Josie Peterson Psychological Theories

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Introduction Human development can be changed and altered by significant life events. This case study will take a look at the documentary, ‘Love, Lust and Lies’ and will explore Josie Peterson’s life from the age of fourteen right through to the age of forty-seven. Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory and Burrhus Fredric Skinner’s operant conditioning theory will be introduced and applied to a major life event in Josie’s life. Background Josie Peterson starts off in the documentary ‘Love, Lust and Lies’ as a young, sometimes rebellious fourteen year old girl. She grows up in what she describes as a bad area, with her father and siblings. Josie’s father is a single parent as her mother walked out with her older sister when she was quiet young. …show more content…

Corey (2017) explains that Erikson built on Freud’s ideas and extended his theory beyond childhood. Erikson believed that throughout a persons life they experience eight major psychological stages, or conflicts and, unlike Freud, has a much more positive view towards human nature and development (Sigelman, Rider and De George-Walker, 2016). Erikson’s psychosocial theory is relevant to the documentary ‘Love, Lust and Lies’ because it helps people to better understand human development by examining the psychosocial stage Josie is at in different times in her life. The first of Erikson’s psychosocial stages, that are relevant to the documentary, is identity versus role confusion, ages twelve to twenty years. This stage is about adolescents establishing their own social and vocational identities and asking questions about who they are in order to determine their roles in adulthood (Sigelman, Rider and De George-Walker, 2016). Erikson’s next psychosocial stage is intimacy versus isolation, ages twenty to forty years. Young adults in this stage of their lives seek intimacy and to form a shared identity with another person, however, may also fear intimacy and experience isolation and loneliness (Sigelman, Rider, and De George-Walker, 2016). The last two psychosocial stages in human development according to Erikson are, generativity versus stagnation, ages forty to sixty-five, and …show more content…

By firstly looking at why Josie continued to lie about Rebecca’s biological father for decades, could be because she received no negative reinforcement or consequences from her behaviour. Positive reinforcement for this behaviour could be the continued, strong mother-daughter relationship she had with Rebecca before the lie came out. Another positive reinforcement when Josie was fifteen, for her behaviour of going out and have sex was the safety, love and security she felt from it. Without negative reinforcements from her actions and behaviour, Josie fails to see the consequences that may come of her behaviour. If negative reinforcements and consequences had happened straight away for her behaviours, Josie may have made different decisions in her life, resulting in a different

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