Unit 5 Group Project

Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority

During this stage, children start developing the following qualities:

· Pride in their accomplishments

· Initiative in projects, and drive to completion of these

· Basic ideas and concepts of technological artifacts

· Reconnaissance of their own abilities and skills

· Realize the importance of social interactions

Conforming the age of 6 thru early puberty (11-12), this stage is mostly influenced by the parents, teachers and figures to who the children look up to. This is mainly because these are the people who encourage children to start and finish their assigned tasks and this is when children start school beyond daycare, needing to put more conscious effort into what needs to be done and how. By completing the tasks they start, and postponing play and fun, they get a sense of productivity and this in turn motivates them and increases their feeling of self-worth.

If children are encouraged to enforce their initiative and put it to good use, they begin to feel confident and assured in their abilities and skills. If on the contrary, these initiatives are discouraged, the child feels inferior and does not foster initiative and can become a conformist. This lets them settle for less and they become more isolated and feel more incompetent, feeling incapable of success. (Winters, 2005)

I believe that the character that fits this description is SpongeBob Square pants.
He is a sea sponge made to resemble a kitchen sponge. He is a happy, naïve, innocent and friendly character.
He lives in a pineapple on 124 Conch Street in the Bikini Bottom with his pet snail Gary; and he is a fry cook at Krusty Krab restaurant, and he loves his job. He has won the employee of the month over 3,000 times, which he says is “a kajillion and six” times. He also attends Mrs. Puff's Boating School but has failed the boating test approximately 58 times.

His best friend is Patrick Star, with whom he enjoys activities such as catching jelly-fish, and usually gets into mischief, and usually involves innocently annoying his neighbor and co-worker Squidward. (Nick.com)

SpongeBob is extremely sweet and takes pride in his work. He has never been late to work, and enjoys practicing karate with his friend Sandy. He also likes to blow bubbles, surf, sun bathe, play the ukulele, watch his favorite TV show, The New Adventures of Mermaidman and Barnacleboy.

SpongeBob has not been able to pass the boating license test because he tends to get nervous once he is inside a boat. Nevertheless, he continues to pursue getting his boating license and continues to take class with his instructor Mrs. Puff.

He fits into the description because he takes extreme pride in his accomplishment and his job, he enjoys his social interactions with his few friends, strives to complete achieve his goals, in this case, getting a boating license. He is known by almost everybody in Bikini Bottom and this makes him feel acknowledged and even encouraged to continue with his job as a fry-cook.

Stage 5 - Identity vs. Role Confusion (or "Diffusion")

This stage takes place in the transition from childhood into young adulthood, approximately ages 11 to 18.

In this stage, while becoming more independent and self- reliant, children and teenagers tend to look at the future they desire career-wise, relationship-wise and they set their expectations of their selves. Not knowing what they want to do or where they want to be affects them deeply and leaves them with a sense of confusion as to their identity and their goals. (Winters, 2005)

Aside from their inner quest t find themselves, they are now also concerned with how they appear to others and how they come across as individuals in social interactions.

In their quest to find and identify their selves, friends and the experiences shared with them play a big role, as these serve as references and build on their personality and their identity.

I believe that a good example of this stage is Corey Mathews, main character in the teen sit-com Boy Meets World, which aired from 1993 thru 2000 for seven seasons.

Corey Mathews, played by actor Ben Savage, was a young boy, an 8^th grade student who is trying to deal with everyday life. His best friend is Shawn Hunter and they both dread their principal, Mr. Feeny. Overshadowed by his older brother Eric, who is a popular 10^th grade student, Corey is on the contrary, quite neurotic and slightly paranoid. Although Shawn at first was just as un-cool as Corey, becomes quite popular once they begin high school, yet still remains as Corey’s best friend. Corey later has a girlfriend, Topanga, whom he has known “since they were two”. (IMDb)

In the series, Corey Mathews evolves from boy to young man, going thru situations such as trying to make the basket ball team, being invited to parties, experiencing the first signs of puberty, running for class president, trying to cut school, dealing with bullies, and trying to manage their way into the mysterious and unknown world of girls. Throughout all these incidents and situations, one can appreciate Corey’s growing personality and maturity. He learns to do the right thing over the easy thing, he learns who are his true friends, and slowly finds his own identity and comes to terms with it. (BWM Central)

Corey progresses and graduates from high school and decides to go to Pennbrooke for college. He is joined by Shawn and Topanga, who is now Corey’s girlfriend refused to go to Yale in order to stay close to Corey.

At this point in the series the characters are more mature and have grown into what would be Stage 6.

Works Cited

BWM Central. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2008, from BMW Central: http://www.angelfire.com/celeb2/bmw87/Epguide.html

IMDb. (n.d.). Retrieved November 8, 2008, from IMDb: http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0105958/plotsummary

Nick.com. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2008, from Nick.com: http://www.nick.com/all_nick/tv_supersites/characters.jhtml?show_id=spo&character=Spongebob

Winters, A. (2005, March 10). Ezine Articles. Retrieved November 6th, 2008, from Ezine Articles: http://ezinearticles.com/?Ericksons-Theory-of-Human-Development&id=20117

Jessica A. Aybar
Unit 3 Discussion Board
Psych 205

“Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness”. These are listed as the inalienable right of men, by the constitution of the United States of America. As we have seen previously, people’s actions are motivated by two things: to eliminate any displeasure or pain; and to obtain pleasure and happiness. Bearing this thought in mind, it makes perfect sense to have a branch in psychology, the study of mind and behavior; devoted to the research and advancement of what motivates, inspires individuals, communities and societies and makes them thrive.
Positive Psychology is defined as the field of psychology that focuses on researching and developing ways to enhance the positive ways of thinking and acting in order to enhance people’s lives, health and overall well-being.
In the year 2000, the magazine American Psychologist published an article on this field: “The study of positive emotion, positive character, and positive institutions” (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000).

Since then, this branch of psychology has evolved and there has been considerable advance in this field.
It is based on three main ideas: Positive Emotions, Positive Characters and Positive Institutions.
These are to be applied to the past, present and future, so as to have positive emotions in regards, to one’s past, positive character to build a positive present, and positive institutions to serve as guidelines for our future.
It also bases itself on six main virtues which can be found all across different cultures: Wisdom, Courage, Humanity, Justice, Temperance, and Transcendence.

So far, research has come to the conclusion that although there is no magic formula for happiness, with the help of positive psychology, an individual who is willing and applies positive principle to his/her life, experiences higher levels of happiness and decreased depression levels as well.

I believe that the study, research and advance in this field will help us grasp a better understanding of mental illnesses and depression, and can help improve the quality of people’s lives.


References:

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/images/apaarticle.pdf

http://www.apa.org/apags/profdev/pospsyc.html

http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx