teach them everything or insist them upon the choices of parents. Many of the personality traits are derived in the early years of a person’s life and hence the trials for training him emotional and behavioral tracks often go in vain, simply because he learns to teach himself his merits and limits. According to cognitive developmental theories of Piaget (cited by Shaffer & Kipp, 2009), it can be ascertained that infants and children are active individuals with a normal level of self teaching tactics. He also believes that it is not often necessary to train them everything they should have as qualities for improved behavioral designs, because they often are ‘the best sculptors’ for their own development (p. 293). John’s father’s rigid approach and intensified perfectionism could not set a learning example for him. In fact, he was denied chances of self role identification that might have resulted in low self esteem in the future course of life. Also the “the experiences children have as they explore their environment and their social and educational worlds especially affect the rate of their development” (Shaffer & Kipp, 2009, p.293). So it is essential for every child to learn from societal interactions. Some people exhibit a defectively motivating approach pertaining to their jobs in the absence of desired satiation from them. This condition is relatively larger among individuals with a lonely ambience in their childhood where they would have little chances of conflicts to handle. As believed by Erickson, each stage of development is focused on overcoming a conflict. As the investigation goes on deeply, it stops at certain stages of John’s character formation. His nullified professional enthusiastic levels can also be attributed to be the remedial expression of some unsettled conflicts he might encounter during his Genital stages as in Freudian Theory. Though he is unable to find out a specific reason for his sinking enthusiasm, it can be attributed to different stages of his psychological development before he became a professional architect. Moreover, John as a person may not be able to maintain respect for the importance of his work for a longer tenure. In Bradley E Wright’s opinion, “If employees do not perceive their job to be important or meaningful, they have little reason to be motivated to perform their work” (Wright, 2003, p.7). In most normal cases of employability variables, mid-forties of life span is more likely to absorb a stressful working atmosphere. As Erickson’s Theory suggests that middle aged adults strive for producing something that will outlive them. In the absence of such a reality, they often go stagnant. Though the age is when one touches apex of confidence and efficiency as a worker, many people feel demoralized due to conditions pertaining to self evaluations on the basis of comparisons made to their imaginative past abilities as well as fear of depreciated perfection thereby. A possible reason for lack of interest at work place can be connected to Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory whereby he proposes that everybody is driven by motives and emotional conflicts through which their earlier experiences in the family show a retained influence. Each conflict thus unsolved rests in the subconscious mind and reoccurs at a given interval of identified similarity of the condition. Erickson’s Theory finds that role identity or role confusion during the early adolescent stages may be carried through out elder stages of the life span. John has an unsettled emotional conflict which drove him away from his role identity and forced him to run in pursuit of his father’s will. This is an issue of ego and for those who want to be their own boss; it may be illogical to work for a longer time in the same profile of work for longer terms. Recommendations From the case study, it is obvious that John was under the strict control of his father during his early phases of psychological development. As per Erickson’s theory, each developmental stage in a person’s life establishes a sense of personal identity, particularly during the adolescent period. The case study indicates that John’s earnest desire for personal identity was major element that persuaded him to choose his carrier as an architect. John had never got the opportunity to take his own decision or to make discoveries. Circumstantial pressures acquired him the knowledge that yielding accordance to his father’s will would place him balanced between personal identity and emotional conflict. Setting a platform for living and expecting recognition among the society becomes focal points of personality formation; therefore, selecting the job of an architect was his trial for achieving a personal identity. Although, his strive for excellence on his father’s demands was an intuitional reaction to procure his personally satiated emotional requirements, he was thereby denied chronological personality growth on par with required level of self role model growth. This role compromise continued to survive with his chronological aging and it should be identified to exist in his subconscious character identity urges. As a result, when he reached mid-adulthood, he feels that his profession does not suit his current role identity norms. In this stage, he has to be enlightened that the benefits and social status he presently has would not be inferior to those he could have acquired from streaming on the unidentified but interrupting role he believed to have lost while selecting his carrier as an architect. All the more, he must be frequently alerted of his importance in the society and the promises he can make for his younger ones who would persuade his career. He should also be intimated that his decision to terminate his present nature of employability will result in the seizure of his social role growth and he will be deprived of the monitory and emotional benefits absorbed from the current employment while simultaneously losing the imaginary benefits his subconscious mind framed to have achieved by this time. Comparatively similar conditions and their remedial measures can be introduced before John. More precisely, he may be treated with a more friendly approach in which he can claim the role of a leader. Extensive sessions of seminars and debates about his professional areas among a group of people will find him a wider exposure through which he will get regular alerts of his importance in the society as a professional without any emotional or psychological constraint. References Austrian, S. G. (2008). Developmental theories through the life cycle. US: Columbia University Press. Eischens, A. The Dilemma of the Only Child. Retrieved from http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/eischens2.html Lerner, R. M. (2002). Concepts and Theories of Human Development. US: Routledge. Sigelman, C. K & Rider, E. A. (2011). Life-Span Human Development. (Edition 7). US: Cengage Learning. Shaffer, D. R & Kipp, K. (2009). Developmental Psychology: Childhood and adolescence. US: Cengage Learning. Salkind, N. L. (2004). An introduction to theories of human development. SAGE. Wright, B. E. (Dec. 2003). “Toward understanding task, mission and public service motivation: A conceptual and empirical synthesis of goal theory and public service motivation”. Retrieved from Read More