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Developmental History Paper

Candy Avila

College of Social Work, University of South Carolina

SOWK 341: Theories for Understanding Individuals, Families, and Groups

Professor Uri Reisman

November 13, 2022

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Introduction

Everyone grows up in different environments and are surrounded by different people.

This may affect an individual’s role as well as purpose in their life. For this interview I

interviewed a good friend Bekah. Bekah grew up for most of her childhood in Virginia with a

mother, father, and older sister. Bekah is currently twenty-one years old and lives in Columbia,

SC. I related this individual’s life to is Family Systems Theory and Erickson’s Theory of

Psychosocial Development.

Developmental theories and models

Family systems

An individual’s behavior is influenced by their surroundings, during childhood they are

constantly surrounded by their family and school. Family systems is the view of family as an

emotional unit and how human behavior is a result of it (Rogers). This includes the relationship

between the mother and child, the child with siblings, or the relationship between the parents

that’s the child is witnessing. There is also a significant impact that roles within a family system

can have on an individual during development. These roles allow for structure and routine in an

individual’s life. An example of this can be a child going to school, having chores at the house

such as being expected to set up the dinner table. These roles can be affected when there is a loss

or a separation in the family. However, it is also the way that the family dynamic and emotions

may help or hinder the individual.

Discrepancies in the Framework

Family systems can be a good model to show reason behind behaviors, however it may

not always be the only factor. A discrepancy in this model would be that if there are any genetic

or biological factors then a child’s maladaptive behavior cannot be attributed to a psychosocial

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influence (Cowan). An example of this may be that an individual with a mom and dad both very

involved in their life, economically stable, and has a good life gets diagnosed with depression

which was genetically passed down from their grandparent.

Rationale

Family systems is an interesting theory, it can show what role an individual played in

their life from child to adult and how it currently affects them. This theory helps show why my

interviewee behaves the way she does. It explains her current relationships with other individuals

as well as her family dynamic as a young adult.

Erickson’s Psychosocial stages

A theory that is more individualized is Erickson’s Psychosocial Development Theory.

Erickson’s theory is constructed of eight stages of psychosocial development throughout the life

span of an individual (Rogers). Each stage allows for change by going through these stages and

doing developmental tasks and mentally challenging situations. These stages include Stage one:

Trust vs. Mistrust (Birth to 18 Months), Stage two: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (18 Months

to Three years), Stage Three: Initiative vs. Guilt (Three to six), Stage four: Industry vs.

Inferiority (Six to 12 years), Stage five: Identity vs. Identity Confusion (Adolescence), Stage six:

Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adulthood), Stage Seven: Generativity vs. Stagnation

(Adulthood), and Stage eight: Integrity vs. Despair (Old age) (Rogers).

Discrepancies in the Framework

This theory in a traditional or normal family setting works however there are individuals

who don’t have a privileged life to go through all of Erickson’s stages. There are a lot of

disparities and marginalization that puts individuals on different points in life. An example could

be that there is an adolescent who must drop out of high school to work a job to feed their
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family. This can affect their social environment and when looking for intimacy as a young adult

may result in being more difficult. Another big discrepancy with this framework would be that a

lot of people take the opposition such as mis trust and usually make it sound negative. However,

we must differentiate as sometimes we might have to know when to trust and when to mis trust

in a situation (Hamachek). This meaning it is not a bad thing but rather something we should

know.

Rationale

The interviewee will have gone through stages one through six. There will be an

explanation for how the individual interacts in a social environment based on her progression

through the stages (Rogers). This is beneficial as she is a young adult and is in the intimacy vs

isolation stage where an individual is looking for closeness in a relationship. However, this may

not be possible based on if they developed adequate skills in the previous stages. I feel as if my

interviewee was affected in her childhood and adolescence to where now she may be

experiencing isolation.

Individuals’ Development in Relation to Theories

Bekah’s childhood

In Bekah’s early childhood her family system consisted of her mother, father, and her

older sister. She was born into family where her parents were married for about ten years before

having children. In Erickson’s first stage of Trust vs. Mistrust she would establish trust (Rogers).

Her parents were around, and very caring towards Bekah and her sister. During her next stage of

the ages of 18 months to three years old she doesn’t remember much but does remember her

mother starting to be abusive. She attended a preschool and then private school from

kindergarten to second grade with her older sister. When asked about this time interviewee
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recalls good memories from school which allowed her to develop initiative in stage three of

Erickson’s stages. Her older sister is exactly one year older than Bekah, they were very close.

Her mother was a stay-at-home mom until she was about the age of seven and her dad started

working a lot more. This led to Bekah having a good relationship with her mother. After second

grade her parents could not afford to send Bekah and her sister to private school anymore, so she

had to attend public school due to the 2008 recession. At the age of nine her mother and father

got divorced. Bekah would develop a bad relationship with her mom and her dad. She was put on

antidepressants in the third grade to help her anxiety, this would lead to her being in and out of

school for the next couple years. This next time of Bekah’s life, stage four industry vs. inferiority

is a significant one for her. After they had to move schools and witnessing the separation and

divorce of her parents, she developed anxiety. There was a shift in the family system, their

parents are now not living together as well as her mother began to instill feelings of anger

towards Bekah’s father into her. When she was in the fourth grade she stopped wanting to go to

school. Her mom would go to work before Bekah and her sister would go to school and Bekah

would miss the bus on purpose. She would have to have teachers pry her out of her car. In

Bekah’s childhood she was in and out of school during her last years of elementary school.

When she was in sixth grade she refused to go to school and so she would stay home alone.

Eventually the school called and now her mother would have to go to court for truancy. Her

mother looked at all the possible options to avoid trouble with the court. She then dropped off

Bekah at a mental hospital. Here Bekah would spend two weeks of her life, talking to therapist.

After she left the mental hospital, she began going to school again, not every day but three days

out of the week. This is when she started getting bullied at school. Her mental health declined

again, and she told her mom she did not want to go to school anymore. This is when her mother
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decided to homeschool Bekah. Bekah at this age was in stage four of Erickson’s theory, the ages

of 6 to 12, in this stage it is important for a child to be productive, go to school, play, and be

challenged academically none of which she was doing.

Bekah’s adolescence

During this time spent at home Bekah would discover her bipolar disorder and she started

dealing with self-harm during the ages of twelve to thirteen. She did not want to do her

homework and so her mom did her work for the rest of sixth grade and all of seventh grade.

After this her mom decided she wanted to leave Virginia and move to Myrtle Beach, South

Carolina and told Bekah she wasn’t going to do her work for her, and she had to go to school

after the move. During this time Bekah is now in her adolescent stage, identity vs. identity

confusion. Once they moved to Myrtle Beach Bekah made new friends and she had a good

eighth grade and freshman year of high school. She would attend football games and hang out

with friends. However, her sophomore year of high school from September to early October she

developed a lump on her neck and got extremely sick. This caused her to be home bound and did

not return to school until March. After she returned to school is when she decided she wanted to

graduate early because she discovered within herself identity she did not care for school.

Bekah’s early adulthood

Although Bekah did not care for school and graduated early, her father told her she

needed to join the military or go to community college. Bekah then started attending community

college however she did not enjoy her first fall semester. After winter break, she got motivated,

and her spring semester went a lot better. She had early classes that she would make it too no

matter if she was late, she was actively participating and went to the library for hours. She

finished her spring, summer, and the following fall semester with good grades. The following
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spring, her sophomore year, she applied to transfer to the University of South Carolina. This is

when the covid pandemic began and all her classes got moved online. She began slacking off,

she went back to Virginia often and got in a relationship with her sixth-grade ex-boyfriend who

embarrassed her and caused her bullying. After that summer she went back to Columbia, SC and

started classes at USC. She began classes and started experiencing anxiety, she had to get her

sister to walk her to her classes. Bekah moved into an apartment with random roommates and

started to fall into a depression again. During this time, we see her family system begin to change

and develop, her sibling relationship being the strongest. However, she ultimately made the

decision to drop out of college. In this stage Bekah is in later adolescence early young adult

hood. This is her current stage which is Intimacy vs. Isolation, where young adults look for

intimacy and closeness in relationships (Rogers). Her other stages in development may not have

led her to currently be able to form an intellectual, genuine, relationship which may lead her to

isolation in the future.

Personal strengths and limitations

One of Bekah’s strengths would be the relationship she holds with her sister. Although

she has been through a lot in her life so far one of the important things, I see that she values is

her sister. They are very close in age which allowed them to go to school together and have

similar experiences. The result of her parents’ divorce led Bekah to experience mental health

issues early on in her childhood. Although Bekah’s relationship with her parents may not always

be the strongest, she always can rely on her sister and the relationship with her.

A big limitation that impacted Bekah’s life trajectory would be her parents’ divorce.

Bekah was nine years old when her parents finalized their divorce. At this point she also got

moved to public school, this is when her anxiety developed. In Bowlby’s perspective the divorce
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and move would not be single causes but rather contributing factors (Palombi). As well as at the

age of 9 she realized her mother was abusive. Due to her anxiety and depression, she did not

want to go to school anymore. Her mom would leave for work before Bekah and her sister would

get on the bus to go to school. Bekah started to miss the bus on purpose. That is when the school

called her mom to let her know Bekah wasn’t at school, she would send someone to take her to

school. Bekah would lock herself in her room and lean up against the door. This lack of school

that Bekah was missing more than likely affected her education as well as development in the

lens of Ericksons psychosocial stages. There has been the sense of instability throughout her

whole life, due to her parent’s separation, her mother’s neglect, the changing of schools and

state.

Environmental strengths and limitations

Before Bekah started high school, she was not doing any of her schoolwork. An

environmental strength that positively affected Bekah was her move to Myrtle Beach from

Virginia. I believe this is a strength as she started a new school and was making friends.

Regardless of her struggles in middle school when developing that sense of industry vs

inferiority, she was still creating friendships and developing her identity through the lens of

Ericksons Psychosocial stages (Manning). A lot of theorists try to theorize that industry is

reflective of identity and that they go together. As in if industry is not said to be completed then a

strong form of identity won’t be created.

When Bekah returned to school in the sixth grade, she developed a relationship with a

boy that ended badly. She ended up getting screamed at in front of her class by him and he called

her “white trash” and threw something at her. After this she started getting bullied and had to

switch classes. However, the bullying did not stop in her new classes. Bekah remembers how she
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had to eat lunch alone in the bathroom until she eventually told her mom she could not do it

anymore. After this she stopped going to school and was homeschooled, but she did not do any

of her schoolwork, her mom did. Dealing with the bullying and the betrayal from her first

boyfriend might have hindered her ability to have trust, closeness, and intimacy which can lead

to a delay in an intimate partner relationship (Beyers). Being in this environment more than

likely hindered the way Bekah interacts and creates relationships with individuals.

Conclusion

Through this interview I have achieved a better understanding for macro and micro

lensed theories, specifically Bowlby’s Family Systems Theory and Erikson’s Psychosocial

Development Stages. The application of these theories to my interviewee has allowed me to see

how it can be applied to an individual and how their development affects who they are as a

person currently. The use of these theories is important to recognize its accuracies and

discrepancies as we use them in the field of social work.

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References

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Theory on Romantic Development in Emerging Adults of the 21st Century. Journal of

Adolescent Research, 25(3), 387–415. https://doi.org/10.1177/0743558410361370

COWAN, P., & COWAN, C. (2002). Interventions as tests of family systems theories: Marital

and family relationships in children's development and psychopathology. Development

and Psychopathology, 14(4), 731-759. doi:10.1017/S0954579402004054

HAMACHEK. (1988). Evaluating Self-Concept and Ego Development Within Erikson’s

Psychosocial Framework: A Formulation. Journal of Counseling and Development,

66(8), 354–360. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.1988.tb00886.x

Manning, L. (1988). Erikson’s Psychosocial Theories Help Explain Early Adolescence. NASSP

Bulletin, 72(509), 95–100. https://doi.org/10.1177/019263658807250914

Palombi. (2016). Separations: A Personal Account of Bowen Family Systems Theory. Australian

and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 37(3), 327–339.

https://doi.org/10.1002/anzf.1170

Rogers, A.T. (2019). Human behavior in the social environment (5th ed.). New York: Routledge.