An overview of HD 101

I must say that i have thoroughly enjoyed taking HD 101 under Dr. Witte. Like I have stated in my previous blog, there are so many things that I have learned in this class. From child development to life satisfaction in older age; you name, I learned about it! One thing I will take away from this class is that humans are very complex creatures. They are no set guidelines are we develop who we are. There are many theories that state the typical and atypical ways that a person may develop. Humans, although we are hard to understand, are very interesting to study. As long as we populate and dominate this Earth, we are going to need classes such as this to help understand the simple yet complicated evolution and development of man-kind. 

The Development of Little Children

One thing that interested most about this course was how I was able to learn all about the development of children. I realized that a child's brain is both a complicated and yet a very simple subject to understand. Children obliviously think like adults do. Their view of the world is so innocent. That is so beautiful to me. One thing that interested me the most was how children go through the process of self-development and self-identification since they were infants. For some children, their idea of self-identification can come as early as 1 1/2, maybe 2 years old. The are so many things that I have learn about child development that is hard to just pin-point a few things. The theories of child development are very informative as well. Piaget's and Vygotsky theories on child development may differ, but they are similar in many ways as well. One thing i have learned in this class is that the way a child develops is a pretty good indicator of the adult they will soon become. 

"Because I said so..."

In chapter 7 we discuss how important family was to a developing child/adolescents. We spoke about how family systems as a whole effect and impact everyone involved. We also spoke about different styles of parenting. Based on your parenting style- if you are a parent- will greatly effect you child's attachment style to the world around him/her. If you were raised by a certain parent style, take some time now to determine how that effects the way you see yourself and connect with the world around you. The four main parenting styles are:

"•Authoritarian parenting

•High control with little warmth

•Hard work, respect, and obedience are encouraged

•There is little give-and-take and parents do not explain their decisions

•

•Authoritative parenting

•Control with warmth and responsiveness

•They explain rules and encourage

•Children of indulgent-permissive parents are often impulsive and easily frustrated

•Children of indifferent-uninvolved parents often have low self-esteem, and are aggressive, impulsive, and moody  

I was raised with a mixed of Authoritarian, Authoritative and Indifferent-univolved parent styles. As you can imagine, I had alot to nagivate through in life. Just from my personal experiences, an Authoritarian parent style works best to produce independent and conscious minded  and considerate children. 

'They're just senile, sweetie.'

I know that title looks so odd to many of you(well mainly because it is.) But have you ever heard your parents or someone your know say something similar to this? I hear this all the time. I have heard this so much that I have come to associate memory loss and old age together. This frightens me because I would hate for my memory to decline as I age. I have an excellent memory and that is some I pride myself on. But as we get older Dementia is something that we have to take an account. It can strike at any moment in our golden years. "•Dementia is a family of diseases that results in serious behavioral and cognitive impairments(Dr. T. Witter, HD 101-005, 2014 )."We discussed in class how tangles in our brains' neurons begin to form. These tangles become to form from old, dying cells and soon they begin to interpret the flow of communication to other healthy neurons. The more tangles a person's brain has, the more they are at risk for developing any form of Dementia. 

 One of the most common forms of Dementia is Alzheimer's Disease. I have seen the effects of this horrible disease first hand and it is not pretty. My paternal great-aunt was afflicted by this disease and it was heart breaking to see her lose everything because of this disease. Alzheimer's Disease is characterized by memory decline, mental confusion and major changes in personality.  The risk of developing this disease increases as we age. Another form of Dementia is one that has been brought by the onset of a stroke. My maternal grandfather is starting to show some signs of Dementia brought on by his two strokes. It hurts when you see someone you love slowly start to lose their memory. This is a very tough stage for an older person to go through. In the long run, everyone is affected. 

x

'Live long and prosper...'

All my Star Trek fans out there know that those sage words were spoken by none other than Spock himself. (This is the only think I know about Star Trek, but I digress. :P). I like this quote alot and when I was going over chapter 13, I immediately thought about this saying and made the connection between it and longevity. It's no secret that older people are living longer in the 21st century than ever before. Longevity is the number of years that a person can live. As we discussed in class, there are many other ways to calculate longevity. Some of this techniques include: 

"•Average life expectancy is the age at which half the people born in a particular year will have died•Useful life expectancy is the number of years a person is free from debilitating chronic disease
•Maximum life expectancy is the oldest age to which any person lives(Dr. T. Witte, HD 101-005, 2014)"

Longevity is also greatly influenced by your hereditary, environment, lifestyle and social class. I find the idea of living a longer life so awesome! New medical technological advances have also added years to certain people lives as well. It think that it is amazing how older age has been completely redefined in the last few years. Just because you have gotten older, does not me you stop living. 

'You're making-up that scenario.'

I know that everyone likes to imagine what their life could have been like or what they want their life to people. It is fun to imagine, dream and come up with a creative story-line for how your life should go. In chapter 10-Physical, Cognitive and Socioemotional Development in Young adults, we discussed the concepts of  life story, life-span construct, social clock, scenario,  and possible selves. These concepts all have the same basic theme; they all involve constructed plans that often time will follow a time-line in order for these events to occur. A life-span construct is the unity among many young adults feel with the past, present and future. Social clock is a personal timeline whereby certain or expected life events will occur. For instance, one of my goals on my social clock is to be married before I am 25, have two kids and my PhD. before I am 30. A scenario is basically a thought or expectation of the future. I know for myself that I have developed certain scenarios about how my future and future career will manifest themselves. The concept of possible selves, like I explained earlier, is the thought of what all young adults could be in the future. I definitely can say that I have a strong sense of my possible self. I am a creative person by nature and I like to see how many things I can 'put my hand to' , so to speak. After all, there is nothing wrong with dreaming, right? 

Violence and Relationships.....

In chapter 11 we discussed forming relationship at young and middle adulthood. One of the topics we discussed was that of  relationship violence. There is domestic violence that is called intimate terrorism. It is the violence we have seen on shows like Dr. Phil and various Lifetime movies. It is more real than we think and according to the class PowerPoint, violence occurs in about 25 to 40 percent in imitate relationships. The other type of violence is common couple violence. Although it is called 'common couple violence', does not necessarily mean that it is excusable. This relationship violence differs from intimate terrorism as it does not happen frequently. Intimate terrorism that is used by one partner and done to another seeks to alienate the abused party from his/her family and friends. You can think of common couple violence as an heated argument that a couple may have every now again.  Common couple violence could include cussing, throwing, hitting and various other aggressive behavior. In my own personal opinion, both forms of couple violence is serious enough to get the authorities involved and for the relationship to be terminated. The line between common couple violence vs into intimate terrorism is so thin that the former can transform into the latter. That definitely gives you something to think about, doesn't it?



Since I love taking these online quizzes, I figured I suggest one that anyone can take. Click the link below to test whether you are in an abusive relationship or not...

http://alcoholism.about.com/od/abuse/a/blquiz3.htm

'I WANT a divorce!'

I know you all are looking at the title and thinking, "wait, isn't she too young to be married, anyway?" Well you all can take a HUGE sigh of relief because I am neither married nor I am seeking a divorce. I have heard these words uttered my mother about 6 years ago and I must say, as a child of divorce, it changes your life forever.  In chapter 11-"Forming Relationships in Young and Middle adulthood-we discussed the topic of divorce. We all know that divorce is a dissolution of marriage that affects the couple's finances , family members and children. I remember that very touching video we watched on how divorce affects children and I was very moved by it. I remember feeling those same emotions when my parents separated and divorced. I wanted to have the courage that those children had to tell their parents how their truly felt. Although, my situation was a different one(I was happy to see my parents' marriage come to an end, but the aftermath was traumatic and too graphic to go through in detail here), I still felt those same emotions. As we discussed in class, divorce can come about if a couple has 'fallen out of love' or have 'grown apart'. Some divorces are direct results of drug use by one of both partners. Divorce can also occur when they are money issues, abuse and infidelity. Divorces rates differ among different, ethnicities, socio-economical class and age groups. Regardless of those differences, divorces may be easier to obtain, but not easy to go through. 

(I think the picture below sums up how I feel about divorce and how I felt about my parents' divorce....)

I am dealing with that Pause-O-Mena!

'The change of life, the begging of the end, the end of the curse, or as my mom hilariously calls it 'that Pause'o Mena'. All of these nicknames refer to Menopause. In the last few chapters we discussed in class, we went over the aging process. One of the first things we went over was about Menopause. I decided to write a blog about this because, as a young lady, this concerns me. I want to live a long, happy and fulfilled  life and someday(but not any day soon) I will face this change.  Menopause is when a woman goes through a process where her body begins to change and where she can no longer conceive or bear children. Some symptoms of this bodily change are headaches, hot flashes, night sweats, irritability and many others.

Although Menopause sounds unpleasant(for some women), it is expected for women to go through 'the change' beginning at their late 30s and starting at their late 40s and 50s.  I believe that a woman's attitude towards 'the change of life' either improves her symptoms or worsens them. I have known some women who look forward to going through menopause and embrace it rather than reject it. These women feel that their lives are not over, but just a new chapter of it has begun. The media depicts this delicate time in a woman's life as a hectic, emotional, and dreadful. I personally believe it doesn't have to be unless you allow it to be.
Below are some video clips dealing with the media depictions and actualization of what menopause is....and they are hilarious too.

(The 0:07 is the funniest part of the commercial, in my opinion.)

The Huxtable kids get punk'd by their mother Claire! She schools them on what menopause is! 

So, everyone is looking at me like an actor, huh?

In class we went over ch. 9-"Emotional Development in Adolescent. I found that most adolescents think completely different than adults but are actually of age to start reasoning like adults. One concept that peaked my interest was the 'imaginary audience'. This concept basically means that teenagers feel that every thing they do-whether it be good, bad or otherwise- is known. They feel that they are being watched and that people can see every little thing they do. The analogy that was presented in class was that these adolescents feel like they are being watched, like actors. I can definitely remember when I was a teenager and I felt that everything I did was seen by the public. I thought people knew about secretive activities I participated in(good or bad). I also remember feeling that other people knew things about me that I did not. Needless to say, teenage years are not the easy years for anyone to go through.

Another concept that was about of chapter nine was that of 'adolescent ego-centrism and ' personal fable'. Adolescent ego-centrism means that adolescents are very focused on themselves. The personal fable concept states that adolescents feel their personal experiences and feelings are unique and unlike like anyone else's in the world. Because of this fact; they may feel that many cannot relate to them or understand them. I can recall that I demonstrated both of these concepts in my adolescents. I was very focused on how I felt and how I felt my life was going and I believe that no one could understand my various circumstances. Whenever I went through rough patches in my life, I though no one could have had it tougher than me! It was hard for me to conceive and grasp the fact that other people may have a harder existence than I did at the time.