The development of a child is affected by the surrounding environment. Often one thinks when making a bad choice they can escape the consequences of those choices. However, with each choice comes a consequence and therefore no amount of complaining or rationalizing will result to an alternation of the inevitable repercussion. As a successful fashion photographer, the choices Isabell makes towards Jackie has an impact towards her relationship with Anna. What ensues is a long string of arguments and feelings of disparity that involves Jackie, Anna, Isabel and Luke. Additionally, by accepting to marry Luke, Isabel initiates more friction between her, Jackie and her children therefore facing he consequences of her actions. This paper therefore seeks to employ Bronfronbrenner’s theory and reward vs punishment behavioral analysis in the movie, “Stepmom.”
Research " Analysis
A child’s development is always affected by the relationships the child forms with the surrounding environment. According to Feldman (2015), the ecological systems theory provides an approach to answering how a child develops in the early stages of life. The main character in the movie is Isabel Kelly who lives with his boyfriend Luke Harrison. Since Luke Harrison recently experienced a divorce with his ex-wife Jackie, the couple experiences an arduous struggle raising their two children; Ben and Anna. During the relationship with his new boyfriend, Isabel tries her best to please the two children regardless of Ben’s mischievous nature and Anna’s rejection.
Anna and Ben’s lifespan development as it relates to Kelly can be explained using Bronfenbrenner Ecological Theory. Bronfenbrenner (2005), argues that a person’s development is affected by everything in their surrounding environment. Since the environment encompasses five various levels of environment systems that change and influence a child’s development and they are all connected with each other. This means that a change present in any one of the system, consequently results to an adjustment on the other systems. Since Jackie, a former publisher gave a cold reception to Isabel, the children view Isabel as hindrance to their welfare judging from their mother’s behavior. As she continues to harbor malice on Isabel, more friction results between Anna, Luke and Isabel. The emotional bond between a child and an adult is important in understanding how children develop and the impact that the bond created may have on the children’s development. Jackie, gives Isabel a cold reception since she has taken over her place in Luke’s life and she’s rather ambitious as a fashion photographer.
Regardless of the cold reception she receives, she is determined to create an intuitive bond between a child and a mature adult to control their negative emotions because of their parent’s divorce. Isabel yearns to establish a better social competence and learn to match the children’s feelings with what is happening between them to externalize and internalize the behavior problems of the children, within their surroundings. According to Bronfenbrenner, at the center of the illustration of the theory is a child thus, the unique environmental variables that surrounds the child influences their development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). In this case, the child’s immediate surrounding is Luke and Jackie whom they consider as their parents.
However, judging by the fact that Jackie experiences a range of negative emotions because of Isabel evokes a cold attitude towards Isabel. Jackie is angry at Isable because she sees her as being responsible for imitating the divorce process, regardless of the sacrifices she made for her family. She therefore actively sabotages her efforts to bond with the children to an extent of even refusing Anna to be taken for rock practice when she had been diagnosed with lymphoma. Bronfenbrenner Ecological theory as a framework tries to explain the changes that occur on the lifespan development of a child. In this system, the dynamics of time take into effect and it influences the constancy and the changes in the environment which the child lives. Usually, the chronosystem may entail a change in the structure of the family that influences the development of a child. Despite the constant wrangles between Isabel and Jackie and their relationship with Luke, the movie ends with a family portrait of both women and the children happy than before. Due to the variations that occurred in the family the behavior in a different setting, where Isabel and Jackie have now mend ways, results in Anna accepting Isabel as her surrogate mother. This therefore is a positive development outcome that is embraced across the lifespan of Anna’s growth to accept changes in her surrounding environment.
Most often, a person is motivated to learn a new behavior if there is an opportunity to gain incentives. Skinner, the father of operant conditioning, advocated for radical behaviorism to understand how modification arises from behavior conditioning (Feldman, 2015). According to him, children at the adolescent level often experiences experimental analysis behavior from their parents, especially their mother. They are therefore motivated to learn a new behavior since a reward would be a great way of acknowledging the efforts done by another person on a positive light (Feldman, 2015). Skinner argues that for a reward to become successive a subject must feel enthusiastic about the reward, the reward must be given after the accomplishment of the action and performance must exceed the normal standards (Feldman, 2015). Despite of this, failure to achieve the intended outcomes are due to the failure of the three preconditions.
In the movie, Jackie’s sabotage on Isabel’s effort to create a bond with the children to better able to control their emotions, results in Annas rebelliousness with an aim of pleasing her mother. She yearns to keep her mother’s approval. In this case, her behavior is modified to suit the reward she will be presented for her mother for meeting the three prerequisites according to Skinner (Feldman, 2015). Additionally, she seeks to be acknowledged in her efforts of being furious when they are told about Luke’s and Isabel’s engagement. Reward versus punishment is also evident when Isabel and Anna continue to clash and therefore Isabel offers her a golden retriever to reduce the friction between them. Anna lies about being allergic to dogs even though later she is overly excited with the dog and takes it into her room thereby changing the previous relationship. Slowly, Anna starts to accept the fact that Isabel is stepping into their family and taking the role of a surrogate mother and she realizes that her mother only reacts out of maternal instincts only.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the environment a child is brought up in directly or indirectly affects the lifespan development. Anna in the movie, “Stepmom” experiences changes in the microsystem, mesosystem and chronosystem according to Bronfenbrenner’s theory. Additionally, since she is at the adolescent level, she often experiences experimental analysis behavior from her mother that affects her development lifespan and the way she interacts with Isabel. Children are therefore motivated to learn a new behavior to be acknowledged.
Reference
Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). On the Nature of Bioecological Theory and Research. Making Human Beings Hman: Bioecological Perspectives on Human Development, 1-15.
Feldman, R. S. (2015). Discovering the Life Span. Boston: Pearson.
