Blog entry #7: Psychodynamic Development

1) Ask one of your parents or primary caregiver a story about their childhood. Of how they were raised by their parents. Or perhaps a funny story that reflects their childhood. Reflect on how this has affected their parenting style and how they relate with you.

- My father was raised under very neglected circumstances. He was born a middle child and was the least favorite child in his family. He was often compelled to do a lot of housework like cooking, cleaning, feeding the animals, and taking care of his younger siblings. He was the greatest achiever in the family, but also the most ignored. Whenever he had a low score, his mother would not even give him dinner, though his father was very relaxed so he liked his father a lot more. My father definitely wanted to take more from his father in raising me, but also takes after his mother when disciplining his children

2) What do you think are some intergenerational patterns that run in your family? Do you find them helpful or not? Why?

- My grandfather had a very relaxed approach to things, even raising his children. This often manifests in my father and I. In the province life, it is very good and very positive, but in a life such as this where you need to keep up with everything, it's terrible. I need to unlearn some lazy habits my grandfather had in order to be able to properly be productive

.3) If they are helpful, how can you keep them going? If they are unhelpful, how can you change it? What can help you?- Arguably it is helpful when I need to relax but it is not helpful when I need to do something. I need to learn to separate those two things in order to properly eliminate the bad traits and keep the good ones.

4) Ask your parents a story about your childhood. Relate it with Erikson's stages of Development. How has this affected your growth and development?
- When I was a child, I really liked my parents. A lot. To the point where I cried if they left for work. This was pretty common when I was about 3-4 years old, so they'd either make me sleep or put on some Barney or some Elmo in order to leave properly. In the terms of Erikson's stages of Development, this can be considered as Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt. I was being introduced to the fact that my parents have to leave and I had to adapt to it.

5) Go through Erikson's stages 1 to 5 and see how your development is across the stages? Are you leaning more towards trust or mistrust? Etc. Use a scale (1 - dystonic to 10 syntonic) to illustrate how you developed these in these stages. Note: dystonic is the more negative side and syntonic is the positive.

Stage 1: Trust vs Mistrust; Score 10 - I was able to completely trust in my parents, to the point where I know I could depend on them for anything.

Stage 2: Autononmy vs Shame/Doubt; Score 9 - I was able to function independently from my parents and even started to take my own action around me.

Stage 3: Initiative vs Guilt: Score 7 - I was able to moderately function outside of my boundaries but I was sensitive to any criticism or negative reception to it.

Stage 4: Industry vs Inferiority: Score 2 - This definitely was a dip in my whole development, dealing with so many issues that I had with bullies and attitude problems that lead to low self-esteem and to anxiety, depression, and a number of issues that crippled me socially.

Stage 5: Identity vs Role Confusion: Score 6 - Things are getting better but I have still yet to find what I am and what my role is in life