Blog 2

When going over the stages of infancy, early childhood, middle childhood, and adolescence I remembered a lot from my undergraduate career.  I remember the trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, industry versus inferiority, and identity versus role confusion.  Even though I knew what these were, Corey and Corey (2008) provided a different aspect to Erikson’s model that allowed me to think deeply about myself that I have never thought before within these stages.  One of the stages that stood out to me the most is the trust versus mistrust.  For myself, I felt that I have more mistrust than I do trust.  I never knew or thought about why this was but when going over this section I thought a lot about my life.  The significant person I was missing in my life was my father.  My dad was not around a lot when I was young and then my parents got divorced when I was about eight years old.  This really resonates with me and I don’t know why I did not think about it earlier.  For myself it just makes sense.  I understand now why I have more mistrust than trust and can work though my past to understand who I am today.

I also liked the piece in the book devoted to attachment theory.   I watched a video in my adolescent development class at Messiah College that gave me great insight on what the theory was about.  In that class we talked about how if a child exhibits distress when their caretaker leaves and then when the caretaker comes back the child returns to normal that the child will have meaningful relationships when they get older.  I always thought that this was interesting and I hope that someday when I have kids that my child will be like this.

Transitioning to the article we had to read, the question that the research was about was why does adolescents indulged in risk taking behavior compared to the other stages of development (Steinberg, 2008).  When reading this article, all I could think about was didn’t the field already figure this out.  Adolescents are involved in more risk taking behavior because they think they are invincible and that it is the time of their lives to make mistakes.  Even though I felt like this was already known, I feel that the article was a good one that expressed its own findings through cognitive analysis. 

Corey, G., & Corey, M.S. (2008). I never knew I had a choice: Explorations in personal growth. (9^th ed.). Belmont, California: Thompson Brooks/Cole.

Steinberg, L. (2008). A social neuroscience perspective on adolescent risk-taking. Developmental Review, 28, 78-106