My Own Developmental Autobiography

Introduction

In reflecting on one’s own life, you may recognize many examples of physical, psychological, social, and cognitive development that are shared by nearly all (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). Everyone will have some of the same experiences, particularly those that happen during infancy to two years of age. Jean Piaget referred to this as the sensorimotor stage. “During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A child’s entire experience at the earliest period of this stage occurs through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses” (Cherry, 2015). Human development is the physical, cognitive, emotional, and social changes that occur in a person’s life (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). In this autobiography, I have connected my own milestones in life to different stages of development across my lifespan.

My Background

My name is Bailey Minor, 26-year-old female from a small town in west Texas. In 1992 I was born to Jeff and Kimberly Minor and I also have a sister named Meggan. Growing up my father was an independent contractor for various oilfield companies in the area. My mother worked as a secretary and later an administrative assistant for an oilfield company in town. Although this company has seen many name changes, my mother has been a constant in that building for almost thirty years. I consider my family to have been of the middle-class socioeconomic status, but that was the average in our area and I do not feel that it impacted my development in any way. We grew up on the family farm with my paternal grandparents living next door. Due to this, I spent a lot of time with my family, especially my grandfather. On the farm, we mainly raised stocker cattle and had horses for work, as well as rodeos. There was even the occasional sheep, goat, and pig running around! Growing up in the environment that I did had a major impact on my emotional, social, moral and cognitive development. From losing cattle and drought, to numerous other encounters on the farm, I learned how to navigate several hardships at a young age.

At first, I went to the larger school in our area; however, after the 4th grade, I attended school in a small district, graduating with only eighteen other students. Most of us attended school together all the way through senior year. We saw several others come and go, but we had our own “family” at school with each other. This experience also impacted my development in many different ways as it was not only a culture shock when I moved to college, I also had to adjust to the large campus and class sizes. While in high school, I was extremely involved in athletics, cheer, FFA, 4-H, student council, national honor society and had a part-time job in town. Now, as a young adult, I am still involved with my local school as a teacher, FFA advisor, junior class sponsor, and much more, which I believe impacts my future development with all the opportunities to push myself and learn more.

Connection to Developmental Theories

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Erikson’s best-known work is his theory that each stage of life is associated with a specific psychological struggle, a struggle that contributes to a major aspect of personality (Erik H. Erikson, n.d.). There are eight stages in his theory, each with a positive or negative outcome to the crisis that he believed shaped one’s personality. The eight stages of this theory include trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame/doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair. With my current age, I cannot connect my life to all eight of these stages, and I do not personally recall the first two or three stages of my life. I do live with anxiety, which I was only diagnosed with seven years ago; however, my doctor believes that my acts as an infant of holding my breath until I passed out were anxiety attacks that I was having as a child. During the trust vs. mistrust stage, infants learn that adults can be trusted if they meet the child’s basic need for survival (Amidon, Monroe, Ortwein, n.d.). I am not saying that my parents did not care for me or that they did not meet my basic needs, I am however saying that I strongly feel that there must have been something that I was lacking for me to have developed anxiety at such a young age.

The next milestone in my life that I can connect to this theory would be in the industry vs. inferiority stage. This stage is said to happen in children ages six to twelve. This is when children begin to compare themselves with their peers to see how they measure up (Amidon et al., n.d.). I can remember being in the 4th grade when I started getting in trouble at school. As I was reading about this theory and this particular stage, I had an “aha” moment about that time in my life. In the fourth grade, we changed campus’s and I ended up in a class that none of my friends were in. In fact, even though several of us were split up, I was even the only one from my young friend group that was on my hall, meaning that we didn’t even have lunch or recess together.

I found myself acting out trying to get some of the attention that other students in my class were getting, as well as just trying to fit in. Learning what I have about this theory, I can now contribute my trouble causing behavior to the simple fact that I was trying to fit in with a new group of friends, like an outsider that didn’t quite measure up to this group of kids. In this stage when children do not get along well with others or have negative experiences at home or with peers, an inferiority complex might develop (Amidon et al., n.d.), which is what I believe was starting to happen to me here. This is the only year that I ever got in trouble at school and the only year that I can ever remember not feeling a sense of belonging in my class.

Another piece of this theory that I can connect to my life. The identity vs. role confusion stage. I’m sure that most teenage girls, and boys for that matter, can relate a large part of their high school career to this stage. In adolescence, children face the task of identity vs. role confusion. According to Erikson, an adolescent’s main task is developing a sense of self (Amidon et al., n.d.). This is the time in one’s life where you constantly get asked what you want to do with your life, or what you want to be when you grow up. My school district did a great job with the students at our camps as a whole. We were given plenty of opportunities to participate in multiple activities and we were asked to set goals at the beginning of each school year. These were goals that we actually got to go over at the end of the school year and discuss if we met the goal, and if we did not, what kept us from doing so? Even though we were a small school district, the opportunities were still endless. By the end of my high school career, the district even added another sport so that more of us could be involved.

I do believe that this stage lasted a little bit longer past high school for myself. When I first went to college, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to major in biochemistry to hopefully become a pharmacist one day. During my first semester, I struggled, a lot. My advisor was not very interested in lifting my spirits and just suggested that I do something easier. Too not much surprise, I fell into a depressive rut that I wasn’t sure I would ever get out of. One day, an old family friend of ours called and asked me why I wasn’t doing something in agriculture at college. I really didn’t even know how to answer his question, but after a short conversation, it was decided that I would be leaving my current university and transferring to Angelo State to major in Ag Education and be on the livestock judging team. I was over the moon happy because I finally had a sense of belonging, and I am now currently an Ag Science teacher. What happened to me was the simple fact that I let go of my beliefs because one individual did not believe in me. Thank goodness after one and a half years of not knowing what I was doing with my life, I was rescued by my beloved “agriculture family.”

Lastly, I can relate my current life situations to the sixth stage of intimacy vs. isolation. After we develop a sense of self in adolescence, we are ready to share our life with others (Amidon et al, n.d.). This is the stage where the common phrase “you must love yourself before you love others,” comes to light. Currently I am dating my boyfriend of five years; however, we haven’t discussed marriage, even though we get asked daily when we are going to get married. While reading about this stage, I cannot really say that I have gone one way or the other. Rather, I am living right in the middle of this stage.

Piaget’s Cognitive Developmental Theory

Cognitive development refers to how a person perceives, thinks, and gains understanding of his or her world through the interaction of genetic and learned factors (Cognitive development, n.d.). At the center of Piaget’s theory is the principle that cognitive development occurs in a series of four distinct, universal stages, each characterized by increasingly sophisticated and abstract levels of thought (Cognitive development, n.d.). The four stages in this theory are sensorimotor, pre-operational, concrete operational, and formal operational. During the sensorimotor and pre-operational stages, children struggle with object permeance. I was a prime example of this, as my dad loved to touch my nose and convince me that he ‘took’ my nose. There is a video of me when he tried this once and I never even hesitated to just freak out. I completely believed that he took my nose. This can also be true with the blanket I used to drag around.

I can vaguely remember my mom putting the blanket in my bag once. No matter how many times she said it was in the car, I cried in disbelief because I could not actually see my blanket. Now, as an adult, if you tell me something is in the car, I’m going to believe you that it is. Piaget’s theory brought forth the belief that children did not think less complexly than adults, just that they thought in a different form. Piaget’s theories have since been challenged and we now know that the way a child is raised has a great impact on them and it is not purely a child’s discovery of these abilities. Therefore, it is important to recognize that development is a mix of both common and unique experiences (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016).

Lev Vygotsky’s Theory of Cognitive Development

Different from Piaget’s theory, Vygotsky’s theory stresses the fundamental role of social interaction in the development of cognition, as he believed strongly that community plays a central role in the process of “making meaning” (McLeod, 2016). Vygotsky believed that individual development cannot be understood without reference to the social and cultural context within which the individual is embedded (McLeod, 2016). What I can relate to this theory is that my sister and I are genetically the same, having the same mother and father. Although we were both raised by both of our parents, my sister spent more time with our maternal grandparents and I spent more time with our paternal grandparents. We are very much alike, however, being as I spent more time with my grandfather, around cattle, horseback, or playing dominos with his friends, I think and act differently than my sister. This can especially be seen when we are doing things on the farm as adults. I have more ease around animals, whereas she is more timid. Another quirk about us that is different is that she is more apt to keep her ideas to herself and I do not have much of a filter at times. I attribute this to her spending so much time with female elders and me spending more time with our male elders. Not to say that I did not learn respect as a child, just saying that the experience was different for us.

Bruner’s Theory on Language

Language is important for the increased ability to deal with abstract concepts (McLeod, 2018). Bruner’s theory relates symbols to letters and words for memorization. As a child, you could have a toy, you know what the toy looks and feels like, then you eventually learn the word. This theory is used still today in the sense that when we learn or teach the alphabet, we connect the letter to items, shapes and colors. All of these things were true of my childhood. I learned the alphabet by learning that an apple started with the letter “a.” I learned my colors by using previous knowledge of items to relate them to a specific color. In other words, I knew what the item was before I know what to call it, what color it was, etcetera.

Implications on Education

Genetically, humans are very close in relation, what sets us apart are culture, race, and ethnicity. Counselors must examine what elements vary by culture, race, and ethnicity (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). It is important that the educator and counselor understand the student as an individual to better be able to serve them. As a teacher, it is important to know different learning styles to be able to adapt lessons. It is also important for the teacher to know what stage of development his or her students are in, especially when an entire grade may not be in the same stage. Same can be said for the counselor, when the counselor understands the learning style and stage of development of the individual students, setting up a plan of action for that particular student becomes easier. As an educator and future high school guidance counselor, I will need to help students navigate through the stages connected to all of these theories.

Educators and counselors not only need to be very familiar with the stages of development to help cater to each individual learner. They also need to be aware of these stages to observe the development of students in the case of identification of any disorders that the student might be suffering from. Educators and counselors are very influential in a child’s development, therefore neglecting even just one of the developmental factors is detrimental in a child’s life as each stage feeds onto the next one.

Conclusion

Studying my own life and comparing it to the developmental theories is helpful in fully understanding them. Development over the life course becomes an open-ended and complex process which includes both gains and losses and is not simply a progressive ‘ladder’ (Davies, 2018). If educators and counselors understand that a student does not always follow an exact path and take the stages in the theories and apply them directly to the individual, the individual is to the benefit. Counselors must think in a multidimensional and systemic way, but most people do not habitually view the world in a systemic way (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). Educators and counselors alike, must always be ready to maximize a student’s potential. This means that they need to always be on top of their game in the classroom, as well as, contributing to the campus by offering extra support to the students. Advocacy is important so that people can get the opportunities and resources to develop to capacity (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2016). Earlier in the semester we were to create a group or an activity that focused on one of the stages of psychosocial development. After comparing my own life to the theories of development that we have studied, I now understand how crucial this is for the students. Sometimes they need something more than school, home, and extra-curriculars, we must be that for them.