Lifespan Digital Scrapbook Project By : Jason Schirmer PSY 212 12/15/2015
Brain Development
• Brain development is crucial in lifespan development. The frontal lobe is said to be the most important lobe because it effects are ability to think and plan our actions. As you know critically thinking (especially during adolescence and young adulthood), is very important. • Brain development can increase due to a lot of factors such as drugs, the usage of critical thinking, or environment. One thing that can’t change is the gray matter, which will continue to decrease after adolescence (Gogtay, 2004).
Child Abuse/Maltreatment • Child abuse is considered to be any act that engager's a child's physical or emotional well being. This can have enormous effects on the development of a child, especially during the early stages of life. • A great example would be the movie on Genie. It showed how child abuse and maltreatment could ruin a girls ability to develop basic functions such as walking and talking. Studies were done to try and see if Genie developed these traits or if she was born with them. Due to the lack of research and lack of time, opinions still very about her development.
Violence
Delinquency/Gangs
• According to Erikson the lack of acceptable social roles and the thought of not being able to measure up to the demands placed on them, some teens choose become delinquent and join gangs. • Gangs can make someone feel accepted (Howell, 2009).
• A lot of teenagers due to their vulnerability will join gangs to help establish an identity which in almost all cases will be a negative identity.
Suicide and Treatment The dictionary defines suicide as the act or an instance of taking one's own life voluntarily and intentionally especially by a person of years of discretion and of sound mind. “Cuz if you like the way you look that much, oh baby, you should go and love yourself. And if you think that I’m still holding on to something, you should go and love yourself.”- Justin Bieber
• Once one has attempted suicide or thought about it they should receive some sort of treatment. • Treatment can vary from prescription drugs or basic face to face therapy. • Males and females with a bisexual or homosexual orientation are proved to have higher suicidal risk opposed to heterosexual males or females(Remifedi,1998). • Suicide is a growing epidemic and needs to receive more attention please call (989) 386-2774 if you are having thoughts or have attempted suicide before. • The number above is to a place called Listening Ear, where they offer hands on therapy or just over the phone therapy here in Mt. Pleasant.
Stress • Stress is something everyone will experience at some point in their live. Some people will experience more than others. • My own experience: Growing up in poverty, the death of my grandpa, attending 4 different colleges, and the death of a best friend. • A stressor is a life event that created the stress. Your Stress response(how you react) is most important because it can have positive and negative outcomes.
Parenting Authoritarian
Authoritative
• Parenting can have a huge influence on how a child develops. It also can determine how it child will act and perform once they are through adolescence. For example a child who grows up with Authoritarian parents will most likely have weak communication skills and will be have higher anxiety levels. • A child who grows up with Authoritative parents will hold good communication skills and will cope with stress very well which in return means lower anxiety.
Bullying • The dictionary defines bullying as the use of superior strength or influence to intimidate (someone), typically to force him or her to do what one wants. • In high school I participated in a club called peer mediation where students could come and talk to other students about their problems or a problem they were having with a specific person. I would say about 80 percent of our cases dealt with bullying. We would sit the two students down and solve the problem formally instead of the students having to go to the office. In almost all cases we were very successful. • With social media and internet bullying has become even more prevalent than before. Peer mediation was a great way to help stop bullying in high school and teach students the right way to handle problems or issues.
Socioeconomic Status • People growing up with a low SES tend to have a lower rate of success than someone growing up in a high with a high SES. • The movie, “ Remember the Titans” is a great example of how people of high SES can combine with people with low SES and succeed together. In this movie players from different races and different SES’s came together to win a state championship in footfall during a time when there were many racial issues.
Resiliency
• Socioeconomic Status- (SES) is a great way to describe a persons position based on income, education, and occupation.
Health • Health is important during all stages of life, but it is extremely important in the later years. • Your hearing, vision, and motor abilities all decrease more rapidly after early adulthood. • It is important to eat right and exercise throughout life to develop good habits. • Obesity in the earlier stages of life can lead to problems such as heart disease and diabetes in the later years.
Old age/Retirement (the good and the bad) • The good- Once you retire and enter the old age stage you tend to be more happy. Reasons for being happy consist of less stress due to things such as getting the chance to help raise grand children and also no pressure from a job. • The bad- Eventually you will have to cutback on your spending. You also me realize that death is near and this can give you a loss of purpose in life. • The book, “Dying Well”, by Ira Byock, helps people realize that there is always time for growth even in the later years of life. My grandma read this book and it helped her develop and learn coping mechanisms that deal with aging after retirement.
Sources/References –
Gogtay, N. (2004, April 15). Dynamic mapping of human cortical development during childhood through early adulthood. Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http://www.pnas.org/content/101/21/8174.full
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Howell, J. (2009, July 9). Menacing or Mimicking? Realities of Youth Gangs. Retrieved December 14, 2015, from http:// onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-6988.2007.tb00137.x/abstract
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Belsky, J. (2010). Experiencing the lifespan (2nd ed.). New York: Worth.
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Remifedi, G. (1998). The Relationship between Suicide Risk and Sexual Orientation: Results of a Population-Based Study. American Journal of Public Health, 88(1), 57-60. doi: January 1998