Life Span Development and Personality of Jane Fonda - Research Paper Example

Abstract This paper enlightens the brief history of Fonda Jane an American well known actress and political activists. Fonda experienced many troubles and criticism in her life because of her anti-American activity. In the paper two personality theories are applied on Fonda's life. One is a Biological theory and other is a Humanistic theory. Fonda the acting talent from her family and her poetical views and socio work are based according to the humanistic theory. Jane Fonda (21st Dec 1937), an American lady with multidimensional role in the America history, is known as an actress, fashion model, fitness guru, political activist, and writer. She is daughter of legendry screen star Henry Fonda and American socialist Frances Ford Seymour Brokaw. She started her acting career with the charity performance of The Country Girl in 1954. Her first cinematic appearance was (at age 22) a comedy tall story in 1960s and she earned fame with this movie. After that she had done famous movies like Barbarella and Cat Ballou. She won Oscars for her roles in Klute (1971) and coming home (1978). She often appears as a single woman due to problematic relations. She married Roger Vadim in 1965 but divorced in 1973 and in the same year married Tom Hayden but divorced in 1989, after two years in 1991 she married Ted Turner but again divorced in 2001… that’s why she always plays as a single woman role in her life. She engaged in political activities in 1960s. She started her political career by supporting the civil rights movement. She also opposed the Vietnam War. She exhibited many anti-war activities to oppose the Vietnam War. With Donald Sutherland (in April 1970), she answered Bob Hope's USO tour by playing the play the "FTA (free the army) tour" and "fuck the army" an anti-war side show. In 1972 she spoke out against the war in a rally organized in Pennsylvania by Vietnam Veterans against the war (VVAW). She also raised funds for the VVAW. For her efforts she was also honored with the title of Honorary National Coordinator. Many controversies arose about her visit to Hanoi in 1972. As Fonda actively and outspokenly opposed the war in 1972 and was photographed by sitting in North Vietnamese anti-craft tank, essentially supporting the enemies. She after that apologized for the photographs and stated her action as 'incredible lapse in judgment'. When she signed her book in Kansas City, she again apologized for her mistake and for hurting the people. She was strictly condemned by a 19 years old army soldier, Smith, who remarked about her in strict words by saying her as a traitor and claimed that she did nothing with the Government but only slaps on our faces and now have never ending war with us. In 1978 Fonda visited Hanoi as a part of Peace Delegation. There she examined that the American prisoners were receiving lenient and humane treatment from their captors. But here the true picture of captors was not declared. When prisoners were released then they told about the torture from the captors. Then Fonda strictly spoke against those released prisoners and called them hypocrites and liar. She further charged them as military careerists and professional killers who are telling lie for their self interest and to make them righteous but only they are legally war criminals. Fonda apologized for her wrong spoken talks during Vietnam War and criticized herself as a lack of good judgment. She talked about Canada, her acting career, her three unsuccessful marriages and war in Iraq, she clearly express the fact that the campaign turned the world anti-America. In 1972, as Fonda criticized American government so many Americans did not accept her two face apology. Developmental psychology of Jane Fonda Developmental psychology/human psychology is about the systematic psychological changes that occurs in human being over the course of her/his life span. In developmental psychology the main questions to be answer are: Is development is due to genetics or environment? Is the development changing process slow and smooth, is it occurs in stages? Which factors have greater impact on development; early childhood or later events in life? The first question is basically related to the nature vs., nurture debate. It is one of the oldest debates not only in psychology but also in philosophy. Some of the famous philosophers like Plato and Descartes says that some of the aspects of the human behavior are inborn that is they inherited them. But some of them came up with the concept of tabula Rosa. It means that mind id a blank slate at the time of birth the environment and only the experiences are responsible for the human development. But most of the psychologist says it is the interaction between these two factors-genetics and environment, that development. If we study the case of Jane Fonda, it is true that both hereditary adoption and environment acceptance are the major cause of her development. Two major factors in her personality, acting and social interest are adopted from her mother nature. Henry Fonda, father of Jane Fonda, was also a famous actor and in his school life ha was an active member of Boy Scout of America. Frances Ford Seymour, mother of Jane Fonda, is also a socialite. Jane Fonda, an Oscar award winner, also got fame in her acting career and also an activist in social issues. The family environment she examined also let her towards acting and social activities. The second question-is the development changing process is slow and smooth, is it occurs in stages, can be answered with the debate of continuity vs. discontinuity. This debate is about whether the development is solely/evenly continuous or it is marked by age specific period. The psychologist who supports the continuous model describes the development as a restively smooth process. It doesn't bother the sharp and distinct stages through which an individual can pass. The supporters of discontinuous model gave the idea of discrete stages in which the development occurs. Each stage is characterized by at least one task that an individual must accomplish before progressing to the next stage. Freud named these stages as; oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital. When we study the case of Jane Fonda, she was 12 when her mother died. She in her early childhood observed misunderstandings between her parents. Her mother commuted suicide when she was at the age of 12. Soon after her mother death, Henry Fonda again married with a young girl, Susan Blanchard, only 10 years older than Jane Fonda. Susan proved to be a good mother for Jane Fonda but when Jane was in her late teens her father divorced Susan. The psychologists argue that the children from the divorced family perceive themselves as more promiscuous. Her parents break up also influence her school and college life. Jane Fonda School and college life is not so appreciating. She always got into troubles in school. She never interested in studies. Now to answer the third question i.e. which experiences have greater impact on one's life, early childhood experience or later events? Most of the psychoanalytic theories suggest that the childhood experiences have much greater impact then the later events. Freud gave the idea that a major part of child's personality develop in early five years. Many psychologists slightly go against this theory when they argue that in childhood one experiences abusive life then there are chances that he can develop into well-adjusted adult by his later experiences. As said by Jane Fonda" you get a little wiser as you get older". She also as a fitness expert argued that as you get older it is necessary to stay active. Now it can be realize easily that Jane Fonda's personality developed with the later experiences in her life. Her personality is influenced gradually by the relation between her parents. References Aid and comfort; Jane Fonda in north Vietnam, Henry Mark Holzer & Ericka Holzer, McFarland publishers, 2002. Erica l. String fellow, Francis T. Mc Andrew, journal of college student development, Vol 51, number 5, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Sep/Oct 2010. Fonda Jane, My life so far, 2005, Random house, New York. Hershberger, Mary. Peace work, war myths: Jane Fonda and the antiwar movement, Vol 9, no 3&4, July 2006. Suzanne Harrington, A Woman Of Certain Age, Irish Examiner.com, Dec 18, 2010. Read More