Introduction
- Interview Report
Theoretical applications
- Development is a lifelong process of change (Erikson)
- Each period of the life span is affected by what happened before and this affects
expected outcomes (Learning theories).
- Development is influenced by historical and cultural context (Papalia and Feldman)
Conclusion
- Explanation of how this analysis has affected communication within the work environment
Abstract
In this document the author is expected to distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple theories and/or models of human development relevant to functioning of the client being interviewed. During the interaction the interviewer must recognize how cultural structures that range from marginalizing to creating privilege are expressed as risk and protective factors in human development. Subsequently, application of developmental theories/models/frameworks must be undertaken in expressing knowledge of human behavior across the life course. Finally, an articulation of how developmental information can be used to assess the client’s strengths and limitations must be explained (Course instructions, 2013).
Introduction
The biographic data portion of the schedule asked, age, ethnic background, educational attainment; occupation/occupational achievements; religious affiliations; health status and social status in the community. Subsequent portions asked specific question related life span issues which are pertinent to this course requirement.
Interview Report
Besides his teaching law profession, Mr. T.R is co-pastor to a 300 hundred membership Baptist church in his community. He explained that it was a family tradition that one of the boys becomes a preacher. As such, he took up the challenged and is doing very well with it as a sub profession. With this he confirmed his spiritual conviction, ‘By his stripes I am healed.’ Therefore, he has no serious health issues except for an occasional rise in blood pressure, which he controls with adequate diet and exercise.
Consequently, he is well respected in the community and participates in as many projects helping under privileged youths. He referenced the need for boys both black and white to ‘pull up their pants and keep out of jail.’ As someone in the legal profession he feels obligated to fulfill this as a mission in his community by just being a role model. Young girls he highlighted ‘ought to pull up their skirts; cover their waists and breast so men could have some more respect for them in the twenty-first century.’
Other questions pertained to his life as a kid, adolescent, young adult and older adult. Mr. T.R continued by highlighting the days when segregation existed in the American culture whereby blacks and women were treated less than humans. Even though he was black and white to some extent society regarded him as black. However, his white grandfather he recalled played an important role in helping him resolve those social life issues in raising to prominence today.
Further, he said that his wife is black and maybe he is now really black because his children do not have any trace of white in their physical structure, but he explained ‘they have come at a better time.’
In concluding Mr. T.R joked about the courtship to his wife who is a practicing state attorney. The process he described is much different today. Women demanded respect and walked in dignity irrespective of their ethnicity. They together have four boys and one girl being married for 40 years. He declared, ‘I am married to the same woman for 40 years, how about that?’ I thanked him for his time; sharing experiences with me and left the residence. The interview lasted approximately one hour and 30 minutes.
Theoretical applications
Development is a lifelong process of change (Erikson)
Erikson’s (1993) theory accounts for eight distinct stages through which a person must pass from infancy to adulthood for a healthy progression to emerge. Each stage has its developmental task accomplishment, but mastery of each stage does not determine whether the individual moves towards the next stage or not. The precise stages are:-
- Hopes: Trust vs. Mistrust (Oral-sensory, Birth-2 years)
- Will: Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (Muscular-Anal, 2-4 years)
- Purpose: Initiative vs. Guilt (Locomotor-Genital, Preschool, 4-5 years)
- Competence: Industry vs. Inferiority (Latency, 5-12 years)
- Fidelity: Identity vs. Role Confusion (Adolescence, 13-19 years)
- Love: Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young adulthood, 20-24, or 20-40 years)
- Care: Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle adulthood, 25-64, or 40-64 years)
- Wisdom: Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Late adulthood, 65-death)
(Crain, 2011)
In tracing Mr. T.R‘s life based on the assumption that development is a lifelong process of change is to highlight first his birth into a bi-racial setting within a highly segregated society; his mother bi-racial, father black; grandfather white and grandmother black. This life long process does not affect physical growth only, but psychosocial impacts of the environment play a great role in successfully mastering each stage (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2004).
As the movement from hopes, through to will, purpose and competence is observed it was clear that Mr. T.R’s ethnic predisposition helped him survive challenges of a difficult society during childhood, where being black meant standing at the back of line or not being in the line at all. He referenced how his white grandfather’s influence helped a great deal since whites were considered the in-group. Here is where he began to trust his parents without knowing anything about racial discrimination. They provided him the love and attention he needed to develop his personality of being male within a household of father, mother and two other siblings; another brother and one sister. According to Maslow (1970) and Freud (1939) basic human needs of water, food, air, shelter were met during this period of his life and the required appreciation was unconsciously extended for it (Crain, 2011).
The difficulty this individual encountered can be considered perception confusion as he had to identify with himself who he really was. It went beyond acknowledgement of self as a human being; but how did society define him as a social being. Here is where Charles Horton Cooley’s (1902) looking glass self-theory can be combined with Erikson’s industry versus inferiority in referencing the assumption that ‘a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others’ (Cooley, 1902).
It can be further posited that these interpersonal interactions provided the basis of developing into either industry or inferiority. For Mr. T.R clearly it was industry. At one time he felt inferior being black, but the identity of his white grandfather raised him to the level of industry through interpersonal interactions linked with the perceptions of others. This definite perception of the psycho-social self-took precedence as changes from identity versus role confusion; intimacy versus isolation; generativity versus stagnation and ego integrity versus despair in later adult hood(Crain, 2011).
The obvious distinction in this character’s pyscho-social developmental changes is that he never seemed to be at odds with himself. Therefore, in his world he embraced the positive experiences of life while circulation in a diverse environment. It would appear that he grasped the good instead of the not so good. As these changes evolved there was a smooth transition from identity towards intimacy; generativity into ego integrity (Slater, 2003).
Evidence of a solid sustained marriage relationship; wonderful career as a law professor and co-pastor as well as aspirations of projections as a role model for his community testify of this social well-being concept. Corey Lee Keyes (1998) posits a five dimensional well-being model. The assumption embraces conceptions of social integration; social contribution; social coherence; social acceptance and social actualization (Keyes, 1998). Linking Mr. T.R developmental stages to the model after Erikson’s (1993) applications obvious observations are that he has achieved social actualization at this period of his life.
Each period of the life span is affected by what happened before and this affects
expected outcomes (Learning theories).
Papalia and Feldman (2012) advance that, ‘division of life spans into periods is a social construction’ (Papalia & Feldman, 2012, p. 4). Social construction in itself has been regarded a concept or practice, which may appear natural, but in reality is a learning experience derived from the environment based on a person’s cultural background (Papalia & Feldman, 2012). More importantly, there is no defining moment when these changes occur except for age definition constructed again by culture or environment. This concept can be linked to Cooley’s (1902) looking glass self in reference to the assumption that, ‘a person's self grows out of society's interpersonal interactions and the perceptions of others’ (Cooley, 1902).
Precisely, it is a can also be argued that social construction is a learning experience effected by what happened before and this affects expected outcomes. Mr. T.R had to learn how to act as a black child in a segregated society and a white child too because he was both; either at the same time or different times. He happened to have been raised in an all-black community since his father was black and mother biracial. At the time it was more socially acceptable for them to live and integrate within a black community where they could be accepted by the people around them.
It meant receiving the treatment black people were given at that period of history; sitting at the back of the bus; going to schools labeled ‘black schools’ visiting restaurants and eating places exclusively for black people. At the same time when in company of this white grandfather he could visit almost anywhere even though he would hear the reaction when they see him with this little ‘black boy.’ In response he would often say, ‘this is my grandson’ sometimes even before questions were asked.
As such, knowing his white grandfather helped him gather fortitude to override the facets of segregation amidst much controversy as to what was exclusively for black or white people in the society. More importantly, it was a risk taken by this white man according to Mr.T.R because it was actually a crime for white men to marry black women, but this was the type of resilience his grandfather taught him. It was an era also when the civil rights movement took the lead in forcing reorganization of social structure, he explained.
Development is influenced by historical and
cultural context (Papalia and Feldman)
Therefore, these segregation episodes impacting Mr. T.R life span history are directly related to history and culture. Papalia and Feldman (2012) references this notion in citing the way hereditary, environment and maturity are interrelated concepts. Hereditary are inborn traits emerging from the biological development of the species. Environment shapes personality and perception of the self. When these important features of life are combined the end product is maturation (Papalia & Feldman, 2012.
However, forces within society serve as catalysts in the symbolic digestion process similar to the human body. Hereditary and environment are metabolized into desired maturation products. Just like in human bodies science already predicts when someone eats bread it will metabolize as glucose in the same way when hereditary merges with environment forces such as segregation, labeling and discrimination predict social outcomes for specific categories (Mead, 1934).
As such, Mr. T.R social destiny within his environment was already predicted being a black- African American male. Papalia and Feldman (2012) conclude in the summary that while physical maturation is eminent, obvious and concurrent it does not affect human life chances as social maturation does (Papalia and Feldman, 2012).
The writers further contend that for clarity pertaining to development analysts ought to examine ‘the inherited characteristics that give each person a special start in life consider the many environmental, or experiential, factors that affect development, especially such major contexts as family, neighborhood, socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, and culture. how timing can accentuate the impact of certain influences’ (Papalia & Feldman, 2012, p. 10). Evidence offered in the foregoing articulation demonstrated these effects in Mr. T.R life span.
Conclusion
Explanation of how this analysis has affected communication
within the work environment
This analysis had made a great impact on how as a sociologist one must view society, age, disparities, ethic predisposition as it relates to one’s culture and environment. Even though Jim Crow laws were there to read about the influence it had on marginalization of black people in America never gripped me as when Mr. T.R described how he was a miss fit being black and white because he could not hate neither of the two, forces since he was aligned to both like the first African America President of United States of America, President Obama.
As such he showed empathy for both groups instead of developing gruesome antagonism and hate being caught between the two factions. The awareness of how a biracial child views segregation and a black one does was a marked difference. Consequently, it would appear that the psychological impact of racism and segregation is different for a person classified as one group as against people, with bi-racial hereditary.
References
Cooley, C. (1902). Human Nature and the Social Order. New York: Scribner
Crain, W. (2011). Theories of Development: Concepts and Applications (6th ed.). Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
Mead, G. (1934). Mind, Self, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press
Papalia, D., & and Feldman, R. (2012). Experience Human Development. McGraw.
Slater, L. (2003). Generativity versus stagnation: An elaboration of Erikson’s adult stage
of human development. Journal of Adult Development. 10 (1), 53–65
Kail, V., & Cavanaugh, C. (2004). Human development: A life-span view (3rd ed.).
Belmont, CA: Thomson/Wadsworth.
Keyes, L (1998). Social Well Being. Social Psychology Quarterly.61(2), 121-140
