PSY311 Assignment 2 – LASA 1 – Assessment of Child’s Behavior

Assignment 2: LASA 1: Assessment of Child’s Behavior

Argosy University

For this assignment I chose to use Jayant or “Jay” for the case study. Jay is a seventeen-year-old Indian student that is in his last year of high school. He is in an accelerated program that has him taking multiple college courses. He never really had an interest in taking college courses, however his Father who is a bit controlling pressured him to take the college courses. His Father himself is actually a Professor of Physics at one of the colleges in their town. Jay is falling behind in some of his classes. He also doesn’t have much interaction with others his age. He spends a lot of time however watching other people and their interactions. He is a bit less mature than others his age, which makes it a bit difficult for him to make friends.

His Father doesn’t really encourage him either to make friends. He states that he is there to get an education and not to make friends. That he needs to have an education so that he can be successful. Jay’s lack of peer relationships tends to add to his stress, since he doesn’t really have a break away from his over bearing father and his excessive school load. The loss of his Mother has also taken a toll on him, and had she been alive she would be his saving grace from his Father.

His Father seems to take the Authoritarian approach to parenting him. This is more of a dictatorship, he is also very hard on him and criticizes him very harshly when he fails. This can have a very big impact on his self-esteem, as well as add added stress to his plate for fear that he will fail and disappoint his father. His Father also doesn’t encourage him to socialize, rather he would prefer him to steer away from it. Which makes it hard for him to develop with making friends his own age. Also, with the type of program that he is attending none of his peers are involved in. Beings that he is only 17 years old it would be very clear why it would be hard for him to make peers, due to the people he does see daily are much older and more mature than he is.

Jay’s Father being a professor at a local university adds another stressor because his father already has high expectations for his son and he adds much more pressure on him to be successful. His lack of social interaction and immaturity kind of makes him an odd ball. So, it more so makes it harder for him to make friends his own age and build those interpersonal relationships. However, he has started to volunteer at the Boys and Girls club as a part of a class assignment. He has really enjoyed doing so and has decided to continue to do so for his own enjoyment. This could be very beneficial one for his own mental and emotional wellbeing, but also for him to be able to make friends and work on those type of relationships. This could also be a great outlet for him since he doesn’t get that encouragement and support from his father to do so.

Jay’s behavior is excellent he is very obedient when it comes to his Father and his demands. He is very hard working and responsible and very willing to please his Father, which most 17-year-old can be very rebellious and not taking accelerated college courses. He is even doing volunteer work which is amazing. The only area of development that he seems to struggle with is that of making friends with his peers.

The three factors that seem to have the most impact on Jay are His Father, His School and His culture. Jay’s Father is very strict and uses the Authoritarian approach to parenting. According to Michigan State University Extension Authoritarian parenting is “because I told you so” parent who is likely to degrade a child and ignore the child’s point of view. (MSU Extension, 2017). This type of parenting is more of a set of rules that the child is supposed to follow, with no discussion or compromise.

Jay is currently enrolled in his final year of High School, as well an accelerated program where he takes a few college courses as well. This takes up much of his time and doesn’t allow him much time to socialize with his peers at school, since they are not in the program. As well as the students that are in college are much more mature than he is. So, it makes it hard for him to make friends. He also doesn’t get encouragement from his Father to make friends either.

Jay being so socially immature could be due to a large part of him being raised by a single father that has very strict rules and expectations for him. Especially since the death of his Mother. Since his Father is not very encouraging of him making friends, and family is the major one to establish socialization as a child. That is the major reason why is falls short in this category (Wilson, 2014). He really emphasizes to Jay that he is in school to learn and not to make friends. Which is making it very difficult for him to form these interpersonal relationships with his peers.

Jay’s environment is a very high pressure one. He is either at home where he is under his Father’s thumb and under a high amount of pressure to be successful, or he is at school where he feels like the odd ball due to not having any friends. Jays Father puts consistent pressure and is criticized harshly when he doesn’t preform to his Fathers standards. It has been told to him that had his Mother still been alive that she would be able to balance out his Father.

Jay’s role within his peer group is that he is the very smart over achiever that is taking college courses, which can make him somewhat of a misfit amongst them. Rather than interacting with his peers he just watches them. However, he has decided to stay within the volunteer program which can be great for him to work on making friends. This gives him the chance to be social and engage with people his own age, as well as be free from his very stressful school and home environment.

School is a great influence not just from an educational standpoint. This is where they can develop social relationships, guidance from other adults, moral traits, ethics and other responsibilities (Argosy,2016). In Jay’s school they don’t really recognize that he is falling behind in his socialization skills. Mostly because they probably recognize his hard work ethic and are very proud of how well he does academically. However, his volunteering is becoming a really great way for him to socialize. This is giving him the ability to feel apart of something that he doesn’t get to feel.