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Infancy begins
I was born, which begins the infancy stage, around 8 in the morning on Tuesday, September 21, 1993, at St. Mary's Hospital in Evansville, Indiana. I was 20 inches long and weighed 9 pounds. -
Enter Childhood
Between the ages of 2 and 4, I gained about 5 pounds and grew 3 more inches. I had already begun walking and speaking some words. -
Preconventional Level
I would constantly pick on my older siblings until they would get so mad they would react and do something, possibly, really bad. At this point, I would run away and let my siblings take the blame because I didn't want to get in trouble. This relates because I constantly avoided the punishment. I would, instead, satisfy the need to have my parents' approval, which I felt when my parents would blame my siblings rather than me. **Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty bad. -
Separation Anxiety
I would weep when my mother would drop me off at school. It was hard for me to sleep at night without my parents in the room. Often times when I spent the night with my grandparents, I feared a person would break into my home and I couldn't do anything to help them because I was away. I feared they might die if they weren't in my sight. I know now how ridiculous it was but I needed my parents with me. My mother ended up taking me to a therapist who diagnosed me with separation anxiety. -
Reflexes
One day, I decided to play with fire. I grabbed a plastic spoon and lit a match. As I began to melt the spoon, I noticed parts of it were falling off. I twisted the spoon, thinking the melting parts wouldn't fall. However, a piece of melted spoon fell off and landed on two fingers. Immediately, I pulled the piece off of my finger because it was hot and wanted it off my skin. It ended up leaving me with a burn, which would leave me with scars. This is reflexes because I felt the melted spoon wa -
Reflexes (cont'd)
was hot and I wanted to get it off of me as quickly as possible. My body wanted to relieve itself of pain. -
Adolescence
Middle school was a terrible time for me. I was going through adolescence and I had terrible mood swings, snapping at, basically, anyone and everyone that spoke a word to me. I also suffered from severe depression but refused to see a therapist for help. Adolescence is a time for change. I was definitely feeling this change and everyone around me knew I was feeling this change, too. -
Parenting Style (cont'd)
more permissive with me. They fully trust my decisions and believe that I will do what is right and best for me. They have raised me well enough so that I know what is wrong and right and do not make stupid decisions. It also means that I tell my parents everything, even if I know they will be disappointed. Because they allow for me to make my own choices and are always there for me after I make a mistake, I am okay telling them everything I do and they know that. -
Parenting Styles
When my brother was growing up, my parents were extremely strict. In fact, my mother broke one of my brother's CDs in his face because it had a parental advisory on it and he had lied to my grandmother, saying that it was okay to get. They were strict about how long he could stay out and who he could hang out with. As I grew older, however, their parenting style changed. Because my two older siblings are now out of the house, they see how well they turned out. This allowed them to become a bit -
Cliques (cont'd)
bothering me as a person. I never questioned who I was. I never felt that I was in the wrong. I just knew they didn't like me and I was okay with that. They ended up apologizing after some time and I'm now actually friends with most of them. -
Cliques
I never really had to deal with cliques. I always had friends of different cliques: jocks, cheerleaders, geeks / nerds. I was accepted by most people. However, in 7th grade, I faced the worst attack from a whole clique. The “popular” clique began taunting me daily. They would say little comments to the point where I heard them but the teachers couldn't. I avoided the group as much as possible but it seemed like they hunted me down. I ended up being able to glide right through it without it -
Postconverntional moral reasoning
My freshman year, one of my teachers pushed me to question myself, my life, my morals, my values, everything in my life. This made me extremely confident with my decisions and who I am and it set in stone what I consider to be right and wrong. Without her, I don't think I ever would have questioned what I had been told and taught throughout so much of my life. I simply would have gone with what I heard. However, because I had her as a teacher, I began to question everything. -
Self-Esteem
I have never really had a self-esteem issue. I have, practically, always been pretty happy with myself. However, in March of 2009, the band went on a trip to Florida for Spring Break where we would march in a parade in Disney. It was absolutely amazing. As time went on, though, a fellow band member and I began developing feelings for one another. Unfortunately, he wasn't single. Still, this did not stop him from trying to kiss me. Although he had tried to cheat on his girlfriend, I still had -
Self-esteem (cont'd)
strong feelings for him and began to question why he wasn't with me instead of her. I began to doubt myself and everything about me. I had a major drop in self-esteem and struggled through the next few months. However, I came to realize I shouldn't feel this way and there was nothing about me that was bad. It was just him. If he chose her over me, fine. I moved on and my self-esteem is back to what it used to be. -
Identity Achievement
I know what I want to do with my life and I plan out my Junior year high school classes accordingly. This includes taking sociology and psychology (I want to major in clinical psychology). I realized this in the previous year but was still a little shaky about if I really wanted to do it or not. After helping most of my friends with their own life problems, I learned that it is what I want to do. Helping people is what I love doing. I love listening to people talk about their problems. -
Peer Pressure
This is the first time I have ever been pressured to try marijuana. As much as I turned it down, they kept pressuring me. I continued to say no and ended up leaving my friends because they would not stop asking. My peers pressured me to try something in order to fit in. As one friend said "everyone does it." I've felt many pressure from my peers to try drugs. -
Independence
There was a college fair held at the Centre. As a requirement for college, I have to move at least five hours away. This is my choice because I know that I will be okay away from home and my parents are confident that I can survive being far from home. This represents independence because I want to be on my own. I feel like the best way to do this is to move far away from home. It prevents my parents from being too involved with my life and I will be able to live on my own. -
Motor Development
I went out to dinner with my family and I realized how much my nephew had developed in the past 10 months. He was born May 8, 2010. He was now throwing things. He can't throw at a specific target, of course. He can merely throw in a general direction. He often throws his toys on the floor. Also, he likes to grab peoples' fingers and bite down as hard as he can, it seems. He can now roll over and crawl for the most. He is close to being able to stand on his own. -
Perceptual Development
Once again, I spent the night with my baby nephew. Like motor development, I noticed how easily he could tell who was who. He knew when his mother would walk away and when his father, my brother, would take him from my father. He also knows my father's face quite well. He always smiles at my father and they're extremely playful with each other. However, when he is with my mother, he knows it will be more of a calming and relaxing time than a play time.