One Current Event Reaction Statement Pertaining To Psychology in the News - Essay Example

The world today has a lot to say about abnormal situations and consequences involving teenagers and adolescents. Many youngsters today are associated to several acts of suicidal attempts even to the extent of deliberately killing themselves. Some of the possible reasons might be an unresolved conflict on a particular developmental stage of a person wherein it was left unaddressed and continuously worsens their psychosocial conditions. In a recent study, it was revealed that most of the adolescents who committed suicide had their first attempt prior to entering high school.

In a parallel result, it revealed that there was a peak increase on suicidal cases on ages 12, most probably on a sixth grade, and 9th grade to be two of the most critical points. Seen this way, the psychological implications are to be associated with competence and fidelity which relatively cover the entirety of this topic. How can we link this particular study to these two stages? The results of the survey suggest that these cases of suicidal attempts are very common to ages 6 to 12 and 12 to 18.

Now, the first stage can be related to competence. One of the psychosocial crises pertains to competence wherein a child, whose age is from 6 to 12 years old, is still starting to develop his perception about industry and responsibility. This is one of the most critical stages of the psychosocial development because it is during this time that we establish awareness of self. Children at this age are starting to understand practicality through ways that they perceived to be logical and sensible.

Also, during this stage, children are starting to develop their talents; they become more adept to different learning and acquiring new skills such as drawing, painting, doing the arithmetic, reading and writing. 2 In addition, they also develop a clearer sense of morality and ethics that make them more aware about cause and effect and the goodness and badness of a certain act. Further, it is also during this stage that children develops the attitude of differing to any instructions and they become disobedient to any commands – be it coming from their parents, elders and the like.

At this stage, accomplishments and compliments should go hand in hand. If children accomplish something and were given compliment, it makes them more confident and it improves their self-esteem and they become more diligent and industrious. In contrast, disapproval or showing discontent to any of their accomplishment or their failures perhaps would leave them a mark of criticism and this develops negative thoughts in their ego and they develop depression, incompetence and inferiority. For example, when a teacher disapproves a certain project made by her student, it will bring a negative impression towards the student and this particular child would develop frustrations that will lead to incompetence, guilt and shyness and he will feel some sort of isolation from other children.

Seen this way, this can be a possible triggering factor of suicidal attempts since they become frustrated and they feel like they are not important and they do not do something helpful. During these times, there will be a failure to the development of their self-esteem. In other words, they will develop deficient motivations and they become lethargic. Moving further, it has also been mentioned above that this particular medical study can also be associated to fidelity. Children of ages 12 to 18 years old are starting to think about their purpose in life.

They start to form their ideals in life and they start to think about how their current abilities will become useful to the society. They strive to give meaning to their lives and 3 they become very zealous in finding for their life’s own meaning. Sadly, most children of this age experience the so-called Identity Crisis wherein they do not seem to know what they want. They are terribly confused and as a result they get depressed and heavily frustrated. Because of our diverse and hostile environment, these factors tend to divert our focus into aligning ourselves and the way we see ourselves to what is common and usual.

For this reason, children becomes guilty and they start to create an innate disability to express themselves freely because they do not seem to react the same way as the way they should naturally react to their environment. To make this clear, let us take for example a child who grew up in a rural area. Understandably, this child, because of limited opportunities, had no chance to use high-tech devices like Ipads, Iphones, XboX, etc. Eventually, he moved to an urban area to study. Most likely, what will happen is that, he will experience culture shock because of the great difference there is in his previous environment with his present environment.

As a result, most of the time, the child would strive hard to conform to the norms of the people around him, even if this would be very difficult for him. In cases where these children are rejected, it creates a barrier between them and the other children. This isolation will most likely develop into depression and can be a positive cause of suicide attempts. Finally, if these stage problems are not being resolved, this will create a very serious problem. Study shows that these stages are the most critical phases of the psychosocial development of a certain person.

Children become a rebel and they deviate to the society which encourages them to commit suicide due to lack of motivation, low self-esteem and poor positive outlook. If these stage problems will not be addressed, it would even erase their future. Reference: “40 Percent Of Youths Attempting Suicide Make First Attempt Before High School”. Medicalnewstoday.com. medicalnewstoday, n.d. Web. 2 December 2011