Background: I was born on January 23, 1996 in Brunswick, Georgia. At the time of my birth, my microsystem was rather normal. My parents were married and I had three older sisters. My home environment was good. My mother and father both worked and I spent the days with either my older sisters, aunt, or my grandmother and grandfather, since I was too young to stay home alone and too young to start school. Since I was in my younger life stages, I was far too young to experience the interlocking microsystems that created my mesosystem at the time of my birth, however, my father worked different shifts, rotating often, and that put a strain on my parent’s marriage (p. 455). I am also aware that another family in our neighborhood had a baby around the same time as my parents, so naturally, I had a childhood companion always around. We went to the same schools, were always on the same schedules, and would spend time together often. Through the playdates we had, our parents became good friends. I feel that all members of our family having a friend close by was a key proponent in helping “mend” and extend the length of my parent’s marriage. My exosystem at the time of my birth was very small. It connected me to a local church that my grandparents raised my father and his siblings in, but not much else because I was so young and did not have the freedom to experience the world around me. My macrosystem played a large part at the time of my birth. My grandparents on my father’s side are very religious, and being raised in the Bible-belt, it forcefully became a large part of my life. My whole family on my mother’s side are Catholic and my father’s side are all Protestants, however, my paternal grandparents had the biggest influence on my religion. I would say my maternal grandparents had a far heavier role in shaping who I am as a person. My chronosystem over the course of my life has changed significantly—far more than I would have ever imagined or wished. I now have one nephew and two nieces, no mother, and only my maternal grandparents. My parents split up and then divorced my Sophomore and Junior year, respectively. I do not have any step parents. When I was in Pre-K my first niece moved into our house while her mother attended college. I have lived in the same home my entire life. Through the years both my mother and father have experienced economic hardships that have greatly affected our family, both positive and negative.
Physical Development: The definition of physical development is growth of the body and brain, and development of sensory capacities, motor skills, and health (p. 327). My physical development over the course of my life has been rather uneventful. I have an abnormal body type in that my BMI is lower than it should be, because I am a stereotypical runner. Puberty began at a normal age, and I have generally always had good health (p. 326). As a kid, I was very active and enjoyed playing outside so getting in active hours was no issue at all. As a small child, I had a highly selective diet that consisted of grilled cheese sandwiches and bowls of cereal. During my early developmental years, my eldest sister prepared home cooked meals, however, once she graduated high school and began college we began to eat out far more often (p. 449). I developed healthy eating habits as an adolescent since I was worried about obesity, which is prevalent in my extended family. These acquired habits contributed to a normal physical development. At 5’9” I am on the shorter side for a boy, but am still considered average by textbook standards. When I was in the fourth grade and about eleven or twelve years old, I hit a growth spurt, which seemed to happen almost overnight. I was suddenly a whole head taller than most of the people in my class, including both girls and boys. My pants, which had to be bought at a smaller size due to my slimness, were not adequate enough in length and hit just above my ankles. My shirts still fit, but were not long enough and exposed my stomach when I played on any playground equipment that required me to raise my arms. This prompted my mother to take me shopping and for the first time I was able to truly express myself using the personalized clothing as the vector (p. 332). Not only, was I was very tall for my age during this time period, I was also very lanky. Being so skinny, I was still within the average weight range for my age. The book states that “children grow about two to three inches each year between ages six and eleven,” (p. 284). This is just the average growth rate during middle childhood and all children grow at different rates. I grew at a faster rate than the other boys my age. At the ages of nine and ten, it is very common for girls to be about half an inch to an inch taller than boys of the same age (p. 285). It was very normal for me to be taller than most of the boys my age. However, me being close to six inches taller than most of them was not. I weighed about 110 pounds at this age and the average weight for boys that are between the ages of eleven and twelve years old is 85 to 100 pounds. Middle childhood was the only stage in my life where my physical development did not meet the norms of my age range, aside from the lower than average BMI.
Cognitive Development: Cognitive development is defined as the development of learning, attention, memory, language, thinking, reasoning, and creativity. Although everyone develops at their own rate, compared to other people, I developed at a faster rate cognitively. When I was little, my mom used to read to me every night before bed and I asked her to read the same book every night. One night I asked her, “Mommy, why do you always read to me? Why can’t I read the book?” She replied to my question with the simple answer, “Because you don’t know to read yet.” I vividly remember that answer perplexing me, I could not understand why I could not read and interpreted it as her saying I was not allowed to read. Being the independent and hard headed child I was, I went in search of my older sibling’s educational materials, as our mother saved a lot of our school-year materials. I have been told of an incident that occurred when I was younger and trying to learn to read. One of my sisters walked into a bathroom I was using while attempting to read a book. My sister was so shocked to see me with a book, that I had to tell her to, “Get out and shut the damn door.” My perseverance paid off when I was able to go to my mom proud and excited with the biggest grin on my face to tell her I learned to read. Initially, she did not take me seriously and thought I was going to create a story to tell her and only go through the actions of reading. So, she played along and sat and asked me to show her. I read her the same book that she read to me every night. At first, she thought I memorized the book, however, she was still impressed at the accuracy of what she believed to be a recital. She gave me another book to read for her and I read that one to her too… I was only three years old and not only could I read, I had taught myself how. When my mom enrolled me in Pre-K at the age of four, the teachers did not believe her when she told them I could read. They thought she meant that I knew my alphabet. Jean Piaget’s cognitive-stage theory states that “children are active initiators of development,” (p. 28). By getting frustrated that I could not read, and in turn, teaching myself to read, I actively initiated my own cognitive development. There is a belief that there is a “discontinuity in cognitive development” during the beginning/infancy stage (p. 153). By teaching myself to read at such a young age, I proved this to be true. It is very uncommon for three year olds to be so cognitively developed. The language milestone that the average person has reached by the age of three is to be able to “say up to 1,000 words, 80 percent intelligible, makes some mistakes in syntax,” (p. 161). Children at the age of three are beginners at forming and understanding words. Because they are new to language, it is uncommon for them to be able to identify letters and the sounds they make together to form words. However, I was not only speaking and understanding words, but I was able to read them.
Psychosocial Development: Psychosocial development is defined as the development of emotions, personality, and social relationships. During adolescence, many individuals explore their sexuality and discover their sexual identity (p. 383). Many individuals also have their first sexual experience during this stage. When I was 16, I began dating a girl that I had been friends with. Although I had briefly dated other girls, she was my first serious relationship. In other words, she was my first love. As so many other adolescents do with their first love, we lost our virginities to each other after dating for a few months. We were both 16 years old at the time. Sexually, our psychosocial development was normal because “the average girl has her first sexual intercourse at 17, the average boy at 16,” (p. 397). Because she was my first love and my parents disliked the idea of her, that naturally made me want to be with her even more. The textbook states that “romantic relationships tend to be more intense and more intimate across adolescence” (p. 411). This proved to be true regarding this specific relationship. The fact that my parents hated her was the start of a lot of arguments that resulted in me getting grounded frequently. Because I was grounded, I would have to sneak out to see her. Before I met her, I had never snuck out in my entire life. I was crazy about her, so I did everything possible for us to be together, thus making our relationship incredibly intense. After about a year, we began arguing a lot. We still cared for each other and we didn’t want to break up so we continued the vicious cycle of fighting and forgiving each other for about six more months. After finally realizing that continuing our relationship was unhealthy for both of us, we broke up. Since she was my first love, she was also my first heartbreak. Also, Erikson’s psychosocial theory states that during the adolescence stage, a person seeks to make commitments to others and if those commitments are unsuccessful, they may suffer from isolation and self-absorption (p. 30). After we broke up, I suffered from isolation and she suffered from self-absorption. I spent a few days at a time in my room and would not speak to anyone. I barely went to school and I never hung out with my friends. She began to go down a bad path and began to act reckless. She did not care about anyone or anything other than herself. The break up was hard on both of us but over time, we both got over it and moved on. First loves and everything that comes with it, including the loss of your virginity and the first heartbreak, are normal parts of psychosocial development during the adolescence stage.
Conclusion: The cognitive milestone described above, teaching myself to read at the young age of three, influenced my psychosocial development in all other stages of my life. I am naturally intelligent and I proved that if I am determined enough, I can do anything I set my mind to. My strong will and determination is often misinterpreted as stubbornness or arrogance, both of which has helped and harmed my relationships with family, friends, and significant others. It has helped because people can come to me for help and I will not give up until I feel that I have successfully helped them. It also helps because I do not give up when my relationships go through difficult times and I work hard to improve them. It has harmed my relationships because sometimes I am stubborn which sometimes causes problems. The environment that I was raised in influenced my physical development positively. Growing up on a cul-de-sac with a swing set and a horse pen in the backyard enabled my desire to play outside and get active, which are important for living a healthy life (p. 330). Having multiple sisters in various life-stages also helped because they typically like to share their knowledge to me when I am willing to listen. Heredity has not influenced my physical development yet because my body is still young and resilient, but there is a long history of health problems in my family. Lifestyle can help prevent some of the risks and health issues that may be passed along hereditarily (p. 331). If I don’t continue to have healthy habits, my heredity will influence my physical development negatively.