The Moore family case is based on a mixed family of five where the father Ed is an African American and the mother Jessica is a Caucasian. The family has three kids with fifteen-year-old Derrick the firstborn being adopted, Terrence, the second son, is twelve and was born after the mother had an affair and Debbie eleven the was born after the father had an affair. Terrence, the middle child, is troubled and suicidal and exhibits delinquent behaviors which are attributed to his biological father’s behavioral patterns. The case is psychologically examined from a life course perspective which postulates that both lifespan and life stages influence how people behave. The Moore case study will, therefore, be the area of focus and will be examined from a life course perspective and research findings on individual and family development.
Life course perspective is a multidisciplinary paradigm that attributes people’s behavior to time, context, process, and meaning (Altmaier & Hansen, 2012). The perspective looks at the family as a micro social group within a bigger macro social setting. The life course perspective has four themes which include the significance of historical time to human behavior, timing of lives, interdependence of lives and the human agency in decision-making processes. The interplay of human live and historical time theme states that being born or brought up during a certain event has a huge impact on how people behave (Murphy, 2017). Similarly, in the Moore family, the history of the family has a huge bearing on the behavior of Tarrence. He was born around a period when their parents were undergoing a rough patch in their marriage due to extramarital affairs. The history of the parents’ cheating and strained relationship led to Terrence’s being born into a divided family, and the stress led to constant fighting which contributed to his depression. As a result, he became suicidal due to feelings of helplessness and a longing for a stable, loving family something he would have enjoyed had he been born before the extramarital affairs and the drama. Therefore the historical time of his birth and growing up influenced how he lived and behaved just like the life course perspective postulates.
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The timing of lives theme states that people’s age affects how they behave and react to situations since it affects their emotional intelligence and maturity levels (Goldenberg, 2017). Psychologists refer to transitions from one stage of life to the next as either off time or on time with those happening during the expected period being on time and those that happen contrary to the social calendar of expectations being off time (Murphy, 2017). A person’s psychological age is assessed through their behavioral patterns and their perceptions towards life experiences. In the behavioral context, an individual is deemed mature or immature depending on their ability to cope with both environmental and biological life experiences they face during their day to day lives (Mustaffa, Ghanbaripanah & Ahmad, 2013). Indicators of behavioral maturity include the learning intelligence levels, memory retention capabilities, motivational levels and emotional responses to people and stimuli (Altmaier & Hansen, 2012). The biological age is characterized by physiological changes which include a change in height, voice in men, increasing in size of body parts and other physiological changes depending on one’s gender.
Social age, on the other hand, is societal projected whereby people are expected to behave in some way once they reach a certain age bracket in the form of formal or informal age norms and laws (Murphy, 2017). Spiritual age is manifested by a person’s position in life in their quest for meaningful relationships and is a continuous process. In Moore’s family case the theme is evident in the way Terrence 12 handles his parent’s fighting compared to the elder brother Derrick 15. While Tarrence becomes depressed and detached from his family and even goes to the extent of hiding a gun to scare them, Derrick who is obviously more emotionally, biologically and psychologically mature handles the situation by doing better in schools and seeking solace in his girlfriend’s home from time to time. It is evident that their age difference and how they perceive their parents’ relationship is at different interpretation levels a fact influenced by age. Therefore in trying to find a psychological solution to the suicidal tendencies exhibited by Terrence his perception of the world will be of great consideration since he seems to look at the situation from an immature perspective.
The third theme in the life course perspective is linked or interdependent lives (Altmaier & Hansen, 2012). Research shows that the presence or absence of a support system highly influences people’s behavior and how they react and respond to tough life experiences. The interdependency in a social relationship leads to the formulation of rewards, punishments, and expectations whereby people behave in a certain kind of way due to the need to conform to what is expected of them by the people in their lives (Mustaffa et al., 2013). Research shows that the links among family members affect the way people behave and there is a correlation between family nurturance, family hardship and the way a child behaves (Murphy, 2017). The trajectories of the children’s lives also highly affect the parents’ lives while there is interdependency between old parents and their grown children (Rogers, 2016). The links the family unit has with the wider world also affects how the members behave and respond to situations, but the family influence on a child is more impactful than that of the social environment they live in.
The theme is evident in the Moore family trajectory as exhibited by the various changes that have happened to the family from one phase to the next. The extramarital affairs by both Ed and Jessica cause an emotional trajectory whereby they go from being a tight close family to being a dysfunctional home where fights and arguments are the order of the day (Rogers, 2016). The interdependency is evident in how Jessica’s affair changes Ed’s attitude towards their marriage and leads to a counter action on his part whereby he also cheats with Debbie’s mother. The emotional interdependence in the family leads to the upheaval of the peaceful family setting to the troubled family that leads to Terrence’s suicidal tendencies. Barbra is highly dependent on her adult son Ed as the research on the life course perspective postulates. The interdependence leads to Ed’s plan to move his mother in to live with them since his grandmother lived with them when she grew old and needed assistance.
The Moore family is made up of different races with the mother being Caucasian, the father being black, and their kids being mixed race. The multiracial differences have contributed to the rifts in the family because the children lack a sense of belonging and identity in the family which was offset by Jessica giving Terrence his absent father’s second name just in case Ed stopped loving him (Rogers, 2016). The multiracial aspect has contributed to stereotyping and generalizations whereby Terrence’s father who is an African American is stereotyped as an incapable parent. Derrick, the adopted son’s birth parents are kept a secret since Jessica feels that they would not have a good influence on him regardless of the fact that they have not been in touch for years. The blaming of Terrence’s behavior on his wife by Ed and attributing it to his black father is also a major source of conflict in the marriage. There seems to be a cultural conflict whereby Ed’s cultural background makes him believe that he is responsible for taking care of his aged mother in his home like his parents did his grandmother. Jessica, on the other hand, has no problem with placing her parents in a nursing home and fails to see the importance Ed attaches to looking after his mother. The multiracial nature of the family, therefore, is a cause of perceptive differences and leads to generalizations and unfair stereotypes.
The Bowen’s family therapy model posits that relationship patterns formed in one’s family of origin reflect the expectations for a family of formation and a change in one family member affects the whole family unit (Altmaier & Hansen, 2012). He further posits that people’s emotional health is reliant on their intergenerational emotional field (Mustaffa et al., 2013). He describes vertical stressors as emotional rules and norms passed on from one generation to another while horizontal stressors are predictable and unpredictable events that upset the family set up like the divorce of disease. Family dysfunction is often witnessed when the two types of stressors converge with the past events intersecting with current, developmental and unfolding events (Rogers, 2016). The dysfunction leads to disorganization of the current family system, strained relationships among family members and may lead to breakage of the family.
The Moore family experiences both vertical and horizontal stressors both at family and individual levels (Murphy, 2017). One of the vertical stressors pertains the taking care of the elderly parents. In Ed’s family, the younger family members seem to take in the aged family and take care of them just like his parents did before him. The responsibility is passed down from one generation to the next and Jessica seems to disagree with it. She wonders why Ed’s mother cannot just go to a home with her parents because she feels that having her move in with them will inconvenience the family and she may end up looking after her which she is not ready to do. The situation causes a conflict between the couple further straining their already struggling marriage. The naming system of Terrence is also a stressor because according to tradition he should take the present father’s name, in this case, Ed who has accepted him as his son. Jessica, however, gives him his absent biological father’s second name which further causes a conflict between the couple.
The individual vertical stressors include Terrence’s delinquency and aggression which Ed blames on his genetics since his biological father possesses the same traits (Rogers, 2016). The family is also experiencing horizontal stressors like unpredictability in the workplace with Ed most likely to lose his job when the store he works in relocates. The possibility causes uncertainty since the couple is planning to buy the home and the mortgage payments would require both of their salaries. Infidelity is also a stressor in the marriage and seems to be the cause of all the troubles the family is experiencing (Goldenberg, 2017). Both spouses have children outside of marriage, and the affairs are what triggered Ed’s alcoholism and violence, and the couple’s never-ending fights. Terrence’s mental health issue is also a horizontal stressor because he is suicidal and even goes to the extent of hiding a gun in his room to scare his parents. The family is, therefore, experiencing both vertical and horizontal stressors both at family and individual levels.
I would assess the risks and protective factors by concentrating on the dynamic family system with family relationships, patterns, structure, and level of functioning as the primary areas of focus (Rogers, 2016). I would examine the individual members’ family contribution and assess the strengths and weaknesses of the family as a protective measure. I would then devise a way of helping the couple to fortify their strengths and work on their weaknesses (Goldenberg, 2017). I would use observational tools to understand the family issues, self-report, role-playing and diagrammatic representation of the sessions.
In sum, the life course perspective and the DSM-5 are important in the assessment and understanding of the couple’s behavior, but they have their strengths and weaknesses (Rogers, 2016). The Life course perspective acknowledges the capacity for social change and the impact that historical factors have on people’s behavior. In the ever-changing world, this is a significant strength since the perspective creates room for change. The model also addresses the impact that human relationships and interdependence affect people’s behaviors (Mustaffa et al., 2013). The acknowledgment of these relationships helps people explore the impact that socialization has on people’s behavior. One of its limitations is the failure to acknowledge the correlation between individuals’ behavior and social institutions. The model is also too heterogeneous and fails to examine the diversity in the society.
References
Altmaier, E. M., & Hansen, J. C. (2012). The Oxford handbook of counseling psychology : Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Goldenberg Irene (2017). Family therapy: An overview. Cengage learning, New York
Murphy D (2017). Counseling psychology: a textbook for study and practice. The British Psychological Society, Hoboken, NJ
Mustaffa, S., Ghanbaripanah, A., & Ahmad, R. (2013). Assessment in Family Counseling: Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 93 , 2205-2208. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.189
Rogers A,. (2016). Human behavior in the social environment: perspectives on development and the life course, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group; NY
