Personal Developmental Autobiography - Essay Example

? Personal Developmental Autobiography Personal Developmental Autobiography Introduction Birren and Cochan (2001) argue that children usually pass through identifiable development stages as they grow up to become adults. As such, what takes place at each stage of development can either impede or encourage their development in different ways. They also note that the experiences encountered during earlier developmental stages influence an individual’s future. As people continue to go through developmental stages from birth to death, and as long as people retain their cognitive abilities, they do not lose their capacity to learn, change and to integrate their life experiences. Personal development is thus the key determinant of self-awareness (Birren and Cochran, 2001). As individuals grow up and become older, they usually have many “selves” to integrate. Self-identity is usually developed through analysis and self-image revisions that include, ideal self, actual self and social self. Theory can be applied in an attempt to explain all these facets in human development. This autography will illustrate my personal development from childhood to whom I am today. I am an Ecuadorian born in March 11, 1972 in Guayaquil. Ours is a family of four consisting of my mother, one older brother, one older sister and myself. I came to the United States when I was barely 15 years old, just after graduating in high school. My coming to the United States was mainly triggered by the urge and passion I have for education. This was after realizing that the only way I could make ends meets is by getting quality education, which would enable me to secure a good job. I currently live in New York suburbs where I am pursuing a bachelor’s degree in psychology. Apart from my family, I am also married to a husband whom I met with when I was 20 years old. Since then we have been happily married for 24 years and we have been blessed with four children. My first born who is a boy aged 22 years, followed by my 22 year old daughter, I have a son who is 11 and the last born is also a boy aged 8 years old. My mother, children and my husband have proved to be the most important people in my life as they have contributed a lot to my success. I believe that without their contributions, I may not have been able to reach where I am today. Other people that I come into contact with as I go about my daily business have also shaped my life. My life currently consists of a happy family, growing business venture, great friends, family dedication and student. Growing up under the tutelage of a single parent has proved to be the most challenging and difficult part of my life. This is due to the fact that I was brought up by a single mother, after she divorced my father when I was barely six years old. Since then I have not been able to hear, see, or meet my father. In fact, most of the time we had to fend for ourselves having to do casual work to pay for our school fees and to make ends meet. Growing up under a single parent has had a lot of impact in both my social and physical development (Ruthus, 2011). This can be explained using Piaget’s human cognitive development theory. According to Piaget, children take part in continual interactions with their external environments (Sigelman and Rider, 2011). In his observation, he noted that children act, transform and modify the world around and in turn, they get shaped and transformed by the consequences of their interactions (Sigelman and Rider, 2011). This is true with regard to how my life that has been transformed by my parent’s divorce. For instance, when I was young, before my parents divorced, I would not take part in fending for my family, instead I would only wake up in the morning and go to play. However, things changed immediately after the divorce as I had to fend for the family to make ends meet. In fact, despite my age, I remember being woken up very early in the morning by my mother to accompany her to the garden. We would till the garden for a better part of the day without food. From the garden, I would accompany my poor mother to the market where we would go and sell the cabbages we reap from the farm. This kind of interaction and experience has transformed me to be the person that I am in terms of responsibility and hard work. This is because it has made me develop in terms of physical strength. In fact, it transformed me from being a week lazy girl to someone capable of fending for her family. The challenges my family was facing after the divorce is actually the force that drove me to pursue further education. This is due to the fact that it made me realize that through good education, I would be able to get a well-paying job, which I would use to uplift the living standards of my family. It was then that I had to seek for a way of getting a scholarship with which to pursue a bachelor’s degree in psychology (Sigelman and Rider, 2011). Furthermore, the challenges related to divorce in my family have helped me understand how beneficial working hard in school is. For instance, I remember that when I was still young at around five years old, I used to perform very well in class. In fact, at times I would come first in our class. This was mainly due to the fact that I used to get a lot of moral support from my parents who would coach me every evening after school. I remember my father calling every evening after school and telling me to show him what I had done in school. He would then teach me questions, which he noticed I did not understand. Life was so beautiful, and in fact, they used to call me “neurosurgeon” because I was so clever in class, and they wished I became a neurosurgeon after my university. However, all these dreams were shattered by the divorce. This is due to psychological depression and stress that I had to cope with. In fact, my performance started dwindling immediately after the divorce. At one time, I came last in class, a fact that dismayed everybody in school. The psychological stress I was exposed to also had an impact on my social development as I preferred staying alone from the rest of my colleagues trying to reflect the kind of sufferings that my family was facing (Ruthus, 2011). It was later on that I realized that losing my father should not affect my dreams. Just as Piaget cognition theory of human development suggests, development is adaptable and that this involves assimilation and accommodation. With regard to assimilation, Piaget argues that children usually stretch a schema as much as they could in order to fit new observations (Sigelman and Rider, 2011). For this reason, I decided to put everything behind me and pursue a goal that would lead to my success in life and help uplift the living standards of my family. From then I started working hard in class, and once again I began toping my class. After graduating in high school, my passion for further education to get a degree increased which actually is what landed me in the United States. I believed that the world has changed and quality education is the only way someone can succeed in life. This explains Piaget accommodation process in which he suggests is a stage where an individual changes his schema so as to make it match the world’s reality better as noted in Theories of Development (n.d). The divorce has also shaped the relationship I have with my family, especially my husband. Just as I have mention in my autobiography, we have been happily married for 24 years now. This does not just happen but it has been due to the experiences that I had as a child raised by a single mother. As a result, I would not wish to see my children grow up under such an environment for something which I believe can be solved. In fact, this has enabled me to see the importance of bringing up a family that is sociable through training and nurturing with the help of my husband. This is the reason why my family has been able to live happily for this long (Ruthus, 2011). In conclusion, children usually pass through identifiable development stages as they grow up to become adults. Whatever takes place at each stage of a Child’s development has a lot of impact on his/her future personality. This is mainly because as a child goes through developmental stages from birth to old age, they do not lose their capacity to learn, change and to integrate their life experiences (Birren and Cochran, 2001). This facet explains why I have become who I am. For instance, before my parents divorced, I was perhaps very lazy and would not help in carrying out family chores. After the divorce of my parents, I had to take an active role in carrying out family duties. This explains my physical strength and sense of responsible as a parent. Before my parents’ divorce, I used to be very clever in class due to the moral support and care I received from both of them. However, this changed with time after the divorce. This was mainly because it affected my concentration in class since most of the time I was under stress, trying to meditate on the life my family was living. Consequently, it is this kind of suffering that later made me develop interest in working hard in education to help liberate my parents from poverty. Moreover, the experience of being brought up by a single parent has helped my husband and I in our marriage. We have been able to raise a happy family for 24 years. References Birren, J.E & Cochran, K.N. (2001). Telling the stories of life through guided autobiography groups. JHU Press. Ruthus, S.A. (2011). HDEV. (Second Edition) California: Cengage Learning. Sigelman, C., & Rider, E.A. (2011). Life-span Human Development. California: Cengage Learning. Theories of Development (n.d). Retrieved from: http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/dl/free/0073370428/666687/Crandell9e_ch02.pdf. Read More