Case Study: Janet
Name
College

Case Study: Janet A case study is an in-depth analysis of a person, event, decision, period, project, policy, institution, or other system that is studied holistically by one or more methods. By gathering data and variety of sources and using these different methods, researchers can use scientific methods and perspectives to relate with various patterns and causes for behavior. In the field of psychology, case studies are widely known to help Psychologist’s and researchers with the assistance to help understand and overcome a person’s illness. While examining the “Case Study: Janet’, the use of psychology’s four goals and the modern perspectives were used to help determine the interpretation of the cause.
Description
Janet was a young girl that grew up in an abusive household that was beaten by her father as a part of a discipline process. Her father never explained why he used such drastic measures, so she grew up thinking that this was acceptable. She presumed that the only way to earn his love and respect was to do better. There was only one positive influence in her life; an aunt, who was rarely around because of the distance between them. Janet learned early to associate love with fear and trying with failure. As Janet grew older, she began to learn that her father might have been wrong. She began to see the regret coming from those actions, and soon realized that she had control. Janet started to guilt her father into anything she wants in just to keep her love. She later marries a man who abuses her, so she uses her newly acquired skills of guilt to acquire anything she wants.
Explanation
Early studies on Emotional Development Theory where most widely acclaimed by Jean Piaget, who made a significant contribution to the field of cognitive and developmental psychology. He is most widely known for his experiments on the emotional development of children and these four distinctive stages that children will pass through.
1. The Sensory Motor Stage
2. Pre-Operational Stage
3. Concrete Operational Stage
4. Formal Operations Stage
Janet acquired her adult learning behavior through these four stages, where the presence of her father’s environment influenced her in a life long impairment.
Prediction
What we learn as a child can carry us into adulthood, and Janet will undoubtedly never feel respected from the physical and emotional abuse if she does not seek counseling to help her.
Change. Janet can seek professional counseling; advice from friends and family, to improve upon accepting, respecting, and loving herself in order to improve upon her future relationships.

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Perspective The Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic Perspective was formed during the late 1800s to early 1900s in Europe (Gay, 2000), by it’s founder Sigmund Freud. An Austrian physician, who was fascinated by the mind’s influence on behavior and the physical body with focus on the unconscious process and past conflicts. This perspective fits in Janet's case as she has unresolved past conflicts stemming from her childhood.

Behavior Perspective In the early 1900s another course of Psychology appeared called the Behavior Perspective, founded by John B. Watson (1913). The perspective emphasized objective, observable environmental influences on overt behavior. In this case, Janet's environment influence was by her father. These types of environment lead Jane to accepting this type of discipline send conditional messages.

Cognitive Perspective The Cognitive Perspective illustrates the conscious and the elements of thought. Modern-day psychologists, however, study how we gather, encode and store information from our environment using the various mental processes of perception, memory, imagery, concept formation, problem solving, reasoning, decision-making, and language. In the case study of Janet, her perception, memory, and images that she had stored from her past, contributed to the mental processing of her concept, formation, problem-solving, and reasoning skill of being an adult.

Concluding Thoughts Because a case study deals with only one person, event, or group, we can never be sure whether conclusions drawn from this particular case apply elsewhere. This analysis is based on interpretation of the information that is provided for review.

References Satterly, D. (1987). Piaget and Education in R. L. Gregory (ed). The Oxford Companion to the Mind Oxford, Oxford University. McLeod, S. A. (2008). Simply Psychology; Case Study Method in Psychology. Retrieved 8 April2012, from http://simplypsychology.org /case-study.html