Analysis of adjustment issues and strategies aimed at enhancing them can be done based on real stories. Two articles were chosen to conduct the case study. The analysis of the stories and the modern strategies of enhancing adjustment skills help to find the most appropriate solution for the heroes’ adjustment issues.
Summary of the articles
The first article tells us a story about the relationships between Anny Penna and Johny Penna. Both of the heroes used to be members of the U.S. military and met each other when they were stationed in Arizona. Later, they got married and had kids. Anny left the military while Johny volunteered to deploy to Afghanistan. His decision had a dramatic impact on relationships in his family. After Johny’s coming back, Anny noticed huge changes in his personality. Johny felt empty after the war and could not adjust to normal life. His behavior and perception of the family changed. However, after divorce, the couple managed to remain good friends. They live in New Jersey within walking distance from each other and meet twice a week. Anny works as an intelligence analyst, and Johny is finishing law school. Though the couple does not live together, they still care about each other.
The second article tells us a story about Gwen Moten, who lost her best friend Denise during the attack on a black Baptist Church by the Ku Klux Klan in 1963. Gwen and Denise were very close friends and had intimate relationships. Gwen remembers their last farewell before the murder happened. The woman recalls that attacks on black homes and businesses were frequent when she was a child. She states that the shooting in the church in South Carolina made her recall the experience of losing a friend in childhood.
Major adjustment issues discussed in the stories
Adjustment involves processes aimed at establishing an optimal relationship with the environment. Both articles present stories about people who have a lack of adjustment skills.
Johny Penna, a hero of the first story, had trouble adjusting to the normal environment after coming back from the war. Instead of happiness, he felt “that life was meaningless,” and had “an uncontrollable sense of dread and sadness” (Two Marines, one deployment and the end of a marriage, 2015). He could not adjust to the fact that the war is over for him, and life goes on.
Gwen Moten, a hero of the second story, had problems with adjusting to normal life after her friend was murdered during the attack on the church. The woman remembers these events clearly and still cannot get over them. She felt the pain when she heard about the shooting in the church in South Carolina “because it stays within you” (Charleston stirs memories of young Birmingham bombing victim, 2015).
Strategies enhancing adjustment skills
There are numerous strategies enhancing adjustment skills. Berking, Caspar, Meier, Orth, and Wupperman (2008) conducted a research to find out whether deficits in emotion regulation skills are a cause or a consequence of poor adjustment (p. 485). The research has shown that emotion regulation deficits are not a consequence of poor adjustment. On the contrary, “fostering emotion regulation skills” can help to enhance adjustment skills and prevent “affect-related mental health problems” related to the inability of a person to adjust to stress and current environment (Berking et al., 2008, p. 492).
Therefore, a strategy of developing the ability to control emotions could help Johny Penna to enhance adjustment skills. Another strategy that could help Johny is employing methods developing high self-control. Baumeister, Boone, and Tangney (2004) investigated such strategy during their research and found out that capacity for self-control “should be powerfully adaptive” and is one of the main keys to the ability to adjust to the environment. Ano and Vasconcelles (2005) conducted another research and found out that “positive religious coping strategies” are directly associated with “psychological adjustment variables” (p. 477). Therefore, a strategy aimed at encouraging Johny to get positive religious experience could help him to develop adjustment skills.
Gwen Moten could also enhance adjustment skills by using the strategy of fostering emotion-regulation skills. Besides, positive religious coping strategies could help her. The research conducted by Ben, Diekstra, Gravesteijn, Ritter, and Sklad (2012) proved the effectiveness of school-based programs aimed at developing social and emotional skills in ensuring students’ ability to adjust to the environment (p. 892). Therefore, the strategy of participating in such school programs could help Gwen Moten to overcome her stressful experience at a young age and promote her adjustment skills.
Best suited strategies for the heroes of the articles
It appears that the strategy employing methods developing high self-control is the best suited for Johny. Johny’s inability to adjust to stress experienced during the war and the normal social environment mostly affected his family life. If he could control his feelings and put much effort into supporting a positive mood, his family members would experience less negative effects of his post-war psychological state. Therefore, high self-control can become the key to Johny’s ability to adjust to common life and improve relationships in the family.
In my opinion, the use of the strategy fostering emotion-regulation skills is the best choice for Gwen Moten. Developing the ability to take control of negative emotions connected with stressful experiences could contribute to her better stress adjustment. In such a way, she could overcome her negative past experience and learn to live with it in the current environment without experiencing more stress.
Studying modern strategies of enhancing adjustment skills helps to find effective ways of overcoming current problems experienced by heroes and promote their ability to adjust to the environment.
References
Ano, G. G., & Vasconcelles, E. B. (2005). Religious coping and psychological adjustment to stress: A meta-analysis. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 61(4), 461-480. Web.
Baumeister, R. F., Boone, A. L., & Tangney, J. P. (2004). High self-control predicts good adjustment, less pathology, better grades, and interpersonal success. Journal of Personality, 72(2), 271-324. Web.
Ben, J., Diekstra, R., Gravesteijn, C., Ritter, M., & Sklad, M. (2012). Effectiveness of school-based universal social, emotional, and behavioral programs: Do they enhance students’ development in the area of skill, behavior, and adjustment? Psychology in the Schools, 49(9), 892-909. Web.
Berking, M., Caspar, F., Meier, L., Orth, U., & Wupperman, P. (2008). Prospective effects of emotion-regulation skills on emotional adjustment. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 55(4), 485-494. Web.
Charleston stirs memories of young Birmingham bombing victim (2015). Web.
Two Marines, one deployment and the end of a marriage (2015). Web.