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PSY 211 Project Two Template
Use this template to complete your life-span theory exploraon paper. Answer each queson with a
minimum of 3 to 5 sentences. Support your answers with credible sources when appropriate. Complete
this template by replacing the bracketed text with the relevant informaon.
1. Idenfy a theorist, summarize their theory, and explain the aspects of that theory that relate to
the biological perspecve.
[The theorist that I chose the psychologist John Watson known for his theory of behaviorism
focusing on the outside behaviors of a person. Watson's theory was that insight into a person's
internal acons could only be obtained from that person's outside physical responses. Watson
considered that events and situaons in any given environment are what causes behaviors to be
developed.]
2. Provide an example of how this biological perspecve of life-span development applies to your
lived experience.
[An example of how this biological perspecve of life-span development applies to my lived
experience is through the fact that me showing signs of depression and anxiety around the age
of thirteen. My anxiety and depression came from mulple issues including an alcoholic step-
father and the fact that my real father had commi/ed suicide when I was very young. My
mother did not realize how much my step-father's acons had an e0ect on me and blamed most
of my problems with anxiety and depression on my real father being that he would not have
commi/ed suicide if he had not su0ered from anxiety and depression as well. She believed that
I was just predisposed to developing such issues because of my father's genecs.]
3. Idenfy a theorist, summarize their theory, and explain the aspects of that theory that relate to
the psychological perspecve.
[The theorist I chose is the psychologist Sigmund Freud, whose theory was that the shaping of
an adult person's personality is heavily in3uenced on experiences and events from that person's
childhood. It was Freud's belief that people inherit behaviors from our parents/caregivers and
family because a person's behavior is dictated by that person's unconscious mind from his or her
past experiences. When a child has a traumac experience, for example, the mind tends to hide
away the traumac experience and the emoons that evolve from it as a way of protect itself.
The trauma along these emoons, such as anxiety or depression, are sll there in the
unconscious mind and manifest later on in adulthood (Mcleod, S., 1970).]
4. Provide an example of how this psychological perspecve of life-span development applies to
your lived experience.
[An example of how this psychological perspecve of life-span development applies to my lived
experience is with my struggles with depression and anxiety in the stages of my adolescence and
early adulthood. This had much to do with the trauma I experienced from growing up in a
somewhat dysfunconal environment with an alcoholic step-father who treated me poorly
because I was not his child. I began showing signs of depression and anxiety when I reached the
age of thirteen. Luckily, a=er my step father was no longer in my life, my anxiety and depression
were not as hard for me to cope with and I ended up beginning therapy which helped even
more. I also developed abandonment issues due to my father's suicide when I was very young.]
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5. Idenfy a theorist, summarize their theory, and explain the aspects of that theory that relate to
the social perspecve.
[The theorist that I chose is psychologist Jean Piaget developed the Theory of Cognive
Development. Piaget's theory included four stages of development: the sensorimotor stage, the
preoperaonal stage, the concrete operaonal stage, and the formal operaonal stage. She
believed that the willingness or unwillingness to perceive and deal with environmental smuli is
what creates a child's schema (Mcleod, S., 2020) and that our environment and surroundings
are constantly changing us as we develop. The schemas that a child develops closely resemble
those of the people around us such as our parents/caregivers and connue on into our
adulthood depending on our surroundings later on.]
6. Provide an example of how this social perspecve of life-span development applies to your lived
experience.
[An example of how this social perspecve of life-span development applies to my lived
experience is how the schemas that I may have developed at an early age in relaon to how to
act socially has changed as I grow older and have had my own experiences in relaon to those
schemas. As a child, witnessing how to "appropriately" behave and communicate with others in
di0erent social situaons has changed over me because of the constant changing of my
environment and new experiences.]
7. Describe why analyzing the life span from a combined biological, psychological, and social
perspecve is important.
[It is important to analyze the life span from a combined biological, psychological, and social
perspecve because each of these perspecves correlate and intertwine with the other. If we
analyze a life span from just one perspecve or the other, we are unable to see the whole
picture or a person's development as a whole. “Only with all the di0erent types of psychology,
which somemes contradict one another (nature-nurture debate), overlap with each other (e.g.
psychoanalysis and child psychology) or build upon one another (biological and health
psychologist) can we understand and create e0ecve soluons when problems arise, so we have
a healthy body and a healthy mind” (Mcleod, S., 1970).]
References:
Mcleod, S. (1970, January 1). "Sigmund Freud's Theories." Simply Psychology.
Retrieved June 12, 2022, from h/ps://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-
Freud.html
Mcleod, S. (1970, January 1). "Psychology Perspecves." Simply Psychology.
Retrieved June 12, 2022, from
h/ps://www.simplypsychology.org/perspecve.html
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