Assignment: Life Span Interview

Introduction

The theory of lifespan development is based on the way in which people grow and change from
the conception of death. The developmental psychologists who are experts in the psychology
field believe that the study on lifespan development theory can be demonstrated or explained
using three domains, which are: physical development, psychological development and cognitive
development. According to Kuther (2018), people get their motivation from the need to achieve
something at a certain age. An adult's goal to achieve something is always different from a
teenager or a child. That's why psychological theories believe that a person goes through "eight
stages of development" in their whole life. It starts from infancy and ends in late adulthood.

In this study, the object is to analyze the responses of an old-aged person when conducted an
interview on his/her lifespan development. Here, in this report, Ms. D. Wells was interviewed.
Her husband died young and left her with two daughters to raise. In this study, the discussion
will be on the biological, sociological and psychological stress that Ms. Wells has to go through
to raise her children as a single parent. Her case will be used as a narrative analysis for this
report.

Discussion

Ms. Wells was in her late twenties when her husband dies due to a car accident. It left her with
additional responsibilities to raise her children as a single parent. Her case was really helpful for
the purposes of review and analysis to understand her individual problem when she suddenly lost
someone close at such young age and left with huge responsibilities. The analysis will contain
information on social, cultural, psychological and historical themes. The analysis is going to be
helpful for other social works conducted in the future.

According to Ms. Wells, she was devasted when she heard the news of her husband. She was
angry and frustrated at the same time. Fortunately, she and her children went along well.
Although she was stressed highly still knew that she has to fight a lot in order to give her
children the best life as well as to stay fit for herself. She said in her interview that she doesn't
have any regrets in her life. She had a few close friends; most of them were male friends as she
founded that the female friends often talk behind her back. This psychological behavior is easily
understandable because the changes in physical appearance can get dramatic and often creates
cognitive competitors. This also helps in cognitive development as this gives the individual
major problem-solving skills. As stated by Hines (2017), hormonal and other sexual
differentiation creates differences in male and female development in cognitive and
psychosexual factors. Women tend to be more active and stronger when it comes to reading
skills and social skills. It is undoubtedly a psychological development trait that made Ms. Wells
get more attached to her male friends. However, it is also a fact that despite having more male
friends, she never thought about marrying again. She said in her interview that she never felt
such necessity or such connection with anyone to get married for the second time. This can be
analyzed in many ways; for instance, she was worried about her daughters and their reaction
when she would tell them about getting married. On the other hand, what she said can be the
actual truth that she never felt such attachment with anyone, Boelen & Smid (2017). Both the
reasons can be the psychological development that she has gone through, from losing her
husband to being a single parent.

She also mentioned that in her late seventies, she doesn't have any regret. Her parents were
always there to support her, and they have created the stage for her to be what she wants to be. In
addition, her husband was also supportive in her academic and professional career. She also said
that she believes that her lifespan is a legacy; that's why she knew she has to put her 100% effort
into everything. She started her career as a basketball coach in a school in Washington; however,
she tried to chase her passion in accounting and kept on studying for the same; as a result, she
retired as a state auditor. She always wanted to give her daughters a great place to grow; that's
why she kept on studying even when her daughter started going to college. Both her daughters
are now well established in their own careers, which makes Ms. Wells a proud mother.

Analysis

As opined by Krantz (2018), those who believe in the psychodynamic perspective, they support
the fact that the "memories", "conflicts", basically the inner forces, control a person's motivation.
Sigmund Freud is the name that always comes when discussing about psychodynamic
perspective. According to Freud's theory, there are some unconscious forces that are responsible
for determining a person's behavior as well as his personality. If the same theory can be applied
in the case of Ms. Wells, it can be said that her mental conflicts and memories with her husband
made her so strong that she was capable of raising her children alone. On the other hand, her
parents were always a supportive pillar for her as it can be illustrated from Freud's theory that
ego, id and superego—the three aspects of a human personality drive the need to increase good
feelings and minimize the bad feelings, Bornstein, Maracic & Natoli (2018). Ms. Wells was in a
stage of life where she has faced shame, trauma, doubt and confidence at the same time. She
wanted to minimize shame and doubt; that's why she was attached to her male friends more and
left the company of those female friends who used to talk behind her back. It can be obtained
from the HSBE theory that Ms. Wells was stressed despite having her parents on her side.
Although she knew her responsibilities very well, she was still in need of somebody who can
help her reduce stress. Her fight to survive made her emotionally strong.

Reflection

As stated by Fransoo et al. (2020), the behavioral perspective doesn't entirely depend on the age
factor but also depends on their individual environment and observations. The adolescence
period of Ms. Wells was emotional and challenging. She was clear about the preference with
associations and was strict towards her goals. In her middle adulthood, she was focused on her
career as well as her daughters' wellbeing. Her concentration and other psychological traits like
fear, care, love didn't let her start a family for the second time. As she was looking after herself
too, that's why she might not have got any serious illness, however as both of her daughters are
away from her due to their professional careers, she needs someone to talk to.

Learning

The learning outcome of this case study is that the social workers can take care of the old-aged
people by not only providing them support in case of emergency, nutrition or other health-related
matter but also understanding their mental health to support them emotionally. This is high time
to take those people seriously who face trauma, anxiety, depression but try to stay strong in their
life due to many different reasons, Marius-Dan & Monica (2020). Her case study will help in
creating social awareness among other people.
References

Kuther, T. L. (2018). Lifespan development: Lives in context. SAGE publications.

Hines, M. (2017). Gonadal hormones and sexual differentiation of human behavior: Effects on
psychosexual and cognitive development. In Sexual differentiation of the brain (pp. 257-278).
CRC Press.

Boelen, P. A., & Smid, G. E. (2017). Disturbed grief: prolonged grief disorder and persistent
complex bereavement disorder. Bmj, 357.

Krantz, J. (2018). Dilemmas of organizational change: A systems psychodynamic perspective. In

Bornstein, R. F., Maracic, C. E., & Natoli, A. P. (2018). The psychodynamic perspective.

Larco Martinelli, J. A., Fransoo, J., Gharehgozli, A., & Wiers, V. (2020). The scheduler’s
balancing act of sensing and reacting: a behavioural perspective on scheduling. International
Journal of Production Research, 58(13), 3944-3955.

Marius-Dan, Z., & Monica, F. (2020, October). Recognizing Fear/Anxiety in Relation to Other
Emotions. In 2020 International Conference on e-Health and Bioengineering (EHB) (pp. 1-4).
IEEE.