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…
Her and her dad do not always see eye to eye, and he does not seem to have a lot of control over Josie as a teenager. Josie lacks confidence, and often rebels by wagging school, smoking cigarettes and not telling her father where she is going and what she is getting up to. However, she works hard and really enjoys the independence the job gives her. In the next stage of the documentary, Josie is now eighteen, and has had her first baby out f wedlock, at the age of fifteen. She was scared about what people would say and think about her falling pregnant at such a young age, especially her dad. Josie experienced a ‘depressing’24 hour labour, giving birth to her first daughter, Rebecca. When Rebecca was six months old Josie met Ken and shortly after, they got married. It was not the wedding Josie had dreamed, and about twelve months later they got divorced. Ken and Josie did have one child together, who they named Wendy. Next, the documentary catches up with Josie when she is twenty-six. Josie now has a fiance named Wayne, and is working two jobs to support her family. She still lacks confidence, and dreams that one day she will get her traditional, ‘proper’, church wedding. A lot has changed on the next catch up with Josie, seven years later. Josie married and divorced Wayne, and has now met Mick. Josie and Mick have brought and sold their own house, brought a country hotel, and had two children together, Michael and Micaela. Josie now also wishes to go back and complete her schooling. On the last journey of the documentary, Josie is now forty-seven, and has married husband number three, Erik. Josie is working as a bus driver and even though she did not finish her schooling, she has completed a Diploma in Professional Counselling. Josie and Rebecca have had problems over the years because Josie lied to Rebecca for a long time about who her biological father is. Additionally, this lie led to a breakdown in the mother-daughter relationship. However, Josie is trying to let go of past events that have caused her grief, and is putting her family first as that is the most important thing in the world to her. Developmental Theories Erik Erikson- Erik Erikson is a psychosocial theorist who’s work is inspired by Sigmund Freud.
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…
integrity versus despair, ages sixty-five years and older. Generativity versus stagnation is the stage where middle aged people feel the need to go beyond themselves to help the next generation and need to adjust to the discrepancy between their dreams and actual accomplishments, and integrity versus despair is the stage in later life where people can look back on their lives with few regrets and achieve ego integrity (Corey, 2017). Erikson’s psychosocial stages can help determine the stages Josie was in throughout the documentary, and may help to explain developmental progress and life choices made. Burrhus Fredric Skinner- Burrhus Fredric Skinner is a behaviourist and his theory is now known as operant conditioning. Sigelman, Rider and De George-Walker (2016) explain that the basic principle behind operant conditioning is when behaviours that have desirable outcomes or consequences are likely to be repeated, whilst behaviours with negative outcomes or consequences are likely to be avoided. The biggest difference between operant and classical conditioning is that operant conditioning applies to voluntary behaviour, whilst classical conditioning applies to reflexes or respondent behaviour (Slee & Shute, 2003). Operant conditioning is relevant to the documentary ‘Love, Lust and Lies’ because Josie has times in her life where positive and negative reinforcements play a role in determining her development and the choices she makes. Operant conditioning means that a person’s behaviour will become more or less probable depending on the consequences produced by this behaviour, and the person will, over time, come to associate their action or behaviour with a positive or negative consequence (Sigelman, Rider & De George-Walker, 2016). Operant conditioning can therefore make it simpler to identify the reasoning behind a persons actions or behaviours. Analysis A major life event in Josie’s life is telling her oldest daughter Rebecca the truth about her biological father. Josie lied to Rebecca for decades about her biological father leading her to believe he was someone else. Analysis of each theory and how they can be applied to this major life event will now be discussed. Psychosocial theory- Josie first began lying about who Rebecca’s biological father is at the age of fifteen, which puts Josie in Erikson’s psychosocial stage of identity versus role confusion. This stage is a time for adolescents to test limits and establish their own identity, however, if they fail to achieve a sense of their own identity, it can result in role confusion (Corey, 2017). Rebecca not only had a baby in a stage of her life where she was trying to discover her own identity, she also blames her parents for not having a loving, safe and secure home life. Additionally, with Josie’s lack of confidence, she went out seeking love and security and found this in the way of sex. Having a baby at this stage in her life, Josie got the role of motherhood forced on her, and was not able to figure out her own identity and role in life. This possibly left Josie feeling very vulnerable, and when assumptions were made about who Rebecca’s father was, Josie did not deny them. Moving on to later in life, where Rebecca discovers the truth about her biological father, Josie is now in her forty’s and in Erikson’s psychosocial stage of generativity versus stagnation. This stage is where middled aged people need time adjusting to the discrepancy between dreams and accomplishments and need to achieve a sense of productivity to avoid psychological stagnation (Corey, 2017). Josie and Rebecca both admit to a breakdown in the mother-daughter relationship, and Josie feels a sense of shame and guilt for lying to Rebecca all those years. Due to this lie, Josie may feel all her dreams have not been yet accomplished, because herself and her daughter don’t always have the relationship she wants. This lack of accomplishment with a good mother-daughter relationship could possibly lead to lack of productivity and psychological stagnation. However, a good sign is that Josie is trying to move on with her life, and Josie and Rebecca continue to work on their relationship. Operant Conditioning- Operant conditioning is when a persons behaviour becomes more or less probable due to the outcome or consequence, and that behaviour gets associated with a positive or negative consequence (Sigelman, Rider & De George-alker, 2016).
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
outcome. Conclusion In the documentary ‘Love, Lust and Lies’, Josie Peterson has a life full of ups and downs. By looking at Eric Erikson’s psychosocial theory, and Burrhus Fredric Skinner’s operant conditioning theory, it is possible to determine the reasons behind many of Josie’s actions and behaviours. These theories and techniques can also help to change Josie’s attitudes, beliefs, actions and behaviours for more positive outcomes.
Through the protagonist, Josie the audiences learn that being an illegitimate and meeting one’s parent is hard to tackle but that feeling will eventually change once the individual has known their parent. “How dare you think that I want to be in your life! I don’t want you anywhere near us, especially my mother.” is the dialogue that Josie has told Michael when they had their first conversation.
Josie's father has had very little immediate impact on her life thus far. When her father did arrive in back in Sydney Josie is naturally angry at him. This is a totally acceptable form of behaviour considering the circumstance, but her anger not only stems from her own personal experience. Josie had to grow up knowing that her father had abandoed her and her mother, pushing her Christina into being a single parent bringing up her child alone.
Nina is one of the main characters in this movie and Josie is her best friend. A scene where their friendship is characterized is one where Josie and Nina are riding in a cab. Josie gets upset with Nina (briefly) when she finds out that Nina has had sex with Darius (the other main character) on the first night they went out. The haste in which they have had sex does not bother her as much as the fact that Nina does not tell her. This example is a direct correlation to one of the themes of women?s friendship that intimacy is cultivated through dialogue. This suggest that women build closeness in their friendships dialogue and by Nina not telling, it breaks the code of intimacy in a way. The establishment of a new relationship something like this that is an important part of Nina?s life, and excluding Josie from that is what is troubling her. Even though I do not believe that to be true in this example, that can be argued as a reason Nina doesn?t share.
Helen comes from a very low class family and community. Helen’s family is known as what is called “the ghetto”, although they may not have riches they have a great heart that unites them happily. Helen depended so much on a believed love who failed her. Helen never really came far on her education due to having everything with Charles. Charles lost interest on Helen, but she was blindfolded to see that her happiness didn’t exist. Charles has had an affair during their matrimony with a light complected woman who is mother of his two children. The woman had more power over Helen’s feelings because Charles realized his children needed him. Charles left Helen without much to do, kicking her out o...
Before the day of Peter Houghton’s school shooting, Alex Cormier worked as a high-ranking judge at the local court. As a former public defender, Alex worked hard to earn this new position. Alex, a single working mother, told a coworker “but I’m good at being a judge. And lousy at being a mother” (Picoult 297). She felt more comfortable from a judicial standpoint than a parental standpoint, which affected her daughter negatively because Josie needed her mother’s true physical presence and emotional support. Josie did not need the stress of her mother trying the case, but instead needed the tender love that Alex does not feel she can give. Alex excelled at “transforming herself into the person she needed to be before she left the house,” (Picoult 5) incidentally pushing her daughter out of her tight circle of importance. Alex then becomes stuck in the mi...
Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of personality in psychology. Much like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages. Unlike Freud's theory of psychosexual stages, Erikson's theory describes the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan (http://psychology.about.com). The stages I noticed the most during the movie were stage 5, Identity vs. Confusion, and stage 6, Intimacy vs.
Erickson’s Theory has 8 stages (Schriver, 2011). The following text will give the developmental crisis of each stage and relate it to Shannon’s life personally. In Erikson’s Theory developmental crisis “did not mean an impending catastrophe as much as it meant “a turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential”” (Schriver, 2011). The first stage of Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development is Trust vs. mistrust (0-1 year) and its crisis is “in establishing trust” (Schriver, 2011). Shannon had developed trust early on in her life due to the loving, caring, and nurturing home she grew up in. She had a sense of physical comfort which eliminated fear and allowed trust. The second stage is Autonomy vs. shame (1-3 years) and the crisis is “parental restrictions vs. autonomy” (Schriver, 2011). Growing up Shannon started learning to walk at 11 months which is a normal age for children to emerge into that. Due to her parents being supportive, it allowed Shannon to start exploring her curiosities and still be loved while doing so. The third stage is Initiative vs. guilt (3-6 years) and the crisis is “in taking initiative without experiencing guilt” (Schriver, 2011). This again correlates to the supportiveness of Shannon’s parents which allows her to be her own person and encourages her to experience her life in her own way. The fourth stage is Industry vs. inferiority (6-12 years) and the crisis is “in striving for competence” (Schriver, 2011). Shannon had a great group of friends growing up and that gave her the inclusion she needed to feel equal to her peers and not inferior to anyone. The fifth stage is Identity vs. role confusion and the crisis is “uncertainty about the future and the child’s role in it” (Schriver, 2011). At this time in Shannon’s life she had already strengthened her hope (trust), will, purpose, and
Erik Erikson formulated a model to understand the developmental tasks involved in the social and emotional development of children and teenagers which continues into adulthood. Each stage is regarded by Erikson as a “psychosocial crisis,” which arises and demands resolution before the next stage can be satisfactorily negotiated. Failure to successfully complete a stage can result in a
Just like many teenagers with wounded souls, the first sign of validation make them jump at it. When Jane noticed Ricky, who abused and sells drugs, was interested in her, she fell in love with him almost immediately. Jane had found someone who told her she was beautiful, and made her feel important by constantly filming her. She spent more time with the guy and soon she started abusing drugs like the boy. Innocent Jane agreed to go with Ricky to New York to start life together, even when her friend Angela tried to talk her out of it. Who knows what Jane’s life would turn into with a drug dealer? This a good example of what could happen to a person from a broken home or someone who has a low self-esteem. If Jane felt loved from her home, she would not have been seeking love desperately from others and she would not have agreed to follow a drug abuser to a faraway city without her parents
Erikson's Psychosocial Development in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online. (n.d.).Erikson's Psychosocial Development in Psychology 101 at AllPsych. Web. 1 December 2014.
During the state that Freud considers the oral stage, Erikson says that babies learn to trust or mistrust someone to care for their needs. Erikson next stage which is paralell to Freud’s anal stage called the autonomy vesus shame and doubt. During this particular time, children either learn to become self sufficent or lack confidence in their own abilities. Next stage is the initiative versus guilt stage. In my opinion, this stage determines the maturity and influence of a person’s parents. With Freuds and Erikson ideas both in mind, the industy vs inferiority stage is similar to the latency. During adolescenes, according to Erikson adolescents try to figure out who they are sexually, politicall and vocationally. The next stages of itimacy versus isolation is a build on from the previous stage. During this time, a person has pretty much accepted who they are and accepted or isolated from others. The next two stages reaches beyond the depth of Freud’s ideas. According to Erikson, generativity versus stagnation develops which occurs during the middle age of adulthood. While in this stage, a person with find a way to be productive or contribute to others or become complacent and stagnate with their lives. The final state in Erikson idea is the integrity versus depair stage. It is in the time that a person
Developmental psychology is an area of research dedicated to the understanding of child-development. Throughout history many theories have been used to attempt to explain the complex process. Two of those theorists, Freud and Erikson, were instrumental in creating a foundation for child-psychology to build on. From a Freudian perspective, human development is centered on psychosexual theory. Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development. Alternatively, Erikson is considered a neo-freudian scholar who developed psychosocial theory. In Erikson models there are eight major conflicts that occur during the course of an individual’s life.
Erik Erikson’s eight Stages of man; politically known as the eight stages of psychosocial development. He promotes social interactions as a motivation to personality development. Erickson studied stages from the beginning of the life cycle to the later stages of life. Erickson was trained under the famous Sigmund Freud. His belief was that it wasn’t only sex that motivated personality development. Social interaction and a growing sense of competence is the key to it all. Because his beliefs differed from the beliefs of Freud, Erikson quickly began to work on his own. Erickson has focused on many different eras of psychological development.
Laura Tavares was born in 1995. Since the day she was brought into this world she was verbally abused by her mother. Being the first child, one would have thought, “she would be the most loved”. By the age of seven, there was a new baby in the house, Samuel. He was born premature, and aside from the verbal abuse, Laura started to get neglected. By age 10, she was obese and dressed like a middle aged woman. Her mother made sure that Laura knew her place as the slave in the family, waiting on Sammy hand and foot. Evidently Laura knew she was not the favorite, and she made it her goal to change that. She became a straight A student, and was know as the best dancer at our school. She lost weight, and got a job where she made over $1000 a week. Meanwhile cleaning a house that would outshine the sun if she cleaned it anymore, all to gain the love of her mother. “I need a mother”- She
However, Freud’s theory was centered on psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory elaborates on the effects of social experiences across an individual’s life span. Erikson’s psychosocial stages is divided into eight stages: Stage 1 – Trust vs. mistrust, Stage 2 – Autonomy vs. shame and doubt, Stage 3 – Initiative vs. guilt, Stage 4 – Industry vs. inferiority, Stage 5 – Identity vs. role confusion, Stage 6 – Intimacy vs. isolation, Stage 7 – Generativity vs. stagnation and Stage 8 – Integrity vs.