Anna and Jojo

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Date: Anna and Jojo
Question one
Indeed, Anna’s current predicament in her early adulthood stage can be linked to cognitive problems developed during her course of development in the childhood stage and adolescent stage. From the Anna and Jojo scenario, we are able to learn that Anna was subjected to resentment in her early years be her mother. In this case, we learn that her mother instilled in her a negative self-esteem of hopelessness and low confidence. Anna’s mother made her believe that she was an overweight girl who could not offer any assistance to any problems. Consequently, Anna became obsessed with her physical appearance and desired to please her mother by working towards achieving a slim body physique. My knowledge on the cognitive information processing theory suggests that there are three stages of memory involved in a person’s development: sensory, short term and long term. I would associate Anna’s case with the long-term memory stage where information and experiences with her mother became a long lasting memory that would determine her character and the way she related towards her peers and later on, her daughter (Grossen, 2004). In addition, the scenario lets us know that Anna was subjected to further resentment in her adolescent stage as she tried to date a football player. In the case above, Anna was made to believe that she was an ugly person who would not attract any suitors. Her only way to get into a relationship was through giving in to the sexual demands of the football player. The consequence of this action led her to conceiving Jojo. From memories in her childhood and adolescent stage, Anna could only succumb to depression. Consequently, since she did not want her daughter to undergo a similar plight, she subjected Jojo to malnutrition with the belief that she would develop a slim and attractive body physique as she grew. Her view of parenting is therefore a cognitive problem that she developed in her childhood and adolescent stage.
Question two
My client, Anna, was subjected to social pressures by her parents and peers in her early childhood stage through to her adolescent stage. With regard to her parent, Anna’s mother subjected her to resentment while she was in her childhood stage. Anna’s mother had a negative impact on her character as she instilled in her a negative self-esteem of hopelessness and low confidence. Anna’s experiences with her mother as a child led her to believe that she was a worthless lazy individual and an overweight one at that. This kind of treatment led Anna to develop an obsession on her physical appearance. She consequently began taking diet pills and engaged in many activities to help her lose weight.
With regard to her peers, her adolescent stage had a major role to play in developing her current cognitive problems. It is common for adolescents to have attractive feelings towards members of the opposite sex (Perret, 2004). Anna was in this case felt attracted to a football player who made her believe that she was an unattractive person who would not interest anyone. He did however offer deceivingly to be her boyfriend if she gave in to his sexual demands. Anna, as desperate as she was, gave in and became pregnant with Jojo.
Indeed, her choice of response to her social pressures imminently led to her current predicament. As she as Jojo was born, she went back to her belief of losing weight to please her mother as well as her peers. As a parent, she could only apply what was subjected to her by her mother in her new responsibility. Since she did not want her daughter to undergo a similar plight, she subjected Jojo to malnutrition with the belief that she would develop a slim and attractive body physique as she grew. We can therefore establish that her current predicament is connected to how she responded to her childhood and adolescent social pressures.
Question three My client, Anna, mishandles her emotions in a number of ways. Sure enough, she could not change how other people view her, including her mother. Her mother sees her as a lazy and overweight daughter. In my opinion, this was just constructive criticism from her mother. I do not think any parent would mean any harm with comments made to their children. I would expect that Anna felt depressed when she heard such comments. Nevertheless, she mishandled this emotion by reacting in the wrong manner. I would expect that Anna should have become more active since she was lazy and it was good that she performed some exercise to reduce her weight. In this case, she went too far with amends that it became and obsession to her. She should have cultivated a sense of self-belief. This would have meant that she did not conform to society demands on how a person should look or behave (Perret, 2004). It was her low self esteem and depression that she agreed to the demands of her ‘boyfriend’. If Anna had principles, she would have never given in to these demands, nor would she have ended up pregnant. However, since the damage was already done, she should have looked to make amends and lead a good life for her daughter. Instead, she mishandled her emotions and allowed them to come in between her and the proper way of raising Jojo.
Question four. To my hypothetical client, I would suggest that she take positively her appointments with the doctor and the psychiatrist especially. In this case, I would advise on the intervention of building on her self-confidence. In my opinion, her low self-esteem is that what eventually led her to this predicament. Anna should look to cultivate a positive point of view towards how she looks. She should be made to learn that everybody is unique in his or her own way and should therefore accept herself the way she is. In addition to this intervention, I would also suggest that Anna be taught on good nutrition and healthy living. She should be enlightened on the proper feeding habits she should implement as well as how she should manage herself to ensure healthy living. In addition to nutrition, the same intervention should apply on how best to feed her two-year-old daughter. Last but yet important, I would also suggest a parenting intervention to be instilled in Anna. Anna is still a minor and a parent by accident. There is still a lot more to the world than she knows. I suppose her mother would play a good part in this intervention since she is an experienced individual (Shere, 2008). However, there is need for Anna’s mother to understand the implications of creating a negative attitude within the family (Shere, 2008). In my view, in the above interventions are implemented, Anna and Jojo’s scenario will undoubtedly be looking up. Reference
Grossen, M., & Perret-Clermont, A.-N. (2004). Psychosocial perspective on cognitive development: Construction of adult-child intersubjectivity in logic tasks. Sociogenesis Reexamined, 243-260.
Perret-Clermont, A.-N., Carugati, F., & Oates, J. (2004). A socio-cognitive perspective on learning and cognitive development. Cognitive and Language Development in Children.
Shere, E., & Kastenbaum, R. (2008). Mother-child interaction in cerebral palsy: Environmental and psychosocial obstacles to cognitive development. Genetic Psychology Monographs, 73.