First Name Last Name PSY120 Autobiographical Developmental Essay 31 July 2023 O

First Name Last Name
PSY120
Autobiographical Developmental Essay
31 July 2023
Oliver
The developmental period of interest for my essay is middle / late childhood, and I chose to focus on an 8-year old boy for whom I’ve chosen the pseudonym Oliver. Oliver is a healthy, active, and inquisitive child whose favorite activities include playing outside, drawing and painting, and writing movie scriipts. He tends to be very talkative at home with family members, but he is quite shy at school and hardly ever speaks during class. At recess, he usually plays imaginative games (e.g., make-believe) with another child who also is somewhat introverted.
One day at recess, Oliver and his friend decided to work together on the plot for a new movie they plan on filming. They spent recess talking about the storyline and writing out a scriipt. A group of boys in their class came up to them and asked them what they were doing. When Oliver explained, a boy from the group laughed and called them stupid. The group proceeded to make fun of Oliver and his friend, which upset both boys greatly. The next day at recess, Oliver’s friend asked if Oliver wanted to continue working on their scriipt, to which Oliver replied, “No way, that’s stupid.”
With regard to nature and nurture, I can see many influences of both biology and environment in Oliver’s love for and skills in writing. First, both of his biological parents are writers. Since Oliver has inherited his parents’ genes, there may be some biological influence. Additionally, he lives with his parents and observes them writing for work and for enjoyment in the home. This environmental influence also might shape Oliver’s own writing. With regard to stability and change, I think about how Oliver’s engagement in writing demonstrates stability, because he continues to write scriipts at home, but also change, because he stops writing at school around his peers. Regarding continuity and discontinuity, Oliver’s technical writing skills have shown continuity since earlier in development, from his learning the alphabet, to writing each letter on its own, to writing words and groups of words. However, there is also discontinuity, as Oliver is progressing through specific stages of cognitive and motor development. For example, at one point, he could not write at all, and now he can write full sentences.
The developmental theory I will discuss is Skinner’s Behavioral Theory. Skinner said that behavior that is reinforced or rewarded will be more likely to occur again in the future, and behavior that is not reinforced or punished will be less likely to occur. The peers’ response to Oliver (e.g., making fun of him) made Oliver’s writing at school less likely to occur. Oliver probably gets reinforcement at home for writing, which is why he keeps writing at home instead.