Family Dynamics
Instructions: Family dynamics play a major role in how children develop. These influences include structure, expectations, parenting styles, and involvement. To understand more about how childhood experiences with your family have influenced current identification of self, take a few minutes and think back to those days.
•Analyze the role that family structure, expectations, parenting styles, and involvement of caregivers played in your development.
•Reflect on your experiences and share any that you are comfortable sharing. You can use questions such as the following to guide your reflection:
◦What was the best thing that your family said about you or did for you? Try to remember one exact day when that was said or done for you. Which person did this? Remember now what you felt then. When do you feel this way now?
◦Did you have a nickname? How did you feel about it?
◦Did family members tell you what you would end up being or doing? Was it what you wanted to be or do? How did you respond?
◦How do you think your family would have described you to a close friend of theirs? What were they most concerned about for you?
•Would you do or react to things differently now than you did then? Why?
•Make sure you evaluate your experiences in the context of major theories and concepts of cognitive, social, and physical development during middle childhood. Support your responses by citing information from the online notes and textbook and other scholarly sources. For example, describe the cognitive stage you might have been in at the time of specific events, according to Piaget, Erikson, or Freud. How did this influence how you interpreted the events? You can also discuss the parenting style that you think was used by your parents/caregivers.
Solution.
Family Dynamics
Family dynamics play a significant role in nurturing the behaviours that human beings possess (Feldman, 2011). Some scholars in psychology have formulated theories that explain how parental styles, family expectations, family structure and parenting involvement in building our foundations and creating a pattern of behaviours we develop. Freud and Piaget have indicated factors that can lead to changes in our behaviour. In this paper, it synthesises my personal life and how family dynamics have influenced how I live now. The ability to handle life problems we experience are based upon the core psychological foundations of our early experiences in lives (Knerr, Gardner, & Cluver, 2013). Parents can identify values that are significant to development, Report from the Family Paediatrics suggest the families are the central and influential factor in determining behaviours in children regardless of the education, composition values or incomes. Vygotsky explains that children’s crucial player in their lives as they grow up is the interactions with the “knowledgeable partners. These partners are parents in a family setting.
I would like to start this adventure back in time when I was a little girl; I grew up in a military family with two sisters and a brother. As a family, we had to travel around with the Military in different countries. My parents having strict and authoritative style of parenting influenced my behaviors, and I am forever grateful for the decision they made for us and what they taught us to do and how to be the individuals we are today. Growing up my Dad would make sure we could pump gas, change the oil in the car and be able to fix a flat time. He always would say that you might be on you own and when something happens you can be able to fix it yourself and not have to rely on anyone for help.
As I grew up, I was nicknamed Pat, since my little sister could not say my real name, Patricia. The name was ok I liked it better than Patricia, so that is what most people call me. My Dad was getting ready to retire in the year 1982, so my parents had decided to buy some land and live near where my parents grew up. So we had set up a trailer for the time being to get the house build and get things ready. So when Dad retired, we would not have much to do to the new house. However, we were faced with the death of my Mother in June of 1980, and that was the hardest thing to go through. I was just starting my 9th grade in High School and being without your mother is not what I would wish on anyone to go through. I had to rely on my Aunts and cousins to help with things like Prom and sports and anything that involved stuff that was needed. My Father worked all the time and didn’t have some time the time to help me with getting the things that were necessary. He always tried to attend the game that we all played in High School, and she was supportive during the years after my Mother died.
Piaget and his experiments on watching the children and how they see things and the way different levels that they have to go through to achieve different goals. Fast forwarding to after High School and off the College, being in a whole new world of being on my own and had never had the chance to go out with the girls growing up, or having to be in at a particular time. This time in my life it was challenging to make sure the right decision was made to the school and getting the grades because I had a scholarship and that was helping with paying my college tuition. Married at the age of 21 in April of 1987, I had already decided to enlist in the service that same month. However, in November of that year, I had my first son and had to wait to be able to travel to be stationed with my husband in Germany. I liked being over in Germany the country is an exquisite place to visit and plenty of things to see. After two years we had our second some in May of 1989, and we were pleased to have another one to help with entertaining the first one. We stayed in Germany until 1990 and moved back to the United States for a different assignment. Got the job working with the Army Surgeon General and be stationed at Fort Sam Houston, Texas and that was considered a high-security level job, and I loved it. I was able to be around my family most of the time and didn’t have to go to the field, and we lived on the post, so everything was close. Fast forwarding again life does not get any worse than to lose a child and that was what we had to face the death of my second child in 2006. It is hard to describe the pain and hurt when you lose a part of yourself that you cannot even put the thing into words.
Vygotsky explained that the community has an impact on the way things are and what we can learn from different individuals about certain things (Wozniak & Fischer, 2014). You never know what you are feeling from one day to the next when you mourn the death of a child. Well if that was not enough I ended up several years later losing my Husband in Iraq and being military myself you can say you have seen it all but, that is not true. Life is full of curves and every day is a new day, and you have to find the strength in yourself if not for yourself then for your family and friends. When you try to compare your experience and whether you would change certain things if you could. I was brought up that things happen for a reason, and sometimes we do not even know why or what to do next. Yes, I would love to have my son and husband back but, the good Lord had other plans for them, and I just know that in my heart I will see them again one day.
Family
dynamics are significant contributors to
the way our lives are shaped and the behaviours we develop. Vygotsky emphasizes the
importance of modelling of positive behaviors in children so that they can
nurture it and become more responsible and productive in their future life. My
adventures in life have shaped me who I am right now as a parent and as a child
to my beloved relatives. Piaget also
explains that monitoring and guiding children are
important in the modelling of good behavior (Piaget, 2013). My parents
were able to guide me well so that I become a responsible person in life.
References
Feldman, R. S. (2011). Child Development. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
Knerr, W., Gardner, F., & Cluver, L. (2013). Improving Positive Parenting Skills and reducing Harsh and Abusive Parenting in Low-and Middle-Income Countries: A Systematic Review. . Prevention Science, 14(4), 352-363.
Nayler, C. (2016, May 30). Theories of Self-Esteem. Retrieved from Positive Psychology: http://k/pp-theory/self-esteem/109-theories-of-self-esteem.html
Piaget, J. (2013). The Construction of Reality in the Child (Vol. 82). Routledge.
Wozniak, R. H., & Fischer, K. W. (2014). Development in Context: Acting and Thinking in Specific Environments. Psychology Press.