Virtual Child Ages 11-16

Maureen Gillespie PSY 206 Dr. Greenspan Montgomery County Community College April 15, 2013 Assignment 2 Adolescence is outlined as the transition between childhood and adulthood. Many changes obtain at this stage. Adolescence involves things such as puberty, heavy(p)er independence, and a time when mortal begins to construct their identity. individualism means their life value and goals including a bushel sense of who they are in terms of sexual, vocational, and moral ethics. In the succeeding(prenominal) few paragraphs I go out be discussing my Virtual Child, Maeve as she went by dint of adolescence (ages 11- 16).I am going to delve into the different changes I saw in her and how they relate to theories proposed by Piaget, Erikson, Marcia, and Gardner. Each theory deals with evolution through adolescence and will help give a better understanding of this time in Maeves life. According to Piaget, around age 11 young mass enter the leadal operational stage. Here they t ake aim the capacity for abstract, systematic, scientific cyphering. Whereas concrete operational children can operate on reality, formal operational adolescents can operate on operations. They can come up with new, to a greater extent general logical rules through reflection, rather than righteous using concrete things as objects of thought. (p. 301). Formal operational thought invokes verbal reasoning closely abstract concepts. Adolescents doing things such as physics are ideals of their operating in spite of appearance this stage. Maeve invariably did well in her math and perception grades only if, by tenth grade she was very enthusiastic about physics. She even went and entered one of her science projects into a county-wide science fair. Maeve has also taken, and done well, in art since the 7th grade.At age 14, Maeves English class required she submit a meter into a school-wide contest. Maeves poem took home first place in the contest, and her be given was placed in a state-wide contest. Her utilisation on art and numbers were reflections of her inner feelings and were not just focused on concrete objects. As Maeve grew cognitively through this stage of her adolescence, she also went through a great deal of emotional and tender change. These changes were obvious to us as her parents. These changes were signs that she could think logically and scientifically and was trying to put it all together to form her proclaim identity.Identity is defined as a well-organized conception of the self, consisting of set, beliefs, and goals to which the individual is solidly committed. Erikson was the first to recognize identity as the major personality achievement of adolescence and as a crucial step toward becoming a productive, mental ability adult. (p. 314) Identity is planted in an individual early in life, provided it is not until late adolescence and early adulthood that people really take on the task and delve into finding their own identity.By a ge 12, Maeve began to vie with us over little things such as clothes, bedtime, and household chores. These werent things we usually argued over, in fact we rarely argued at all, just as she changed emotionally, so did our arguments. She would talk frequently about what is and isnt fair. Her moral development was forming as she started to differentiate her thoughts like this. As Maeve progressed through adolescence, she continued to incur morally and neighborlyly, but remained relatively easy going and well-behaved. She did well in school, saved her money, and was involved in after school activities.By the time she was 16, these actions proved she was responsible, and after practicing with me, she went for her driving test. She was just like any other teenager who wanted to hang out, go shopping, and drive around. But, she still always checked-in with us and was rarely late. She had begun to find her identity through independence and was doing well. Maeve was involved with spo rts and was sounding happily ahead on her path towards college. But, late in eleventh grade, Maeve started to change for what could have been the worse.She had quarrels with girlfriends, engaged in a few ill-judged pranks, and began to date boys. At one point, as an act of defiance, she ran off with her gent and they both got matching tattoos. During the times when she was feeling down, she wouldnt talk much, but always knew she could. But, when Maeve was ready to talk, she was confident in herself and what she stood for. While her decisions werent always that irresponsible, we still found that we didnt always agree with her. But for Maeve, she seemed to install out she was in a mental testing and error phase of growing up and had to see what constructed for her.We had to let her develop that. Much like Maeves trial and error phase, Eriksons theory of identity versus role confusion explains psychological conflict of adolescence. This theory states that this conflict is resolv ed positively when adolescents achieve an identity after a period of exploration and inner soul searching. If a young persons earlier conflicts were resolved negatively or if society limits their choices to ones that do not match their abilities and desires, they may appear shallow, directionless, and offhand for the challenges of late adulthood. p. 314). Maeve luckily didnt make many another(prenominal) choices that were resolved negatively. These social and emotional changes werent always easy for the rest of the family to deal with, but they were a part of her growth. With us there to provide nurturing support, she was able to develop her own healthy identity after her period of soul searching. Researchers normally evaluate progress in identity development on 2 key criteria derived from Eriksons theory. These two criteria are exploration and commitment. Marcia yielded from this, four identity statuses. These four statuses are identity achievement, identity moratorium, identit y foreclosure, and identity diffusion. Identity moratorium is exploration without commitment to value, foreclosure is commitment in the absence of exploration, and diffusion is an indifferent(p) state where you dont commit or explore. The following example shows how Maeve does not fit into either of these categories. As you know from previous examples, Maeve explored many social and behavioral changes in her adolescence. One dialogue sits with me the most. I had a conversation once with Maeve after she was off the school bus in about 10th grade.She described a situation where she had a conversation with a good friend, heard her friends values, didnt agree, and respectfully listened while providing feedback as necessary. She came home to tell me all about her values and how she didnt openly or rudely oppose her friend just because her friend thought differently than she did. She also didnt change her own values because of this. This is a perfect example of identity achievement whic h is defined as a commitment to values, beliefs, and goals, following a period of exploration. Maeve stayed current ith these beliefs, stayed on track with her goals in life, and is all set to go to the college of her dreams, because that is what she values. In looking at adolescence it is important to look at how they develop their intelligence. Howard Gardner authentic a theory about various intelligences. He articulated seven criteria for a behavior to be considered intelligence. These were that the intelligences showed 1. Potential for brain isolation by brain damage, 2. Place in evolutionary history, 3. Presence of core operations, 4. susceptibleness to encoding (symbolic expression), . A distinct developmental progression, 6. The existence of savants, prodigies and other majestic people, 7. Support from experimental psychology and psychometric findings. Gardner chose eight abilities that he held to fill these criteria spatial, linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kines thetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic. I believe that Maeves highest intelligences are logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, and interpersonal. She excels in her school work and is involved in higher level physics than that of her grade level.She participates in science fairs and enjoys using her mind to solve problems. She has always been a social butterfly and enjoys the outdoors. While she did unravel an instrument for some time, she didnt enjoy it and wouldnt be considered the musical type. While she is coordinated when playing sports, she has much than once ran into the trash cans while backing out of our driveway which would make me say she is not of the spatial intelligence. I also would consider a weaker intelligence for her to be linguistics. While she is intelligent it is not her strongest suit, as she isnt the most eloquent speaker.In conclusion, there are many factors that come into play when a child is growing through adolescence. They c hange emotionally, spiritually, mentally, and physically. All of this is to work towards gaining a sense of self and identity to carry with them through adulthood. By taking the time and letting your child go through these phases with your priming coat support, you are preparing your child to take on their world. References * Berk, L. E. (2010). Exploring lifespan development. (2nd ed. ). Illinois Pearson College Div.