The purpose of life development is to allow the world to cultivate with divergent personalities as it continues to grow. Different personalities allow the world to flourish in all areas of life and allow the world to continue to evolve throughout time. There are several factors that help to develop a person’s identity, morality, faith, and psychosocial skills. I will discuss the how the experiences and the people who surrounded me throughout my life impacted how I formed my identity into what it is now.
I will also discuss how those experiences helped lead me to where I currently am in each stage of my faith, my moral development, and my psychosocial development. I will also discuss what life events have had an impact on how I grew into the women I currently am. The life experiences and the age of a person will determine exactly what their current stage pertaining to their faith, morality, and psychosocial development. Erik Erickson was a theorist who wrote about the different psychosocial development stages.
Basically for each age group he specified there was a specific conflict that was universal along with universal events that happen during this time frame. Erickson zoned in on what specifically took place on a psychosocial level during these age groups. Specifically during my life I am sitting in the Psychosocial stage 6- intimacy vs. Isolation (CITE: http://psychology. about. com/od/ psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial_3. htm). Specifically this is targeting early adulthood and identifying personal relationships that are developing into permit relationships.
Identity is believed to create a strong sense of personal identity when developing these intimate relationships (cite: http:// psychology. about. com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/ psychosocial_3. htm) direct quote). I fall within this category because I am of the age of 26 years old and specifically I am focused in my life on securing my relationship with my husband. Secondly, I am starting to build my life with my husband, for example, buying a house together. During all these transitions, I am also trying to make sure I am not losing my identity of who | am while I am merging my life with his.
Find ways to create a successful relationship in my life is extremely important because I do believe that it does have an effect on other areas of my life. Eventually as I growl anticipate that my relationship and identity will become second nature and they will merge together without any issues as I evolve into the next phase of my life. Lawrence Kohlberg was a theorist who specialize in the theory of morality. Kohlberg became known for his work on moral development. Kohlberg was able to observe the different stages moral development that a person encountered at certain ages in their life.
After reviewing the theory Kohlberg has written in regards to the different stages, I would say that I am currently sitting in stage B. Conventional Morality. Under this umbrella, | would fall within Stage 4: Law and Order (Societal Conformity): the Good Citizen (CITE: http://pegasus. cc. ucf. edu/~ncoverst/ Kohlberg’s%20Stages%20of%20Moral%20Development. htm). I would say that I am currently at this stage in my life because I understand what is right from wrong. Secondly, I also highly respect law enforcement and believe that there are laws set into place for safety reasons.
I also, do believe that everyone needs to follow these rules or consequences will have to be faced regardless of who you are. Lastly, I highly respect those who should be respected and do it without question. I believe that there are certain customs to follow along with the rules and policies to follow. All in all, the moral development of each person will be different for everyone and it will continue to change as I grow in my life. James Fowler was a theorist who wrote about the different stages of faith development in life.
As | have grown I have passed several different stages of faith development. I am currently sitting at Stage 4 of faith development according to Fowlers chart. First, the main reasons I fall into this category is because of my age a young adult and have not quite reached the age of 30 yet to go into stage 5, so, therefore, I am still considered to be a young adult. During this stage, it is called individual-reflective stage (Cite: file:///C:/Users/ missamber301/Downloads/RC210_Fowler. pdf).
Fowler stated that during this stage a person is to understand and accept a higher level of commitment to ideals, and responsibilities – intrinsic reasonability (CITE: file:///C:/Users/missamber301/ Downloads/RC210_Fowler. pdf). I can definitely confirm that I do have a high understand of commitment for I have many responsibilities to demonstrate that along with the commitment to my work, my child and my work. Secondly, I also understand the meaning of identifying especially my own. I believe I know exactly who I am and who I want to be as I grow in my life.
Thirdly, I have left my parents home ten years ago and I am completely independent and have my own way of living my life. I have my own values, my own beliefs, my own morals and ethics to follow. In the end I believe I am exactly where I am supposed to be when pertaining to the development of my faith. As a child, I was raised by the traditional standards of a two parent household, with both parents working. My family did, however, move a considerable amount of times throughout my childhood. The different cultures allowed me to be open to diversity and allowed me to just gain an understanding of how unique people truly are in their own way.
Experiencing different towns, cities, and parts of the country allowed me to gain an understanding of how different life truly is for everyone. The second life event that impacted my life direction is when I had a child when I was fresh out of high school. As a result of having a child, I grew up to become an adult and accelerated my plans on maturing at a faster rate. I immediately went into the world to find a job and started attending college. I wanted a better life to help raise my child. I knew my child deserved a role model who would provide what she needed in life.
I did not want my child to have to suffer in this world because I failed to be responsible. I took responsibility for my actions and made a long term plan to find in order to be able to financially and mentally support for her. Although, it sounded so easy to find an adequate job to financially support my child it was extremely hard and I struggled in several ways. Lastly, my third major experience in my life was when I married a man who belongs to the army. There is also the part where most wife’s typically go through their spouse being deployed.
This is one of the scariest experiences in my life. Eventually, though this experience just becomes a memory and the skills you developed to make your life and your marriage stronger. I always struggled then with the thought of what could happen to my husband and I still do. It scares me to know that something bad could happen to my family. It is almost a strength test of how strong your relationship is to both your spouse and to god. These experiences and the people in my life have helped me to develop a life path to follow because essentially they are a part of me.
In conclusion, these events and people help to provide solace to me in all aspects of my life because I know that no matter what I will continue to blossom in life. In summary, a person’s life plan cannot be scripted nor is it defined, it is different for everyone. How each person comes into their own journey to follow throughout their life is the choice and the path that god guides them through. In my life, I had several events throughout my childhood that helped to shape who I become as a young adult.
I, therefore, continued to prosper as a young adult when I entered into motherhood. My life path has continued to prosper as I have merged my life with my husbands. As a person grows into each stage of their life’s they will fall within a certain stage of Erickson, Kohlberg, and Fowler theories. No stage is either right or wrong; they are just to help theorize what stage a person is in their life. Each stage is unique to each person. As I continue to grow in my life and flourish I can only hope that I continue to develop both morally, mentally and physically.
