Week 4

Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

         

I found the article “The Great A.D.D Hoax” very interesting, and would like to make some comments regarding this article. The author David Keirsey, clearly states that attention deficit disorder is nothing but a mere hoax, although I agree with the majority of what he has to say on this topic, I still think more research needs to be done in order to rule it out altogether. David points out the list of “Causal symptoms” of A.D.D that are listed in the DSM IV manual and states that they are pretty much ridiculous. When I read through the list of symptoms, I could not help but wonder why these symptoms are not more defined, to me they seem to be more of list of what a lot of “Normal” children experience on a day to day basis, some more than others but still could be addressed without killing our children’s brains with such things like Ritalin (known to cause growth stunt, brain atrophy, and loss of muscular movements). I would ask the author what suggestions he has for ruling out the disorder altogether. Far too often parents look for a magic cure to calm their children down, and they think by giving their kids medication, it will solve the problem. I learned by reading this article that we as parents should be playing a more active role in finding other ways to help their kids succeed with overcoming learning disabilities by exploring other methods of treatments other than stimulants and brain altering drugs. The author has some very interesting ideas on how to teach a child to deal with his/her own consequences, David has written a paper entitled “Abuse it-Lose it”, I would like to hear more about what he has to say in regards to teaching your children, rather than medicating them.

This topic about ADHD is very interesting to me as my own daughter was diagnosed with it in High school and we as parents were so torn with treatments for her. Looking forward to reading more about it.  

Week 3 Blog

Erikson’s Early Psychosocial Development in Chapter 5.1 - Trust vs Mistrust

After my last few blogs I found myself more and more curious about temperament, and personality of newborn infants along with the connection between nature vs nurture in continued development in children .  Reading about the first stage of basic trust versus mistrust, I was able to understand more about how important basic trust is right from the beginning of life for newborns. The infant knowing their needs will be taken care of right away along with trust plays a very important role in development. 

I would like to know more about how infants trust comes into play if they were brought into the world with complications and forced to be taken away from the mother without proper bonding time. I wonder at what timeframe it hinders between trust and mistrust, or when they start to lose hope of trust. Is it hours, days? 

If I had unlimited funds available I would really like to do more research on the precious first few hours of an infant’s life and find out more about how much time right after birth do infants begin to lose hope of having trust, this really piqued my curiosity. I learned that with a proper balance of the two infants can have hope, which then leads them to be open to new experiences, even though they may be wary of the results.  The other two stages, Autonomy vs shame and doubt and initiative vs guilt were also very educational, however I would really like to know more about the trust vs mistrust and the lifetime effect on children as they grow and develop into adults.  I would also like to read more about attachment in general, I am looking forward to learning more on this subject throughout the life-span of the human being.

Reflection Blog #2 for Psych 200

I decided to do my reflection blog on the topic of temperament. I can relate to this topic very much because I am a new grandparent. I have also raised two children to adulthood. This topic is so interesting in the way it covers hereditary and environmental impacts.

I found it interesting to read specifically about how temperament varies within nine categories (Thomas, Chess & Birch 1968).

I learned that temperament emerges during infancy and continues throughout childhood, and is related to the child’s personality traits.  I read about how babies that seem to laugh a lot, tend to be happier in general. They are also able to express their pleasure.

When I had my first child Ryan, from the day he was born he was very calm, content and easy to sooth, a “Cheerful baby”. He was a baby that anyone would babysit, because he was so easy to please. My son had a very stable temperament, this followed him throughout grade school as well. I had my daughter 16 months after my son, and boy was I in for a shock, from the day she was born she was a rather “stormy” baby. My daughter Brittney was not content, she seemed to need constant attention. Whereas my son slept through the night within a few weeks, my daughter would not for a long time. I would like to think that her environment was no different than her brothers, so I think it must have more to do with hereditary. As my daughter grew she proved to be a difficult child all the way through grade school and into High School.

My daughter gave birth to my first grandchild almost a year ago. I would have expected her to have a baby that was difficult to deal with and yet it looks like the temperament pattern is repeating. Her first baby is the easiest baby, so calm and content, always laughing, and when she cries, it is for a reason, unlike her mother.

I wonder how possible environmental impacts could have contributed to the difference of temperament between my two children.

After reading about stability of temperament, I think that temperaments do cross over into adulthood.  To this day my son is very laid back and easy going, and my daughter (although has grown out of the difficult stages) still is more of an outspoken type of person. I remember telling my daughter “Just wait, you will get paybacks” and then it never happened….but she does plan on having more children so she could still be in for surprises.  

 
Thanks for reading!

Judy  

Judy's Chapter 1 / Week 1 Blog

Topic: Nature VS Nurture

 

                I found this topic of nature versus nurture to be very interesting.  I now better understand how nurturing plays such an important role in our lives. When I reflect on this topic I think of my sister, her and I are six years apart, we share the same biological parents and yet we are completely different from each other.  When I was born, I had both my mother and farther in my life, living in the same home. By the time I was six years old my father had disappeared from our lives completely. My mother was pregnant with my sister when my father decided to leave our family. From the day my sister was born, she never experienced having a father in her life.  Although we share the same genetic make-up, we could not be more different when it comes to personality traits. I am very outgoing and confident, whereas my sister is a very introvert person and seems to have a low esteem about her. I learned that neither nature nor nurture is fully to blame for the way we turn out; they can both influence each of us in our lifetime.  I was the first child born so it makes me wonder if having more attention given to me made me more outgoing, or if I was just born with more confidence.  Was it because I was allowed to express myself, or was it because I was put into a more diverse environment. When I look back at how it was in our home when I was a baby versus when my sister was a baby, we had very different environment surroundings. Because my mother became more protective after going through a divorce, did that influence my sister’s personality traits? I look forward to looking more in depth to this topic in the chapters to come in regards to human development.