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7.2- Exosystem
The way my dad was brought up has affected his parenting style. When he was young, his dad wasn’t at home because his dad had to work to support the family. So his dad had little conversation with him and didn’t really set any limits on his behavior. No one was there to regulate his actions, but my dad learned to be independent and to solve problems on his own. My grandpa’s parenting has affected my exosystem in that my dad tend to be permissive and I was premitted to make my own decisons. -
1.1 Birth
Born in Hong Kong -
2.4- APGAR
Based on the criteria of APGAR exam, Nicolai's heart rate of 98.9, good respiratory effort (crying), active motion, vigorous cry and pink body color scored him a 7 which is the common score for 90% of the infants in the US. Being a newborn, Nicolai cries a lot while thrasing his arms and legs. Most of the time, he displays alert activity where he is moving vigorously. However, he also displays alert inactivity where he is quiet and engages in learning about his srroundings visually. -
4.2- First Word
My first spoken word, according to my parents, was probably "mama". The noun "mama" is a nominal that refers to a person close to and important to my life. This word was my first word because the typical early words are ususally people, objects or events that are familiar to children, like mother. -
2.1- Passive Gene Environment Correlation
Diet seems to have a passive link in my development in that the way my family usually eats seems to affect my preference in food. Since my parents have a medical history of high cholesterol levels and diabetes, the disease is heritable and I will be susceptible to it. Thus they would teach me to eat a balance diet to promote a healthy lifestyle. Now I am very conscious about my diet and I would avoid eating unhealthy food as much as possible and I rarely eat fast food during a meal. -
5.1- Kohlberg's & Gender
Based on Kohlberg's theory, I think Parker is around 2 years old where she is acquiring the concept of gender identity. In the video, she was not able to acknowledge herslef as a female. Although she did match up some people and the gender correctly, she might just be guessing. Also, she has not develop gender stability becuase she thought Gabriela is a boy in the beginning and when asked again, she thought that Gabriela is a girl. -
3.1- Preoperational Magnetism
For three-year-old, their thoughts are in preoperational stage where they think only in one way and symbolically.To teach children about magnetism, we could teach them the idea of "like forces repel and opposite forces attract" by let them to pretend to be magnets. A student could pretend to be the north part of the magnet and another could pretend to be the south. They could be told that when different parts of the magnet are put together, they attract and would stick together. -
1.3 Methods
To test whether 4 years old children can distinguish between numbers and learn to apply simple math properties, we could use simple objects such as 3 pieces of toys to represent the number 3. We could ask them what the how many toys there are and take away one toy, and ask them what number it is. To collect accurate data, we can repeat the experiments several times. To make sure they understand how the research works, we could perform the procedure once with them and let them imitate. -
7.1- Parental Strategies
My parents think that they did not have much efficacy in controlling my behavior because I was very stubborn and always wanted to do things my own way. Thus, I did not display committed compliance usually. Sometimes if they think that I intentionally didn't listen to them and ignore their comment, they would punish me harshly because that is the only way I would listen and be scared of them. For example, they would ask me to sit outside the house until I want to apologize for my misbehavior. -
4.1- Memory
My earliest autobiographical memory was from kindergarten. The particular scene I remembered was when I was repeating words my teacher has just taught in a class. Piaget would explain this memory as one that is related to my developing verbal skills. My memory before that event was probably "qualitatively different" because I was not able to use my verbal skills to encode my experience. Thus the ability to speak seems to predict when I was able to remember my experience. -
6.1- Self Conscious Emotions
Whenever my mother asked me to play the piano in front of my relatives, I would get embarrassed and nervous because I didn’t like to be the center of attention. I expressed this self-conscious emotion by blushing and sweating a lot. I would also get angry at my mom because I thought she was always the cause of my embarrassment. I learned I shouldn’t show my anger to my mom in front my relatives because of display rules. It would be rude to be impolite to parents based on cultral expectations. -
7.4 Friendship
My neighbor, Salina, was my best friend during my childhood. One activity we enjoyed doing was pretend play. We would act as teacher and student in an imaginary classroom. Her family is a devoted Christian so she would go to Sunday school and she would bring me there too. She has affected my religious belief too in a way. At that time the cross gender friendship was not an issue because I didn't really care about the sex differences. I only knew that she was a very good friend of mine. -
5.2 Encouraging Gender Schemas
During elementary school, my PE teacher has encouraged us to be more gender schematic by assigning different jobs for boys and girls to do after class. For example, he would ask boys to pick up larger items while asking the girls to do things that require less strength. Also, when students are noisy during class, the teacher would always say "Boys, be quiet!" but he never scolded the girls even though the girls are sometimes talking during class. -
3.2 Concrete Magnetism
Eight year old are in the concerte operational stage where their thought are logical as long as there are specific objects for them to think about. We could teach them the logics about magnetism by let them to actively engage with magnets and to allow them to reason about the events. For example, we can tell them that opposite forces attracts becuase magnetic fields are present and let them think reversibly of what would happen to the force if magnetic fields aren't present. -
8.1- Children and Television
One cartoon that I enjoyed watching when I was young was the popular Pokemon series. I remembered that I was only able to follow the storyline if I had seen the previous episodes because the story is continuous. Thus understanding of the show actually requires integration of information from past events and some cognitive processing. Moreover, I understood that the characters are fictional at that time because of my general knowledge that these creatures do not really appear in real life. -
3.3- Imaginary Audience
When I was an adolescent, I was always worried about what other people would think about me. In class when classmates looked away when they saw me, for no reason I would think that they don't like me or don't like the way I look. At that time, I was being very self conscious and would stay quiet in class because I was afraid that I would make a fool out of myself and that people always evalute my behavior. This demostrates formal operational stage becuase I was only thinking abstractly. -
6.2- Self control
During study time, I was tempted to play computer games and couldn't concentrate. However I learned that I have to perform well to get into my desire college choice. So I would tell myself to concentrate first, set a goal on the amount that I should study and reward myself by playing games when I reached my goal. My parents also help me to focus by taking away my games so I couldn’t play. Gradually I was able to control myself with specific strategies and improve my delay of gratification. -
1.2 Theories
When I was 14, I went to study abroad in Edinburgh, UK. This was the first time I have ever left home in Hong Kong and suddenly I felt fear of living independetly. As Erikson would interpret, the experience of studying aborad would have contributed to a large part of identity searching. The fear of arriving to a new setting would help me in finding a new way to connect to and adapt to a new culture. This event is an exmaple of how a child actively try to identity with the society. -
8.2- School Transitions
My school transition was different in that the most significant one was when I moved from a public school in Hong Kong to a boarding school in the UK during 7th grade. This event has influenced my development a lot in that I must learn to cope with difficulties on my own. I must adapt to a new education system and new environment with people of different cultural background. Overcoming language barrier and homesickness were my main problems, which led to my social withdrawal at that time. -
2.3- Evocative Gene Environment Correlation
My art teacher played an evocative role in encouraging me to take advantage of my artistic skills during my time studying abroad in the UK. When my teachers found out about my enthusiasm in art and design, they encouraged me to take more art classes and would give me advices on my art works. Also, they would offer opportunities for me to compete in art competitions and support me when I seek advices for an art school and for future career in design. -
2.2- Active Gene Environment Correlation
My interest in the arts has an active link to my development. Compare to my siblings who engage actively in sports, I am more of an artistic person and find sport activities not very exciting. When I was studying abroad in the UK, I came to appreciate musicals because there are many theatres in the West End area of London. Because of my interest in musicals, I chose to take drama class at my school and joined a school production of the musical Les Misérables to learn more about the profession. -
7.3 Crowds and Cliques
When I was studying in the UK, I was part of a clique with few friends. We had a very close friendship because we shared the same ethnic background and common cultural values and beliefs as we were all foreign students from Hong Kong. We studied together and supported each other when we were feeling homesick. In this clique, I developed a stronger ethnic identity. However, we were sometimes labeled as a crowd of nerds by others because we were always studious and performed well in school. -
6.3- Forclosure
My career identity was at the state of foreclosure when I was applying to college. I was confused about my future because I couldn't think of a specific job that I would enjoy doing for more than 50 years. However, my parents did say that they would be glad if I become a pharmacist because the job outlook is promising. Since I was so overwhelmed about what I should be in the future, I followed my parents’ ideas and was committed to study pharmacy at college without exploring alternative jobs. -
6.4- Moratorium
Today my career identity is at the state of moratorium. During college, I discovered that I didn’t enjoy chemistry. Since one of the focuses of pharmacy is to study the chemical properties of medicine, I knew that wouldn’t grow to like the job no matter how hard I try. Thus I started to explore other jobs that are related to health care, for example, last summer I volunteered in the occupational therapy department of a hospital. Now I try to keep my options open and continue to explore actively.
