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Conclusion

Include a short statement about this assignment including advice for future students.  Please also include your willingness to allow me to share your portfolio with future classes if you are comfortable. 

My advice for future students is when answering these questions, answer truthfully and give yourself time to reflect and actually think about past, present and future aspects of your life truthfully. Nearly everything you learn in this class pertains directly to you and your development, how many classes can you truly say that is true? By allowing yourself to be open to the experience of learning about lifespan psychology from both the perspective of an outsider and an insider, you can get to understand the material presented easily. I am comfortable allowing Professor O share my portfolio with future classes, hope they are able to learn about themselves and those around them the same way I did!

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Chapter 20: “Facing Death”

How do you think you will psychologically handle facing your own death? 

I think that I will handle facing my own death pretty healthily, meaning that I will be at peace with the idea instead of fearing the idea. Perhaps this will change under the circumstances that I find out my death is coming, but as of now I do not get anxious thinking about death. After all, “we are all born to die” (Santrock, 2018, pg 615), and we go our whole lives knowing this is a certainty. In terms of Kubler-Ross’ stages of dying, these seem like stages that I could see myself going through if I found out I was dying as a younger person, say I get diagnosed with a terminal illness early on in life, the denial, isolation and anger (Santrock, 2018) is very reasonable to me because I’ll feel like I got cheated from experiencing life the way that I wanted to live it and there wouldn’t be anything I could do about it. 

I also agree with the fact that it depends on the stage I am in life and whether or not I’ve found meaning and purpose in my life at that point of me finding out I’ll be facing my death soon (Santrock, 2018). If I have lived a long life and I have accomplished most I have wanted to do, I think acceptance of death will be much more attainable than if I have not done much in my life. I think that control in the way that I die would also help reach acceptance of death, I fear not death itself, but the way that I will die. I fear being in agony in my last moments, but if it’s a peaceful death, or a painless death, this would be much easier for me to accept as well.

                                                        References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 19: “Successful Aging”

How do you think you will psychologically handle facing your own death?

I think that I will handle facing my own death pretty healthily, meaning that I will be at peace with the idea instead of fearing the idea. Perhaps this will change under the circumstances that I find out my death is coming, but as of now I do not get anxious thinking about death. After all, “we are all born to die” (Santrock, 2018, pg 615), and we go our whole lives knowing this is a certainty. In terms of Kubler-Ross’ stages of dying, these seem like stages that I could see myself going through if I found out I was dying as a younger person, say I get diagnosed with a terminal illness early on in life, the denial, isolation and anger (Santrock, 2018) is very reasonable to me because I’ll feel like I got cheated from experiencing life the way that I wanted to live it and there wouldn’t be anything I could do about it.

I also agree with the fact that it depends on the stage I am in life and whether or not I’ve found meaning and purpose in my life at that point of me finding out I’ll be facing my death soon (Santrock, 2018). If I have lived a long life and I have accomplished most I have wanted to do, I think acceptance of death will be much more attainable than if I have not done much in my life. I think that control in the way that I die would also help reach acceptance of death, I fear not death itself, but the way that I will die. I fear being in agony in my last moments, but if it’s a peaceful death, or a painless death, this would be much easier for me to accept as well.

                                                       References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 18: “Older Adult Mental Health”

At what age would you like to retire? Or would you prefer to continue working as an older adult as long as you are healthy? 

I would definitely like to keep working as long as my body and mind allows me to. I would say that this is easier to do if you are financially stable enough to retire, and you are passionate enough about your career. 19 percent of 65- to 69- year olds were still in the workforce in 2015 (Santrock, 2018), and I think as the years go by this percentage will most likely keep increasing. I would say that my job as a nurse would hopefully be good enough to give me the option to retire, but even if I do choose to retire I don’t think that I would fully want to stop working as a nurse. Besides, having a job with a high level of mental demand is great for cognitive functioning (Santrock, 2018), so it would be great to keep me mentally strong as well. It would also help me stay physically fit since I would be on my feet for long periods of time. 

If I do choose to retire, I would love to stop working at a hospital but keep working as a volunteer. The age I would probably do this at is 68ish years old. Since I most likely will not be able to volunteer at the level I’d like to at a younger age due to me trying to get a foothold in my career, I would love to immerse myself in volunteer work when I’m older. It’s always been a dream of mine to volunteer as a nurse in another country or help with projects in underprivileged countries. I could see myself working in something like the Peace Corps or Doctors Without Borders after I retire. Regardless of what I plan to do, I’m excited for this stage of my life.

                                                         References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 17: “Live to Age”

To what age do you think you will live? Why? To what age would you like to live?

I think that I will live to be around 75 years old. The United States life expectancy age in 2015 was 79 years, so that is why I think I’ll hit a little below the national average (Santrock, 2018). I feel like I have a few (manageable) health problems now at the age of 23 that could possibly worsen throughout the years if not checked up on. There’s also the fact that my grandparents suffered from stroke and a heart attack, though they were both very active people, it makes it possible that there are genetic factors that could have contributed to their deaths. I could do some genetic counseling to find out what genetic predispositions I might have, but I’ve heard this was quite expensive to do. However, whichever underlying predispositions I might have, there is still the fact that women “have more resistance to infections and degenerative diseases” (Santrock, 2018, pg 518), because of all these reasons, and despite the possible genetic predispositions, 75 is probably the age that I will get to live to. 

My desired age is not far off from my predicted age I’ll get to live until. I would like to like to 85 years old but I do not wish to make it to 90 or 100. At this age, I feel like it would be nice to enjoy life with family, but the truth is that I would most likely be a burden once my body starts to deteriorate too much and I wouldn’t want them to feel like I’m an obligation. Besides, the majority of my friends at that age would be dead anyways and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy most of the hobbies I enjoy now, though I suspect I can easily make new hobbies that would be best suited for my age.

                                                        References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 16: “Stability and Change”

How much stability and change have characterized your life so far?  How much stability and change do you predict will characterize your future development as an adult?  Explain.

I feel like I’ve had a lot of change in my life and not much stability. Every year comes a different struggle that, as a family, impacts us and we must resolve. Than being said we always manage to get through the hardships, whether it be health problems, financial problems or just random problems life throws in our way. Being a first generation family to be here in the United States, there have been many mistakes that have been made so far, but we always learn from them and prosper. Everything affects us internally and in turn affects our cognitive development, as the years go by our personality changes with not only what we face in life but because of our environment as well. It’s said that personality traits change during adult years, and continue to change into late adulthood (Santrock, 2018). 

I predict that my personality will keep changing, through the experiences that I will gather throughout my life, through the people I meet and through the knowledge I acquire. I also predict that I will have more stability in my personality when I reach midlife since that is what research suggests (Santrock, 2018). I think that during this stage of my life I will have seen enough, interacted enough, to have finally formed the person and personality type I will ultimately be/have, enough to have proper stability of personality. 

                                                     References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 15:“Finding Meaning”

What do you want your work life and leisure life to be like in middle age?

In middle age I hope to still be working, ideally as a nurse. “In the United States, 79.4 percent of 45- to 54-year-old were in the workforce” (Santrock, 2018, pg 482), and I would also like to still be working at this age. I don’t think I would retire from working until very old, especially since in my family it’s always been taught to keep working hard until you can’t anymore, or I guess you don’t want to anymore, however those in my family hasn't had the luxury to have a retirement plan set up for them. It’s said that during middle age is the time that the ability of work starts to peak due to having more “motivation, work experience, employer loyalty, and better strategic thinking” (Santrock, 2018, pg 482), so because of this I imagine I’ll definitely still be working and very much enjoying it. 

As for leisure time, I imagine I’ll still be enjoying the same things. Going out to spend my time outdoors, hopefully I’ll be more adventurous by then and start exploring new places and different terrains, after all this would help me not live a sedentary life. Since by this time I’ll have more money accumulated I expect to have time to be able to take a vacation (Santrock, 2018) at least once or twice a year. Especially since nursing could result to be a job that comes with high stress situations, I hope to engage in plenty of leisure time to make sure I’m getting all the self care I need. Some other hobbies I’d like to take up during this time is definitely having my own garden and taking care of many plants, and even carpentry and painting, so I can always be kept busy around the house.

                                                        References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 14: “Attachment”

What is your attachment style?  How do you think it affects your relationships?

When I was younger I believe that I had a secure attachment style (Santrock, 2018). I was pretty good at regulating my emotions, I was fairly outgoing and active, and I found it easy to talk to and rely on my parents. Now that I am older I have only had one person whom which I had a romantic relationship, and I find now that I am still secure. For this class we did also take a quiz that was able to tell us what type of attachment we have now and I do recall having a secure attachment. 

As I found my parents to be my secure base when I was younger, I was able to see my partner as a secure base as well when I would go to them for comfort when I was feeling particularly stressed or just feeling down (Santrock, 2018). This affected my relationship because I was able to get close to them easily, always had a positive outlook for our future, and really was able to communicate well with them if we had any problems (Santrock, 2018). Also, while I do think that attachment style affects romantic relationships, I think that they affect non amorous relationships as well. Because of my attachment style and the way that I am, I find it fairly easy to make friends and maintain those friendships. I constantly seek people out and enjoy getting close to these people. 

                                                      References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 13: “Career Choices”

If you are an emerging adult, what careers do you want to pursue? How much education will they require? If you are older, how satisfied are you with your career choices? Explain. 

When I was younger I wanted to be a movie actress, then I decided I fell in love with music and my dream transformed into wanting to be a Broadway singer. Eventually in my late teens I realized that this was idealistic thinking and started to think about what would actually be a good paying job that I would actually enjoy? Since my mother was a nurse in her home country I had always grown up with her stories of her nursing days growing up, I liked to work with people and I really enjoyed medicine. For I while I was torn between wanting to be a forensic medical examiner or a nurse. This is a job that I think would give me a sense of accomplishment, my parents would be proud of, and I would be able to sustain myself financially pretty well. In choosing this career path, I am aware now that I’ve been engaging in career mystique (Santrock, 2018).  This pathway to find a career path very much follows the developmental changes described in the book, starting with a career that follows idealistic fantasies about careers children want when they grow up, then starting to think about careers with less idealistic thinking and lastly getting more serious about what to do as a career in the late teens (Santrock, 2018). 

Now that I’m 23 years old, I have started to really carve out my career path pretty seriously, I’ve decided that I would like to eventually become a nurse practitioner. That would require at least 4 more years of school for me to get to that point. So far, I’ve completed all of k-12, did 4 years of undergrad for my bachelors and am coming up on a year and a half completing prerequisites for getting into either an accelerated masters program in nursing, or an accelerated bachelors in nursing. So far, I have been taking classes that are more focused on what I need to know and have been doing volunteering and shadowing in hospitals and I really enjoy it. After being in the dark during college and wavering on my choices, it’s nice to have my initial feelings for being a nurse solidified. I’m excited for the future, even though it’s a couple of years away, every day is just one step closer to the goal. 

                                                          References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 12: Social Change in Adolescence - “Identity Formation Adolescence” & “Religion”

Was your adolescence better described as a stormy and stressful time or as one of trying out new identities as you sought out to find an identity of your own? Explain. 

My adolescence was pretty chill really, while there were stormy days where I worried about my looks and discovered my sexuality and bicultural identity, the rest was pretty smooth and non tumultuous. I did not really swap identities often. I feel like most of my identity searching did not really start until I was a young adult when I went off to college and started to make decisions for myself, decided what kind of people I wanted to surround myself by, and was introduced to real world problems where I started to make decisions on the type of person I wanted to be and took a stance on certain issues. 

Not doing a lot of identity switching I think had to do with the fact that I always had a good relationship with my parents, and my friend group in my adolescence consisted of the same people I was friends with in elementary and middle school. While I did differ from my friends in how I dressed and the music I listened to, it wasn’t anything that it was ever brought to my attention because we all did our own thing and we were all accepting of each other. I was never really deviant or rejecting with my parents because I was pretty easy-going and never felt the need to since they respected my boundaries for the most part. A very distinct identity development that I did struggle with though was my bicultural identity. A lot of my friends are white so they did not really understand some of the things that I was into and I couldn’t really share parts of my life with them since it was just different and I felt they wouldn’t understand. The way that we were brought up was also different due to me having a primarily Peruvian culture at home, I struggled for a while wanting to be “normal” , but later found to really value and accept both my American and Peruvian identities and am proud of both. 

What role did religion/spiritual development play in your life during adolescence? Has your religious/spiritual thinking changed since you were an adolescent? 

Growing up I was raised in a Catholic household, I was baptized, did my first communion and I wanted to do my confirmation but never got around to it. I had a cross above my bed to protect me at all times, and prayed regularly. Eventually I did ask myself, “Is there really a God or higher spiritual being, or have I just been believing what my parents and the church imprinted in my mind?” (Santrock, 2018, pg. 376). I started to doubt my faith since I always thought religion brought people together but realized it was the cause of so much conflict in the world, in the present and past. I realized I did not believe in a lot of the things that I was taught, of course there’s a lot that has shaped my values, but there was still disagreement in some areas. 

Now, my views have definitely changed since I was an adolescent, I now coincide with the statistic that during the 21st century religious interest among adolescents declines (Santrock, 2019). I don’t really consider myself Catholic anymore, but definitely spiritual. I am still trying to figure out what I truly believe in, if anything at all. I do believe that there is a purpose for us all being together, but I don’t conform to certain rules, texts and even certain ideals of the community as I did when I was Catholic. I believe in more of bettering myself and those around me, that there are unexplained forces and energies that guide us and protect us, but not necessarily one being commanding it all from the sky. 

                                                      References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 11: Biological Changes in Adolescence - ”Healthy Behavior” & “Middle/Junior High”

How health-enhancing and health-compromising were your patterns of behavior in adolescence? Explain.  

As an adolescent I’d say I lived a pretty health-enhancing life. While there were a few health-compromising situations I came across, for the most part it was pretty positive. I joined my high school’s lacrosse team when I was around 13 years old and that was probably the best health-enhancing choice I’ve made. It was the first sport I had ever joined, so it was really the first planned consistent physical exercise that I had really done in my life. Practices helped me stay physically fit, but the friendships and experiences that I gained from being on the team were equally rewarding for my health since it helped give me a sense of community and peers that I otherwise might not have interacted with. During those times I also became vegetarian and so I started eating more vegetables in my diet and introduced my green smoothies and juices in my life. After 3 years I had to stop because I developed iron-deficiency anemia, so I guess that might be seen as a health-compromising decision as well. Aside from my exercise and nutrition, I also never engaged in any substance abuse, I didn’t drink or smoke at all in high school so I would definitely categorize that as a health-enhancing decision. 

There were still some health-compromising behaviors I inadvertently engaged in. For example, due to having sports until late at night and still needing to stay on top of my studies, I started establishing a pretty bad sleep schedule. On average, I slept 4 to 6 hours a night, which now sounds like it’s definitely health-compromising since “studies have found that adolescents who get less than 7.7 hours of sleep per night on average have more emotional and peer-related problems, higher anxiety, and higher level of suicidal ideation” (Santrock, 2018, pg. 353). While I did not have any peer-related problems, I do find that I did start to develop higher levels of anxiety, especially towards my last two years of high school, and suicidal ideations were something that did cross my mind once in a blue moon. Thankfully, it never got past just ideations and I did find a way out of those bad thoughts I would occasionally have and pull myself out of certain moods I would get. 

What was your middle or junior high school like? How did it measure up to the Carnegie Corporation’s recommendations? 

My middle school experience was actually pretty great. I really enjoyed both the friendships and the classes that I was in. The ratio from student to teacher was pretty normal, at least to me, since it was around 25 students to 1 teacher. There were plenty of extracurricular activities, but you only got to have one in your schedule, the rest of the courses we needed to have were PE, English, History, Math and Science. I don’t think that any classes that I took were necessarily “irrelevant”, I thought it taught us a lot of stuff from the past, but not enough about present day problems since a lot of classes heavily relied on old textbooks. 

According to the Carnegie Corporation’s recommendations (Santrock, 2018), my middle school did not really have a lot going for them. I was not aware if we had a counselor in my middle school since it was never really advertised to us. Because of this, I doubt that there were multiple counselors on campus, and there was quite a lot of students so the ratio must have been big as well. They did have a lot of parent teacher and back to school nights though that allowed the parents to be involved and to get to know the teachers so that helped involve parents. However, teachers did not “team teach” (Santrock, 2018), everyone very much stayed in their own lane and taught their own subject, especially since students were all in different classes so that might have been hard to do. I do think they need to focus more on school health, we did not have any sort of health class, but physical education was mandatory to be on the curriculum for all three years. Public health, to my knowledge, was never talked about and I am not even sure we had a school nurse on campus to ask anything about those topics. While I had an overall good experience, I do agree that middle schools need to change their ways they teach and the information they provide to students as they make their way and start to enter early adolescence. 

                                                     References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 10: Childhood Social Concerns - “Peer Status”

Which of the five peer statuses characterized you as a child? Did your peer status change in adolescence? How did your peer status as a child influence your development? 

Out of the five peer statuses I would categorize myself in the popular children's group. I would put myself here because I found that making friends wasn’t really a problem for me growing up, while I was sometimes teased for not knowing how to speak english properly when I was younger it didn’t stop me from making friends and having people like and want to play with me. I didn’t really find that kids disliked me as I was usually never really excluded from any games and I was nice to everyone. I liked to make jokes a lot and played with both boys and girls, and I remember always being very positive, all aspects of a popular child (Santrock, 2018). 

I think that my peer status helped me not shy away from talking to people later on despite what their “peer status” may be, I have never really liked to judge people and have never really had much difficulty making friends. Now that I am older I find myself being more reserved and selective with my friend group, but for those I’m close with they know they can count on me to listen and be there for them when they need me. 

                                                      References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 9: Middle Childhood - “Bi-lingual”

Did you learn a second language as a child? If you did, do you think it was beneficial to you? If so, how? 

Spanish is my native tongue, while English is actually my second. I learned English starting when I was 5 years old when I went to Kindergarten and was thrown in an environment that was only English speaking, or instruction in English only (Santrock, 2018). It would have been nice to learn through dual-language instruction, but mainly it consisted of speaking only Spanish at home and only English at school. 

I would say that the benefits of being bilingual far outweigh the disadvantages. For example, being able to help my parents from a very young age with translating important documents, business transactions, and in high stress situations have always taught me responsibility at a young age, as well as communication skills in professional settings from a young age. Aside from that though, there are so many people that I come across whose native tongue is also Spanish and I am able to talk to them fluently and understand them completely, it makes me so grateful to have never lost the language because I can connect with so many people through it. A disadvantage that I do have though is that like the book mentions, I do feel that my vocabulary is sometimes limited to either English or Spanish, but not both (Santrock, 2018). For example, I’ll know how to say or express myself in Spanish, but I cannot explain myself in English and vice versa. Also, sometimes I’ll forget how to say it in both languages. It’s sometimes an odd feeling, but though it does help me communicate with others better I do feel like there sometimes is a barrier that I have yet to learn how to get past. 

                                                      References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 8: Childhood Parenting Decisions

What are some aspects of relationships between parents and children that contribute to children’s moral development? Include examples from your experience

I think that having a securely attached connection with a caregiver has a lot to do with a child’s moral development, because if they are securely attached it will be much easier for a child to soak in that caregiver’s values, rules and lessons they give as they grow up (Santrock, 2018). These children already feel close to their parents and see them as a positive role model in their lives, at least that’s how I saw it. I felt like I was securely attached to my parents, so many of their values that they have taught me, through conversations and lessons from when I did things wrong, it made me want to actually listen to them and what they were saying. I think that’s definitely another important thing to have, is actual conversations with your children (Santrock, 2018), when children make mistakes not to always scold them angrily, but to talk to them with patience. I think that this really helped me want to listen to my parents and what they had to say to me. 

That being said though, before children make mistakes it’s also important to talk to them on situations you see and explain your thoughts on them, explaining values and manners beforehand (Santrock, 2018). My parents did this to me as well, a lot of the times by using guilt to make me not want to do things is what comes to mind. For example, if my parents let me do something they weren’t 100% on board with or suspected I was going to do something not to their liking they would say things to me like “I know you’re responsible and you would never disappoint us because we didn’t raise you this way”, it would make me think about if I was doing something that my parents wouldn’t approve of later on or if it fell out of line with the values that they had taught me. It was a good way to check in with myself sometimes. 

Which style or styles of parenting did your mother and father use in rearing you? What effects do you think their parenting styles have had on your development? 

I feel like I had a mix of authoritative parenting styles with authoritarian style. My parents were always very aware of what I was doing, but they also let me have my independence. When I did something they did not particularly approve of, they sat me down and talked to me about it, explaining why what I did was wrong. Usually after those talks, it was never really brought up again because I took it upon myself to listen to them and correct my mistakes. As Santrock (2018) mentions in their book, they definitely expected me to learn quickly and to be responsible from a young age. Despite having this responsibility though I always felt like I could lean on my parents for anything at all since they were always so accepting and loving towards me. 

However authoritative they may have been though, there was still a lot of rules in the house that I did have to follow, but I don’t think it’s affected me negatively. Instead of suppressing my development I definitely agree that it helped me develop a sense of self and identity that made me closer to my family due to the respect and obedience that was taught to me in my Latino household (Santrock, 2018). From a very young age I was taught to respect my elders and it taught me how to behave myself. I would even go so far as saying it’s taught me how to handle and foster professional relationships better as well. 

                                                      References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 7: Nutrition

What were your eating habits like when you were a young child? In what ways are they similar or different from your current eating habits? Did your early eating habits predict whether or not you have weight problems today? 

When I was a child, a lot of my nutrition consisted of home-cooked meals, mainly of traditional Peruvian food, but just a regular breakfast and lunch. Breakfast usually consisting of a sugary cereal of choice with milk, or a waffle slathered in peanut butter, also accompanied by milk. For lunch I remember my mom would pack me a ham and cheese sandwich on white bread, carrots or apples, and yogurt or string cheese. Very rarely did that lunch meal ever change over the years, sometimes I would score at the grocery store and get my parents to buy me a Lunchable which consisted of a main meal (usually a make your own pizza, or a ritz cracker with ham and cheese), a Caprisun and candy. The Lunchables were very rare though, I only remember them very sparingly in my life. Fast food was only reserved for maybe once a month, sometimes even less, mainly because my family was able to cook and enjoyed doing so. The home cooked meals often did contain some sort of meat, vegetables and (nearly) always white rice. However, there are a few common plates that included a lot of potatoes, which yes, we count as a vegetable in our culture due to the potato originating in Peru. I found that really interesting since it lines up well with the statistic that in the U.S. 2-3 year olds mainly consumed potatoes as their chosen vegetables for daily consumption (Santrock, 2018). 

Now that I am older I have changed my eating habits a bit, but really not that much. For breakfast I have enriched cereal with soy milk, or a peanut butter jelly sandwich on whole wheat bread if I’m running late (which I usually am). For lunch if I’m out I usually have a fruit of some kind, usually apples, but if I’m home I try to make a smoothie that helps me energize me for the rest of the day which consists of spinach or kale, blueberries or strawberries, celery, cucumber, ginger, turmeric, and different kinds of seeds. For dinner, I still eat my parents home cooked meals every night. For me, gaining weight has always been easier than losing it, but I don’t believe it’s been because of my early eating habits, but instead because I have hypothyroidism. I did gain a lot of weight when I was in college, nearly 25 pounds, and that was because I was in a constant high stress environment and I ate junk food so often for not having the time to really cook healthy. My eating habits have changed drastically now that I’m out of college and have gone back to the way it was when I was younger and it has helped me get back on a healthier lifestyle My parents have always been good at setting a good eating routine for me when I was younger, modeling good eating habits, and giving me a balanced meal (Santrock, 2018) and for that I am grateful. 

                                                     References

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.

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Chapter 6: Temperament

How would you describe your temperament?  Does it fit one of Chess and Thomas’ three styles?  If you have a sibling, is your temperament similar or different from theirs?  Be sure to include a description of the theory in your answer.

For as long as I can remember, I have been a pretty easygoing person. My parents say that even as a baby, I wouldn’t give them many problems and that I always had a positive attitude towards anything they really presented me with, such as loving to meet new people and adapting easily to the changes in environment. From early on, I took naps at a determined time and I asked for food pretty routinely. Psychiatrists Chess and Thomas’s different styles of temperament would have me labeled as an easy child since they are defined as generally having a “positive mood, quickly establishes regular routines in infancy, and adapts easily to new experiences.” (Santrock, 2018, pg.117).  

I do not have any siblings, but I grew up very close to my cousin who is just 9 months older than me, and him and his sister were basically my siblings due to me spending so much time with them. My cousin and I, however, had very different temperaments as children. My cousin would easily get mad over everything and threw tantrums and crying fits when he didn’t get what he wanted. Also he did not warm easily to meeting new people, often wanting nothing to do with them. Chess and Thomas would most likely have him labeled as a difficult child, or “someone who reacts negatively and cries frequently, engages in irregular daily routines, and is slow to accept change” (Santrock, 2018, pg.117). It’s very interesting how the temperaments we had when we were children stay with us while we grow and develop, because now I still feel like I have an easy temperament, while my cousin has learned to control himself a lot but when he gets mad he might as well be throwing a tantrum just as when he was a child.

References

Classifying Different Temperaments [Image] Retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/pBktEv9fraxZC2EU9

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill

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Chapter 5: Poverty, Stress & Language

The more years children spend living in poverty, the more their physiological indices of stress are elevated.  In this chapter, you are learning about the effects of SES on children’s language acquisition and vocabulary building.  How might these effects influence children’s’ school performance? Be sure to include the research from the text on this topic in your answer.

It is already well known that socioeconomic status, or SES, affects a person’s opportunities and even psychology, but just how much? One of the ways SES affects a child is by having it linked to a child’s vocabulary development. Researchers have found that parents talk a certain type of way to their children, and the vocabulary they use directly affects the vocabulary the children get to understand and use as well (Santrock, 2018). A study was conducted where researchers observed the language environments of children who had professional parents and those whose parents were on welfare and found that, compared the professional parents, the welfare children’s vocabulary was much smaller at 36 months of age than the child of professional parents (Santrock, 2018). Another study had similar findings, with the addition that children from low-SES families had less efficient language processing when compared to children of the same age in middle-SES families (Santrock, 2018).  

These effects could influence children’s school performance later in life by not giving them all the tools necessary to excel early on. The child might become frustrated when they are struggling with certain vocabulary, reading comprehension, or certain English class tasks. They could also be put down when they see their peers understanding certain things and they aren’t getting it as easily. These peers might be of a higher SES than they are so they know more vocabulary and have developed better language acquisition, but a child would not know that. A way that maybe low-SES families could teach their children better language acquisition early on is to read to them every day. Researchers have shown that reading every day to a child that is 14 to 24 months old was “positive related to children’s language and cognitive development at 36 months of age” (Santrock, 2018, pg.161). This could be a great way to engage with your child and help build their vocabulary to help them later on in life, and especially in school. 

References 

Baby Reading [GIF] Retrieved from: https://images.app.goo.gl/PYNxL5bghEUsYebN6

Reading Aloud to Baby Benefits [Image] Retrieved from: https://www.planesandballoons.com/

Santrock, J. W. (2018). Lifespan development (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.