Life-Course Perspective On Family Stress

Life has its way of turning an individual’s attention to better understanding the overall course of life. One may experience different transitions, and turning points as well as particular life events and family experiences that may influence the developmental trajectories of life. The Moore Family- Ed, Jessica, Derrick, Terrance, Debbie and Barbara- all have stories that have unfolded over a period of time. One of the useful ways I will attempt to explain the Moore’s family stories, and the relationship between time and human behavior, is the life course perspective. The life course perspective maintains that chronological age, relationships, common life transitions, and social change shape people’s lives from birth to death (Hutchinson, 2013). Timing is very important.

General: stressors or events related to Hyppolite family life that can create stress within a family or between the family and their environment. There are 25 situations/ stressors listed and rated between 0 to 5 and how it creates stress or tension for the individual.

The 10 dimensions of Family Stress are a way to describe a family stressor. Lipman-Blumen created a list of 10 dimensions that family stressors are based on. These ten categories are: internal vs external, pervasive vs bounded, precipitate onset vs gradual onset, intense vs mild, transitory vs chronic, random vs expected, natural generation vs artificial generation, scarcity vs surplus, perceived insolvable vs perceived solvable, and substantive context. Some of these factors may seem obvious and others may not. Some may have a direct influence on the stressor and others may not. But, each of these can lead to a crisis if not taken seriously. For all of these categories, I think it all depends on the crisis and each situation.

Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) psychosocial stages of development provide a framework for the different stages of development throughout the human lifespan. These stages of development begin at birth and continue until death, and separate the lifespan into eight stages based on chronological age. Within these eight different aging stages are corresponding psychosocial stages. Each of these psychosocial stages represent a conflict between two characteristics of development for that particular time period in a person’s life.

Psychosocial development throughout the Life Cycle theory (sometimes known as individual development theory) proposes that each individual has the ability to master their environment at all stages of life (Coady & Lehman, 2008; Hutchison, 2008). The theory had its

By using life course perspective, or how the person, environment, and time interact to influence behavior, we can understand that our clients are influenced by a variety of aspects. Every client is affected by biological, psychological, and spiritual factors. It is important to understand this because although we are all affected by these factors; the specific components of each of these factors, such as culture, families, and formal organizations differs between individuals

* M1 Discuss the principal psychological perspectives applied to the understanding of the development of individuals

There are many issues that cause life stress to children and their families e.g. bereavement, separation /divorce, long-term illnesses. This report will employ a holistic approach, incorporating life span development, and will focus on transition within early year’s education. It will assist practitioners in supporting children and their families and will focus on the effect it has on their lives.

According to Cliff Notes, Developmental psychology is the scientific study of age-related changes throughout the human life span. A discipline of scientific inquiry, developmental psychology recognizes humans of all societies and cultures as beings who are “in process,” or constantly growing and changing. This discipline identifies the biological, psychological, and social aspects that interact to influence the growing human life-span process. Within the last 25 years, developmentalist’s researchers who study human development expanded their focus to include the study of the physical, motor, cognitive, intellectual, emotional, personality, social, and moral changes that occur throughout all stages of the life span (cliff notes).

Horizontal and vertical stressors are both present within my family. Interestingly enough though, vertical stressors are easier to identify when it comes to my family. Addiction is quite prevalent in my family, especially on my mother’s side, and has been for many generations. I grew up watching several family members suffer from drug addiction. These same family members were in and out of jail most my life. Consequently, this really took a toll on my family. I watched my grandmother suffer through depression because she thought it was her fault. I also watched my grandparents suffer financially because they wanted to keep their children out of jail and in rehab. Unfortunately, my grandparents had to watch their child and now a grandchild

No matter who you are I believe that everyone will go through stages in their life that will get them to where they are on today. I am a person who has a very interesting story; this is the first time it will be told in full. We were asked to use Erik Erikson’s theory of development as a guideline to telling the story of our lives. At first I was very nervous; however, I soon realized that this would be a fun task. Erik Erikson has eight stages of Development (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman). I will be walking you though my life using each one of his stages drawing out the map of my life. Within my life I have had some very interesting encounters. I have been through foster care, abuse, rape, molestation, starvation, adoption, depression, and

Life span developmental psychology takes a scientific approach to human growth and change, focusing on change during the life span. There are three main aspects to life span development: cognitive, social, and physical development. This class is not simply a discussion of nature vs. nurture, it explores the interaction between genetic and environmental factors that orient us towards specific behaviors. Initially, my views on life span development were limited to more sociological factors, and did not take into consideration physical developments of the brain. In relation to my personal and professional identity this course has made me realize that development occurs on a spectrum and that not everyone develops at the same time, in the same ways, making me more understanding and compassionate towards those who developed differently than me. The three most important lessons I have learned from this class are that development occurs throughout the entire life span, infants begin learning at a very young age, and that senescence begins as early as young adulthood.

Most of the time life can be so unexpected but there is something we know for sure, change is the only constant thing in this world. Changes happen constantly physical changes, career changes, health changes. But I believe that there are some changes that can affect us more than others, changes that affect us mentally and emotionally brining stress into our lives that could affect us even more. In the following paragraphs I will describe the main points of two articles. One article describe how to cope with unexpected changes and the other how life events can cause a high amount of stress that could cause illness.

Final Summary: Today, we discussed the three forms of stress; acute stress, episodic acute stress, and chronic stress.

This methodology encompasses examining the child’s life through many different contexts, such as: demography, history, sociology, biology, developmental psychology, and economics. ( w. website ) The Life Course Perspective takes the combination of the historical and social factors and sees them in an individual’s course of personal development. A life course is defined as a sequence of socially defined events and roles that the individual enacts over time. ( W. website ) The theory loosely follows the sage old adage, “To know where you’re going, you have to know where you have been.” More precisely, the theory explains that the roles, events or transitions in an individual’s life don’t naturally progress in a structures order, but instead but create the sum of one’s life experience. (website) Transitions play an important role in the life experience.