Parental Uninvolvement in Personality Development Research Paper

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According to Campbell and Verna (2007), an international consensus has evolved among educators that parents, through various active participation strategies, make a major contribution to their children’s education (Campbell and Verna, 501 – 505). In fact, various studies have even shown that parental influences play a major role in personality development resulting in either proper growth and maturity or the instilment of negative personality traits similar to immaturity, dependence, and an overall sense of being unable to become self-reliant.

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When examining the case of the analyzed person, it is evident that his method of development follows a classic case of parental disassociation from early childhood interaction and involvement resulting in the development of negative personality traits which have followed him well into maturity. What must be understood is that the analyzed person had parents who were under the belief that concentrating on the development of their business would equate into a better life for their child, since this made them too busy to actually take care of the analyzed person this resulted in them enrolling the analyzed person in boarding schools from an early age and even had him live at the home of a teacher so as to enable him to improve his educational capacity.

Unfortunately, what they failed to understand was that what their child needed the most in order to become successful and develop into a responsible and well-adjusted adult was their personal care, guidance and involvement in his daily life. The attitudes shown by the parents of the analyzed person are actually similar to what Campbell and Verna found in their examination of rich minority families in the U.S. school system in that “affluent African American parents move into school districts with excellent reputations and expect the educators to give their children the hoped-for advantages” (Campbell and Verna, 502).

Similar studies have also revealed that a good proportion of affluent parents are engaged in their work and other obligations, compelling them to take a backseat in the education of their children, particularly on how they perform at school. As noted by several studies in childhood development, such actions, as shown by the parents, result in the development of a developmentally maladjusted individual with personality traits akin to laziness and childishness as seen in the case of the analyzed person.

Influences

Studies have demonstrated that parental involvement has a positive outcome on a child’s social and academic success. Students are able to achieve better comprehension skills, have better attendance, and display minimal behavior problems when parents are involved in their education (Blondal & Adalbjarnardottir, 729). In the case of the analyzed person it was noted that due to the lack of parental involvement during his formative developmental stage, a trend which continued well into adulthood, this resulted in the analyzed person being adversely influenced by external factors such as popular culture and friends which are poor replacements for the character building influences attributed to direct parental involvement in a child’s life.

A close examination of the life of the analyzed person reveals that some of the major influences in his life come in the form of his spoiled rich friends. While the aim of this paper is not to disparage the influences of particular social groups it must be noted that the people the analyzed person chose to associate himself with were on average lazy, spoiled, irresponsible and lacked any form of motivation in life.

Such traits have also manifested themselves in the behavior of the analyzed person as evidenced by his irresponsible work ethic in school, nonchalant attitude towards trying to achieve any form of achievement and his wasteful spending sprees. Desimone (1999) in his research evaluating the complex interplay of factors that impact moderate parental involvement in child educational and social development reveals that parental practices that adhere to a tenet of spoiling children often result in socially maladjusted individuals that lack the basic drive to succeed and make something of themselves due to the early onset development of behavioral characteristics where children are given whatever they want without having to work for it (Desimone, 11 – 15).

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Such actions create ingrained attitudes in certain individuals which impact the way in which they develop into adults. The end result are people just like the friends of the analyzed person who lack the basic drive to succeed or put any effort into what they do. As such it can be seen that the lack of early onset parental involvement acted as an influential factor in the development of the current negative behavior traits of the analyzed person.

Ideology

Bade (2009) in his examination of ideologies explains that “in the case of ideologies what must be understood is that it is “artifice”, meaning that is created, manufactured, made, constructed etc (Bade, 612 – 615). Based on this view and that of other studies examining the implications of particular ideologies on the life people it can be stated that ideologies are a means of rationalizing a particular set of actions in light of what a person believes to be the proper course to follow.

It is a way in which they justify their actions based on what they know and believe and as such follow this particular method of thinking for the rest of their life. In the case of the analyzed person it can be seen that he ascribes to an ideology of believing his life and future is secure and as such does not need to put as much effort into it. Studies examining aspects related to motivation and personality development reveal that on average individuals that are spoiled the most during early onset development (i.e. being given large allowances, vast amounts of toys etc.) developed behavioral characteristics akin to laziness and the inability to motivate themselves.

It is assumed that since such individuals were accustomed to being given whatever they wanted they go so used to the idea that they apply an ideology of laziness and idleness for the rest of their life content in the knowledge that whatever they do they will always be secure. Such a behavioral attribute is actually evident in the case of the analyzed person where his belief in the security of life has led to an attitude where he puts everything off till the last minute and spends excessively on luxuries such as various types of expensive brand name headphones.

This behavior, as noted by studies such as those done by Bade (2009), note that it was a direct result of the early onset lack of interaction between the analyzed person and his parents which when combined with the fact that he was spoiled excessively in the form of gifts and large allowances resulted in the development of an adverse form of ideology that clashes with what is needed in order to lead a productive and motivated lifestyle.

Blind Spots/ Self-Delusions

There’s an old saying that state that “tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you who you are”, while such a statement obviously has numerous fallacious methods of drawing a conclusion the fact is in the case of the analyzed person it couldn’t be closer to the truth. When examining the type of friends that the analyzed person has it can clearly be seen that most if not all come from wealthy family backgrounds. This is evident from the way they walk, talk and the methods and mannerisms they exude on a daily basis.

What the analyzed person fails to understand in his choice of friends is that they are a direct reflection of who he is as a person and mannerisms that he chooses to adopt. Studies examining the way in which behavioral characteristics form in adults reveal that environmental influences, specifically the type of people a person chooses to associate with, has the effect of causing the brain to adopt mannerisms that it sees in other people due to it assuming that what it sees other people doing is completely normal behavior.

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While the analyzed person has come to the conclusion that his adverse behavioral characteristics will lead him nowhere in life he fails to understand that the more he associates with individuals that adversely influence the way he behaves the more likely he is to be unable to break out of the current cycle of bad behavior that he has adopted. What must be understood is that the analyzed person is under the delusion that his continued behavioral characteristics all come from internal influences when in fact it is his external environment in the form of the friends he chooses to be with that adversely impact any form of positive behavioral development.

Studies examining changes in behavior have take note of the fact that behavioral characteristics can change gradually over time towards either positive or negative outcomes however it should be noted that such factors are influenced not only through internal changes but external influences (Espinosa and Miguel, 223 – 226). In order for the analyzed person to put into effect any plausible change in behavior that would help him to become more mature and productive it is necessary for him to change the way in which his external environment influences him. This of course comes in the form of entering into new social circles, meeting new and different kinds of people and overall having the goal of positive behavioral change.

It must be noted though that the analyzed person does realize that there is definitely something wrong with the way in which he behaves, this can be seen in his attempts to work harder at his school work, spend less and try to be more productive. Unfortunately the behavioral tendencies he developed from early onset development all the way to the present still have an adverse effect on his behavior which continues to manifest itself on occasion.

The problem in this particular case is the fact that the analyzed person fails to understand that positive behavioral changes cannot occur all at once (Espinosa and Miguel, 223 – 226). Attempting to change a certain form of behavior by sheer force of will has a certain degree of backlash which takes the form of confusion, depression or other forms of mental anxiety which is the brain trying to adjust to this new behavioral input yet failing to do so.

Aspect of the personality of the analyzed person related to laziness, childishness and an overall aimless point of view regarding what he should do in the future are all manifestations of the lack of parental involvement which adversely affect his personality during a pivotal stage of development. While it may be true that he grew up to be more independent his personality lacks a certain degree of strength to be able to think in a more mature and productive way.

This particular situation is further compounded by the types of friends that he chooses to have in which instead of instilling more positive behavioral characteristics they instead bring about the manifestation of even more negative traits which further deteriorates the possibility of positive behavioral change. In order to resolve this situation what is needed is for the analyzed person to develop a new behavioral characteristic through positive encouragement. This can only come through external sources and as such this means needing to develop a closer relationship with his parents and entering into new friendships that help to instill better behaviors, it is only through this that the analyzed person can develop into a better and more motivated individual.

Works Cited

Bade, David. 2009. “Ethos, Logos, Pathos or Sender, Message, Receiver?: A Problematological Rhetoric for Information Technologies.” Cataloging & Classification Quarterly 47, no. 7: 612-630. Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, EBSCOhost.

Blondal, Kenneth, & Adalbjarnardottir, Salazar. Parenting practices and school dropout: A longitudinal study. Adolescence, 44(176), 2009: 729-749.

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Campbell, James, & Verna, Mary. Effective parental influence: Academic climate linked to children’s achievement. Educational Research & Evaluation, 13(6), 2007: 501-519.

Desimone, Leo. Linking parent involvement with students’ achievement: Do race and income matter? Journal of Educational Research, 93(1), 1999: 11-20.

Pablo, Espinosa, and Clemente Miguel. “Measurement of antisocial behaviour in adolescents and young people: Development of the Antisocial Behaviour Inventory (ABI-ICA).” Revista de Psicologia Social 26.2 (2011): 223-240.

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IvyPanda. 2021. "Parental Uninvolvement in Personality Development." January 29, 2021. https://ivypanda.com/essays/parental-uninvolvement-in-personality-development/.

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