1. Discuss Erickson's theory of adult development. Apply that theory to simba's development (lion king movie), and apply the last four to your own development. Erikson’s theory of adult development consists of an eight-step adult development stages. In his theory, Erikson argues that each individual must undergo eight stages of psychosocial crisis in order to mature fully. He refers to the “Psychosocial crisis” as emotional conflicts that one experiences in his social and psychological life as he develops into adulthood. The chances of successful development increase when one accumulates many positive dispositions. They enable him navigate through the next stages with low probability of impaired judgment. The following are the psychosocial crisis stages as proposed by Erikson.
The first stage is infancy. It is a period between birth to eighteen months. During this period one learns to trust or mistrust depending on the experiences he undergoes as an infant. One develops trust through the constant positive care they receive from parents. Mistrust develops when such positive care misses at such stage. Applying this to Simba in the King lion movie, Simba received a lot of care from both his parents and other members of Mufasa’s pride. He therefore developed trust that the world around him was okay. He even trusted his uncle scar that he thought to be well meaning.
The second stage is Early Childhood, a period between 18 months to 3 years. At this stage, one learns how to master his abilities. It results into either autonomy or shame. While he faces confrontation by the hyenas in the elephant is grave, Simba tries to protect himself by trying to roar. He is frustrated when he learns that he could not. This undermines his confidence before Nala’s eyes. Play age from 3 to 5 years is the third stage. One acquires initiative or guilt. While playing out during a storm, Simba watches his father swept away by flood in a bid to save him. He picks up guilt, which later affects him and makes him run away for fear of ruling having felt that he killed his father.
The adolescence stage that occurs between 12 and eighteen years is the fifth stage. It is a stage where one is neither an adult nor a child. Life is complex at this period. Personally, I struggled with identity and social role that defined me separately from parental control and as a member of the wider social life at a boarding school. Navigating through role models, best public image, and response to authority was an uphill task. Upholding Christian principles and ideals acquired from a previous missionary school enabled me complete the stage.
The Sixth stage is the young adulthood that occurs between 18 to 35 years. I struggle with assuming adult roles that I preconceived in my childhood in this stage. I seek meaningful friendship and long lasting companionship that will enable me achieves my long-term goals. The seventh stage forms the Middle age where one is preoccupied with work and raising up a family. Family matters consumes most of one’s time at this stage. Midlife crisis may occur as children grow up and find their own path leaving the parents alone. The eighth and the last stage is the late adulthood. One will either feel accomplished or despair. He will accept death or look for meaningful purpose for their life if they feel unaccomplished.
2. Define and discuss transition theory. Using this theory, analyze the major transitions and patterns in your adult life. How do you deal with beginnings, endings, and uncertainty? What were some of the anticipated and unanticipated transitions of your life and how did you respond to them? Transition theory is a psychosocial theory that defines the development stages in an individual’s life. It examines how life occurrences affect people’s routines, thinking, actions, and other aspects of their social life. An individual’s meaning and perception of transitions enables him understand the process better and therefore emerge out of it successfully. One can interpret the meaning of transition based on its type, context, and impact.
The various type of transition includes anticipated, Unanticipated and non-event. An anticipated transition is one in which occurrences or events are certain or predictable in one’s life. On the other hand, transitions where the events occurring are unpredictable, one would refer to them as unanticipated events. Based on anticipated transition, a transition that one expects to take place and it actually does is an event, whereas a transition that one did expect to take place but it does not occur is a none-event.
Transitional context defines the relationship between an individual and the transition. The relationship could be personal or not whereas the setting refers to the place or condition in which the transition takes place. Transitional impact on the other hand is the alteration or changes that occur in one’s life due to the transition.
In order to Comprehend the impact of transition in one’s life, Schlossberg defines the transition process as moving in (getting into new changes may be permanently), moving through (temporal) and moving out (exit). In coping up with changes due to transition, one’s success, or failure in coping up with the transition depends on either abundance or inadequacy in regard of four sets of factors. They include social support, personal characteristics, situation, and coping strategy.
As an example, an unanticipated event that took place in my life occurred when one of my parents lost a job in my high school days. It meant an overall adjustment of almost every aspect of my life including, expectations, school, neighborhood and image. Having been used to an image of a kid from a rich family, I was uncertain of how others will socially perceive me now that the status quo had changed. In the beginning, I was frustrated due to uncertainty. I dealt with the transition by being rebellious and angry with my parents. I lashed out at anyone who I perceived to be making fun of me.
After a while, I learned to accept my situation. I was Happy that my parent’s decision to readjust our lifestyle kept us going; otherwise, we would have been badly off. My dad started his own venture eight months later. As a coping mechanism, I figured out that if I worked hard to help him and give him less trouble maybe we would be back on our feet .I decided to ignore every negative comments and mockery and instead concentrated on being productive with the understanding that no situation is permanent for willful person. Just as I anticipated, the venture performed better than my dad had hoped. We went back to an even better neighborhood I joined a better high school from which I graduated with excellent results that enabled me join a top university. However, I have never fully recovered from the transition I still feel uncertain and that anything can happen.
3. Discuss David Kolb’s theory of experiential learning. Give an example of how you have "traveled around the circle." According to David Kolb, Experiential learning is the process of creating knowledge through transforming experiences. He asserts that knowledge is a product of one’s grasping and transformation of personal or none- personal experiences. Kolb presents experiential learning as a cycle consisting of four elements namely concrete experience, reflective observation, Abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation.
The first element of the learning cycle is concrete experience (feeling), which entails unbiased involvement in the learning process through experience or feeling. The second element is reflective observation, which is examining the environment from different perspective and attaching meaning to the observation. The third element is Abstract conceptualization (thinking). It involves analyzing information logically in order to understand the general picture or comprehension. The last element is Active experimentation. It is the actual doing of an action through influence of an events or people.
Out of the cycle, Kolb came up with three learning styles namely divergent, which utilizes concrete experience and reflective observation to learn, assimilating which uses abstract conceptualization and reflective observation, converging, that uses abstract conceptualization and active experiment and finally accommodating which uses concrete experience and active experimentation.
My first experience in learning to ride a bicycle is a good example of how I navigated the cycle. I first made an observation by watching riders. The second thing I did was to conceptualize the riding process from mounting to balancing and alighting. The third step was concrete experience where I received biking lessons from my dad and lastly active experimentation where I actually tried out riding.
4. Define and discuss the term (cohort) as presented by Helen Bee. Identify your cohort group. Discuss two events that influenced your cohort group. Discuss the impact of technology on your cohort group. How is this different from the impact on your parents?
According to Helen Bee, A cohort is a term that refers to individuals born at a similar period who share the same life experiences. A cohort can also occur because of different cultural experiences overtime or strictly age. Helen defines cohort effect as the differences that emerge among adult groups of varying ages due to growth in different historical /cultural periods. Even though cohorts are not universal, general cohorts tend to have similar characterizes due same experiences within a generation from one generation to the next.
My Cohort belongs to the Generation Y. It is an age that comes immediately after the generation x or the baby boomers. It an age group born between 1977 and 1994 also known as the millennial. The major characteristics of the millennial include technological Knowhow. We grew up with technology that enables us perform most of our work unlike the baby boomers/generation X. The other characteristics include ambition, Fickleness, impatience, and communication. This means that we constantly generate new ideas and dream big. We prefer immediate gratification to delayed gratification. We also prefer constant re-assurance through feedback and praise in order to perform.
The two main events that occurred affected the generation Y is the rise in technological advancement and Economic improvement after the early eighties improvement. The impact of technological improvement has had an effect on the generation Y in that in almost every function they perform, they must do it with aid of technology. Communication is through technology where they prefer texting and emails to the traditional face-to-face communication. This has negatively affected family communications. They no longer have time to share and communicate other than using technology.
Having been born during good economic times their parents have raised them carefully lavishly. This has improved their confidence and self-esteem, which makes them highly ambitious and flexible unlike the generation X. The X generations could not afford to be ambitious in terms of changing jobs and questioning authority. As far as technological shrewdness is concerned, the generation X was not ahead and therefore performed their duties manually. This brings about a difference in how to treat each of generations. An example is marketing, the generation Y is not likely to respond to traditional methods of marketing such as face-to-face marketing while this may be appealing to generation X.
References
Bee, H. L. (1992). The journey of adulthood. New York: Maxwell Macmillan International,.
Schlossberg, N. (1989). Counseling adults in transition: Linking Practice with Theory. New York: Springer Publishing Company, Inc.
