[Your full April 4, Part The adolescent, Joey, was aged 13. He replied, “The wife would havedied if Heinz was not kind enough to steal the medicine for her. It was only his love that made him do so and the druggist should have been kind enough to consider.” This reply made me put Joey in stage 3 of moral development which is about conventional morality or good interpersonal relationships. Joey was all the time thinking about the kindness, love and care of the husband and selfishness of the druggist.
To him, morality was more than everything and he expected people to be good to each other. He was more concerned about the persons’ character and emotions toward each other which made me decide to put him in stage 3. Part 2 The adolescent was in stage 2 of identity foreclosure. What made me decide this was his reply: “My mother has always wanted me to become a doctor so I guess I am going to pursue this career. She says doctors make a lot of money and she so much wants me to get into medicine.
” When a child prefers others’ choices for himself, he is in identity stage 2 (Berger). Joey did not seem to have explored all the career options nor was he very much acquainted with other career fields because he had always in his mind that he had to grow up to be a doctor as per his mother’s wishes. Joey was excited and satisfied about his career choice. Part 3 Joey’s parents exhibit an authoritative style of parenting. Joey replied, “Dad would say…look, staying out at late hours is not good…because Sammy (younger brother) would also do the same then.
And mommy would say she was going to miss me.” This reply made me decide that his parents were authoritative rather than authoritarian because they presented logics in front of him regarding why they did not want him to come home late at night. Their rules were strict but they made Joey understand why he had to obey the rule rather than just imposing orders upon him without making him comprehend the logic behind. Joey seemed to understand his parents’ instructions which meant that he was ready to obey them.
Obedience and good communication is the biggest positive outcome of authoritative style of parenting. Part 4 Yes, I can draw a correlation between Joey’s moral stage, identity stage and his parents’ parenting style. The relationship between the three stages is that Joey gave much importance to emotions, feelings and character rather than following the social order. He supported Heinz act because to him, love was more important than fearing for punishment. He chose medicine as career because he wanted to fulfill his mother’s wishes since he loved her and he wanted to come up to her expectations.
These behavioral patterns are a result of his parents’ parenting style who presented logics in front of him rather than imposing orders. Joey understood the logic behind his mother’s wish to become a doctor when he said, “She says doctors make a lot of money.” And he understood the logic behind his father’s instruction to stay at home when he said, “Dad says Sammy would do the same.” Thus, his moral development and identity stage are exactly related to his parents’ parenting style.
Works Cited Berger, Kathleen Stassen. The Developing Person Through the Life Span. USA: Worth Publishers, 2007.
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