Case study part one
Human development consists of many theory’s that help us to develop a perspective on why, how, what and where we are in our lives. This essay is based on a case study of a blended family called the Jones’s. Interpretation of each member of the families’ development has been established using human development theorist from the following four theoretical positions; psychodynamic, cognitive, behavioural and ecological.
Through out the case study all five family members of the Jones’s are categorised in Sigmund Freud and Erick Erickson’s psychodynamic views on development.
From E. Erickson’s perspective, development only takes place in peoples lives when the environment places new demands on them and new conflicts then arise in their lives which they succeed (or not) in overcoming(Morris & Maisto, 2002). Erickson describes this process using eight stages that focuses on tasks that must be accomplished to successfully navigate through to the next stage and challenge (Santrock, 2008). According to Erickson, during the first year of life, children go through the stage of developing trust or mistrust (Morris & Maisto, 2002). Sam (the youngest in the Jones family) was hospitalised in her first year of life. This experience could have formed mistrust in her parents and environment which showed in Sam’s reluctance to sleep at night. However through determination of her parents and Sam’s health improving, her trust was rebuilt, allowing her to move on to Erickson’s second stage of autonomy versus shame and doubt. Sam’s older sister Cila is showing more industry then inferiority in the forth stage of Erickson’s stages, one below Anton her brother, who is by Erickson’s perspective showing signs of the negative aspect of the stage; identity versus identity confusion (Atherton, 2005). Having to move into a new family and spend less time with his father could of confused Anton’s perception of were his role within the family was, thus...