Week 8: Jones: The Final Word

The final chapter of the LifeSmart book was rather bland in my opinion. Entitled, “Putting It All Together,” I expected it to be more of a concluding, culmination of the book. Rather, it was directed more towards psychology rooted careers, federal funding, and political policies. I understand and agree that lifespan development is a big part of the future of our world. It is important that leaders and voters alike understand the importance and need for appropriate attention and action as it pertains to lifespan development.

As we have learned from completing the LifeSmart text, lifespan development is ever changing, bringing about the need for new theories and policies, while also revising and reviewing established theories. In the Mooney text we get a great second look at the 5 theorists: Dewey, Montessori, Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky. We not only see what their theories are, but Mooney gives a little more back story to each theorist, which really helped me understand the why and how some of them arrived at the conclusions that they did.

Having studied these 5 people in Educational Psychology, I did not really come across new information, but rather a fresh review and more concrete understanding their theories and ideas.

            Ultimately, I am glad I had the opportunity to take this course. I support the requirement of this course to all undergraduate college students. This course has definitely given me a fresh outlook on my approach to the students that step into my classroom everyday. As mentioned in this final chapter, it is imperative for many professional professions to understand human lifespan development such as teachers, lawyers, healthcare personnel, human resources, public service employees, etc. These specific professions are expected to service and help other people. It is imperative that individuals in these positions understand the development of human beings in all facets: cognitively, socially, emotionally, physically, spiritually etc.

 Furthermore, I think it important for all people to have some understanding of human lifespan development. The future of our state, our nation, and our world is in the hands of the youth. To take that a step further, the future of humankind is in the hands of the youth. 

Week 7: Jones: Death

Chapter 12 was quite an interesting read. I myself am definitely a product of the 21^st century United States culture when it comes to death. I try not to think about or discuss it. This chapter manages to blast the topic of death wide open. The text discusses what death is and the four different types of death: clinical, brain, biological, and social. I never really thought of there being more than one kind of death. Not to sound insensitive but I always thought that dead was dead. When a person’s heart stops beating for an extended amount of time, and all medical attempts at reviving the person have failed, they are dead.

            I found the section on grieving very interesting. I have always found grief to be a very complex emotion. The text talks about 3 specific types of grief: anticipatory, delayed, and distorted. Each sounds just as painful and difficult as the other. When I think about death/dying, I for some reason always think of my father and his family. My father is from a family of 6 children and his two parents. His parents passed away when I was very young. However since then, I have watched my father bury 4 of his 5 siblings. In this time I have watched my father and wondered about his grieving process. He always seemed to take it much better than I would expect. After reading, I wonder if he perhaps may have delayed grief. To be clear, my father genuinely mourned the passing of each of his siblings, however not to the extent I expected.

            I fear that my father’s delayed grief may be released in the unfortunate event of his eldest brother, and last surviving sibling passing. I take comfort in knowing my father is a very religious person. He is a God-fearing man, who lives each day for his faith and his family. In the reading, I found that religion and spirituality, whichever you chose, could serve as a comforting refuge for those who seek it. It gives us a sense that there is a greater plan of a higher being.

            I think I avoid the thought of death because I am still young. I have so many things in life I want to accomplish an experience before even thinking about death. However, I know that the time will come when my loved ones will pass away. Still… Not ready to think about that yet.

Week 6: Jones: ADULTHOOD!

Chapters 9 and 10 this week discussed early and middle adulthood. In some ways I feel like many of us, since we are currently in these stages, would consider much of the information shared in the text as prior knowledge. Personally, the chapter on early adulthood functioned more as a confirmation of knowledge I already had due to personal experience and observation of the experiences of my peers. However, many of the supporting statistics and visual representations of the information given by the text served to be very helpful in expanding my understanding of the early adulthood demographic.

            For example, consumption of alcohol among young adults is very common, and quite frequent in my opinion. The text supports this on p. 213 stating, “binge drinking among young adults remains at a high level.” The graph on this page is a great visual support to the statistics about young adult male binge alcohol consumption. It is no secret that the “night life” or “bar scene” is very popular amongst young adults. It is a casual social setting that many of us engage in on any given night of the week… Unless you are enrolled as a Trinity student… Then you are tabling those cocktails until after graduation. (Light humor)

I can personally relate to this chapter in many ways, obviously because it is my current stage of development. However, I was struggling severely with young adulthood in my early twenties. I graduated from a four-year university with a music degree. I was cast into the real world with no real plan or identity. Soon I found myself searching for validation, identity, and friendship, which according to the text is absolutely normal. However I was searching in all the wrong places. After a few long years of struggling with alcohol, I found myself completely lost: Emotionally, mentally, physically, and spiritually. December 22^nd, 2010 I admitted myself into a program that saved my life. Since then I have defeated many odds with alcohol and tobacco. This is a very prevalent issue among young adults. It is a social act, a stress reliever, but above all it is and/or can be an addiction that can greatly alter the future stages of one’s development.

I am forever grateful for my sobriety. It has allowed my early adulthood development to continue to great lengths. I did not chose to share this story for pretentious or prideful reasons, rather I feel that so many young adults confide in and mask their true selves with these substances, which can severely delay or even prevent other important developmental elements to take place. I tell my story in hopes to inform and inspire others who may have a similar situation.

With all that being said, chapter 10 freaks me out. I am terrified of getting older. In my young naïve mind, many of the changes that take place from young adulthood to middle adulthood are just a preview of what is to come. Health risks increase while sexuality begins to slowly decline, and relationships become fewer but more significant.

I have recently watched my parents experience “empty nest syndrome”. My youngest brother moved away to college 2 years ago and in that time I have witnessed a great deal of change in my parents relationship not only with each other but with us boys too. It was just like the text discussed on p. 247, “it allowed time to rediscover the positive aspects of their relationship.” They go on weekend get-away trips, and set up dinner dates with us boys. While it is evident that they miss the 3 of us dearly, they seem to be having a little more fun these days. So I guess with that being said, it isn’t ALL down hill from here!

Week 5: Jones: Adolescence

Chapter 8 on Adolescence is a detailed break down of the significant physical, cognitive, social, and sexual development that takes between the ages of 8-16 years old. This chapter talks about the many drastic changes that occur in young adults that can so often be difficult and cause much uncertainty and questioning.

            Working in a high school, I am able to be an eyewitness of much of these adolescent developments taking place everyday. I see the freshman boys enter high school with baby faces and skinny gangly builds. By the time these “boys” return for their junior year, they have facial hair, their voices are deeper, and their bodies are gaining significant muscle mass. This is a general observation I have made of the physical development that takes place in young adolescent males.

            In terms of cognitive development, the section on adolescent egocentrism really stood out to me because I direct a choir composed of 34 high school girls. Adolescent egocentrism is “an adolescent’s tendency to exaggerate the importance, uniqueness, and severity of their social and emotional experiences. Their love is greater than anything others have experience. Their suffering is more painful and unjust than anyone else’s.” (P.192)

 This definition could not be any more accurate. On a daily basis I manage to teach a choir class, while also ducking a dodging the “drama” of the day. Now adolescent egocentrism is present in both males and females, however, in a room of 34 high school girls, you really can’t miss it. I may have a very nonchalant casual tone about this, however, as a male high school teacher teaching a classroom full of adolescent teen girls I have to be very careful and mindful of this developmental stage. As humorous this “teen drama” can be to adults, it is absolutely 100% real to these young people. Adult figures, such as teachers, who interact with adolescents on a daily basis, must be aware and sensitive to these things. Improper treatment or attitude towards these individuals and their situations can have a negative ripple affect on the adolescent’s development, health, and well-being.

            Another very prevalent development I see taking place among the adolescents in our school is that of sexual identity. When students enter high school, you see a few students who have transitioned into having sexual attraction towards those of the opposite sex or the same sex. However, quickly after starting high school, you see many “young love” relationships forming before the end of the first semester. After reading the chapter, I concluded that this rapid change is caused by a combination of social, biological, and emotional influences.

            I find the adolescent stage of life to be very fascinating. It is a period of development when children begin the transition into young adulthood. This is a time where much of an individual’s future foundation is formulated and set. Each stage of development can be qualified as monumental to one’s future. However, I believe adolescence to be particularly significant because individuals are faced with more difficult independent choices and experiences that have consequences that can greatly impact the rest of their lives.

Week 4: Jones: Early/Middle Childood

Chapters 4 and 5 talked about early and middle childhood development. While a great deal of development occurs in these stages of a child’s life it is not as rapid the development that takes place in infancy. Types of development discussed were: physical, cognitive, social, brain, moral, and language.

In chapter 4 on p. 139, the reading talks about Head Start Program. I was not aware of this program’s national recognition and support until reading more about it. The reason this section stood out to me is because during my undergrad at Millikin University, I was a member of the Sigma Alpha Epsilon Fraternity, and we partnered up with the Head Start program in Decatur, IL as part of our philanthropic program. Head Start was created under President Johnson’s War on Poverty in the 1960’s to “increase school readiness among children by providing educational, health, nutrition, social and other services to low-income children and their families.”

Our fraternity scheduled groups of brothers every day of the week in the morning and afternoon to volunteer at the local Head Start facility in Decatur. There we helped the students with projects, read to them, played with them, and helped teachers and workers serve food during meal times. It was a very rewarding experience. After a week or two the children looked forward to our visits and it seemed like we might have had an impact of some kind on these children’s lives.

After doing the readings, studying education and child development, I am now aware of the great things Head Start does for low-income children that I was able to be a part of. We were not just helping these children in their current life situations; rather we were helping their early and middle childhood development. We were modeling and influencing social, language, cognitive, physical, brain, and moral development and we didn’t even know it.

Week 3: Jones: BABIES!

This week's chapters: 3, 4, & 5 covered a great deal of information relating to the very first stages of conceived human life through the time of infancy. These three chapters contained a lot of new information for me. I want to start of by saying that these chapters really opened by eyes in terms of the scope of all the variables and different kinds of elements (both good and bad) that play into not only actual childbirth itself but also pregnancy, and the whole early development process.

            Chapter 3 discussed everything that occurs or can occur prior to the actual birth-taking place. Much of the biological information regarding the reproduction of human life, I feel many of us learned either in biology class or health class in high school. However, I was not aware of all the possible hereditary disorders that can occur. Chromosomal disorders for instance, due to alterations in chromosome number, can result in disorders such as Down Syndrome, Klinefelter syndrome, and Turner syndrome. Genetic disorders occur from harmful or malfunctioning genes that can lead to disorders such as Tay-Sachs disease, Sickle-cell disease, and cystic fibrosis.

            I have known individuals in my life who have had some of these disorders, and it never occurred to me that these where things that took place months prior to their birth, and where seemingly 100% out of anyone’s control. Call me naïve, but I guess I never truly thought about it.  

            Chapters 4 and 5 were quite heavy on the information as well. I have yet to watch and analyze the film for this week, “Life’s Greatest Miracle,” however, I am assuming it will relate to these chapters very well. Being a fairly newly married man, having a child is definitely something my wife and I discuss quite often. These two chapters really exposed and broke down the miracle of what new human life really is. It honestly got me quite intrigued. My wife, who is a nurse I might add, has poked fun at me because I always get kind of squirmy and uncomfortable when we would talk about having our first child. I am beginning to think, after reading, that it was because I really did not know much of ANYTHING! However, after reading these chapters about the birth process, preliminary tests, all the different stages of development coupled with the science and reasoning behind it all, I feel slightly less scared. It is normal for people to fear what they do not know or understand…right?

            Chapter 5 was by far my favorite; I believe this is one of the early stages I am looking forward to the most when I become a father, the infancy stage. In this chapter the discussion of the early weeks and months of a child’s life absolutely astounded me. The graph on p.108 just blew my mind. I even asked by wife who assisted in raising her 4 nieces and nephews if this stuff is really “the average” development rate. This graph charted the milestones in "Gross Motor Development" from birth to 16 months old. Being a 27-year-old male who has not been around babies since my youngest brother was born 20 years ago, I have lost touch with the rapidity of development these little human beings progress at…Absolutely amazing.

Week 2: Theories of Development

The reading for the week on chapter 2: Theories of development broke down the similarities and differences between some of the major theories on development. These major theories all can be categorized into their own specific category. Freud (psychoanalytic), Erikson (psychosocial), Piaget (cognitive), Vygotsky (cultural), Skinner, Bandura (behavioral), and Lerner (contextual). Each theorist had a strong position on what they feel is the core or source of human development. Almost all of the theorists discussed in this chapter have evidence and data supporting their theory. However, as the book warned at the beginning of the chapter, each theory is vulnerable to having gaps in real-life application/scenario.      

            As researched and supported as Freud’s theory on development from a psychoanalytic standpoint is, I find it very difficult to truly consider. I agree that psychosexual stages are present in human development, however I do not think they can be attributed to the basis of human development. If anything, Freud’s five stages could be considered as a supportive element to development, rather that the foundation.

            I have never taken a psychology class prior to ED Psych last spring through Trinity. With that being said I found myself trying to not only understand each theory, but also actually believe it. As foolish as that may sound, I have never considered any of these theories and concepts, so therefore I find myself eagerly wanting to find conviction in one of them. This made the reading very difficult for me because I tried to dissect and apply each theory to how I think about human development.

            In the end, I related best to Erikson, Pavlov, and Skinner. Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development seems the most logical to me. He breaks the stages of human development into 8 stages of life crisis. These stages cover all of the important parts of each human’s life. Table 2.1 on page 32 lays out his theory really well and it made a lot of sense to me. The psychosocial crisis is the “equation” and the psychosocial strength is the “product”. For example, Initiative vs. guilt = purpose.  The presence of conflict/crisis requires resolution in order for the individual to move on.

            Pavlov and Skinner’s theories about conditioning just make sense to me. I think conditioning is something I experienced a lot as a child growing up. My parents used conditioning in potty training me and enforcing curfew to name a few examples. I also have used conditioning and reinforcement in the classroom setting and have seen great results in the behavioral development in a number of students.