Assignment week 4 case study draft

dotx

School

Northwestern University *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

2003

Subject

Psychology

Date

Feb 20, 2024

Type

dotx

Pages

Uploaded by MateDog4056

1 The following case study analysis pertains to Angela, a 17-year-old teen with an 11-month-old son named Adam, living with her single mother, Sarah, and her 13-year-old brother, David, in a rented Midwest home. Angela dropped out of high school and is unemployed; Sarah is the sole breadwinner, working as a waitress in a local restaurant. Angela and David's father abandoned the family when Angela was seven years old and Angela blames Sarah for her father's absence. Adams's Father, Wayne, is estranged as Angela initially broke off their relationship due to him not taking responsibility for Adam. Additionally, Sarah will not allow Wayne in the home because she is angry about Angela dropping out of school and feels that he is a negative influence on Angela and Adam. Angela has struggled with long term depression, first at the prospect of being pregnant and later due to her frustrations at the difficulties with caring for Adam; although she tries to be a good mother, her bitterness with the situation often causes her to employ negative parenting tactics. Such as, when Adam cries excessively when she is not present or for what Angela deems no reason (e.g., he is not hungry or nerds a diaper change), she will shake him in frustration, or when she feels he should be giving her attention instead of ignoring her she will grab his face to force interactions with him (as he often disengages during interactions). These negative nurturing practices ultimately impacts Adams stages of development and caused adverse attachments between Adam and Angela. Additionally, it has caused Angela to feel like she is incapable of being a good mother exacerbating her depression and negative nurturing practices. Moreover, Sarah's growing resentment towards Angela has negatively impacted the family dynamic. She feels unappreciated and that Angela is taking advantage, especially after discovering that Angela and Wayne started seeing each other again, telling Angela that if she becomes pregnant, she will evict Angela and Adam from her home. In turn, Angela feels that

2 Sara is not supportive or helpful in caring for Adam and views Sarah as not loving her enough or believing in her as a parent. Understanding Angela and Adams's case requires identifying the primary issues facing the family unit by analyzing lifespan development theologies, incorporating individual and cultural issues, with the intent of mediating the adverse relationships that have formed through designing an intervention modality that rebalances the family developmental processes. Identifying Primary Development Issues Given Adams age and his current stage of development a primary issue is the negative parent child relationship between Adam and Angela, as learning how to develop a healthy emotional style of parenting and install secure emotional responses in a child requires developing techniques which appropriately manage emotional responses and foster a bond of positive attachment (?/). Additional Issues are Angelas depressive state and attitude of ambivalence towards parenting which appear to stem from immature responses to the responsibility of raising a child, her toxic relationship with her mother and idealizing a family system instead of mediating her current family dynamic and contributing to enhancing it instead of perpetuating disfunction by blaming her mother and estranged partner for her lack of appropriate parental techniques. When a parent is still in the life stage of developing emotional maturity they tend to be less nurturing and adverse in their parenting techniques because they start to loose personal identity which has not yet been fully formed when thrust into taking care of someone else (??). Adolescent EQ growth and development happens during the ages of 12 to 18 and is a time of identity formulation. Adolescents start to form their independence and associate emotional regulation with personal identity and a sense of independence in developing and testing their abilities as a budding adult (??) For Angela this process has been interrupted and began to stunt

3 her EQ growth and independent identity formation due to having a child at 17 causing self-doubt, depression, and low self-esteem all of which contributes to her reflective negative emotional regulation and trust between herself and her child (???). Moreover, Angelas persistent depressive state and feelings of having an unsupportive environment limits her to sufficiently use appropriate parenting strategies needed to provide a supportive and secure attachment style and appropriate stage development for a child. As distorted attachment and development occurs when an environment is adverse in nature and the parent is deficient in their ability to form secure and appropriate bonds with their child (???). Life Span Theory Analyzing the dynamic between Angela and Adam and the issues presented from a lifespan development theology is Erikson's psychosocial model of personality development, which focuses on eight stages or "crises" that individuals move through during their developmental process. Erikson's design proposes that psychosocial strengths are gained at each stage as the crisis experienced is effectively addressed, where successfully completing a stage is a condition to transition into a subsequent one. However, development becomes arrested when the stages are not fully completed or the transition period is negative in nature, as with Adam and Angela's dysfunctional parental/child interactions. As such, Adam is at Erikson's “infant stage” of “basic trust” versus “mistrust” of the primary caregiver. The child must be confident that their caregivers are reliable and can respond to their basic needs (???). Unfortunately, Adam expresses mistrust with Angela, which causes him to be disassociated when she tries to interact with him, and he expresses dysregulation by crying excessively and inappropriately as a means of responding to Angela's inability to provide trust to Adam during caregiving. Within Erikson's model of stage development, Angela is currently in the identity versus role confusion stage, a

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4 stage of identifying and understanding “Who am I,” which is a defining determinant of understanding others (??). Within this stage, one also gains the psychological strength of fidelity. However, due to the adverse environment, lack of role modeling from a competent parental figure, and depressive state Angela has endured, her development of this stage is stunted as she expresses self-doubt in her abilities as a mother and confusion as to her role within her family system, which affects how she perceives herself and places barriers to her development of self- identification and role appropriation. Additionally, for Adam, one can also apply Bowlby’s attachment theory, which identifies stages of separation from a caregiver by a child. During this process, children and caregivers develop different attachment styles based on the nature/quality of their interactions. These interactions are crucial when determining a child’s subsequent psychological development. Adam has formed an insecure, avoidant attachment style with his mother within this concept, whereas Angela represents an ambivalent/disorganized attachment toward Adam due to Adam's dissociation when Angela interacts with him (???). Individual and Cultural Differences This case's individual and cultural differences can be attributed to age and generation differences. As an adolescent mother, Angela has not yet learned nor developed life experiences that are necessary for proper role completion as an effective mother to Adam. Due to her young age and EQ immaturity, her own developmental process has been stunted. During the Developmental process of adolescence into adulthood, youth undergo multiple role shifts and status changes in social and self-identification through experiencing and mitigating life experiences. For example, transitioning from school to employment, to residencies away from the home, joining in a relationship, marriage, becoming a parent/caregiving. For Angela, she had not experienced a

5 typical and progressive transition from adolescence into adulthood before becoming a parent and caregiver, and she is still firmly ensconced in her youth culture, where appearance and social activities take precedence over things like livelihood, family, and parental caregiving (???). Moreover, Angela does not feel that she has been supportive nor learned parental modeling from her mother. Whereas her mother, Sarah, is firmly developed into her role identification (although dysfunctional in nature), her age and cultural expectations of family responsibilities and caregiving are a stark contradiction to Angela's expectations. Whereas the mother wants Angels to focus on “adult expectations” or roles associated with paying for expenses by maintaining a job, designating parental roles by mediating child issues such as babysitting on her own without expecting someone else to step in, as her generation did not have the expectation of help simply because of age, as age and cultural expectations of the environment play an impactful role when applied to child development (??). Intervention When incorporating the issues from a developmental lens, an intervention that would benefit Angela would be psychotherapy utilizing a family structure modality. Due to the unstable relationship between Angela and her mother and the adverse environment that impacts Adam's development, Family therapy would allow for the process of designing ways in which they establish role expectations and identify tools that will allow them to mediate future struggles within their relationship (???). Additionally, foster ways in which to address specific dysfunctional behavior patterns that contribute to Angela's inability to properly establish a secure and trustworthy parental figure for Adam (??). Another intervention process would be to design a means for Angela to gain the identification of self and confidence in being a parent, which she has not yet developed. This could be accomplished by engaging in group therapy with peers who

6 have experienced the same issues Angela is participating as a young parent. Attending group therapy with peers, Angela would benefit from interacting in an atmosphere of support, and she could gain the tools to practice positive parent/child interactions by learning what others have experienced and how they have overcome or progressed through those adverse experiences. Moreover, it would provide her with a safe space to release frustrations and move beyond those frustrations with the support she will receive within that dynamic of a group therapeutic context, which will foster a closer relationship with Adam due to her not expressing that frustration in her interactions with him (??) Conclusion Adams's adverse developmental process is a direct cause of his environment and interaction with his mother. Angela's inability to mediate her situation in a mature and reflective manner, coupled with her own stunted developmental process and dysfunctional interactions with her parental model, further exacerbates Adams's stage progression leaving him in a mistrustful stage and insecure-avoidant attachments with his caregivers. Angela's age and generational differences with her mother also limit her ability to learn the appropriate parental skills she currently lacks. Moreover, due to her stunted adolescent to adulthood development and failure to gain a positive role identification of self, Angela interacts with Adam and her mother in a child manner, expecting others to step in and assist, as well as Adam providing her with a secure relationship without guidance or nurturing on her part. As such, psychotherapy and group therapy will be beneficial for the family to garner the tools necessary to assist Adam in rebalancing his developmental growth process. As well as helping Angela to further her own development process and become a positive and beneficial parental caregiver for her child.

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