In the film “Boyhood,” there is a character of a young boy named Mason. Mason is six years old in the year 2002. He lives in Texas with his mother named Olivia and his older sister named Samantha. Masons mother, Olivia, is divorced from Mason’s father; Mason Sr. In the year 2003, Olivia enrolls at the University of Houston so her and her family, Mason, and Samantha, moved to Houston. Olivia also wanted to get a better job once she moved to Houston. Olivia however, has custody of both Samantha and Mason, while Mason has been granted visitation rights only on weekends. However, as he is an aspiring musician, he has not visited the children in a year. Mason Sr. lived in Alaska. Olivia toils to satisfy her children’s needs along with her emotional needs. Growing up, Mason is adversely impacted on by the circumstances surrounding his parents, especially his mother. He is affected by the manipulation of his circumstances by people though most of the situations were supposedly orchestrated by his mother, Olivia and the relationship he had with members of the family who evolved as they grew up emotionally and chronologically. At school, Mason does not put enough effort in homework or schoolwork. Further, he starts to be a little undisciplined although he a curious child. Mason’s life was ever changing. This was a white family. The paper will through the biographical narrative of Mason, evaluate the aspects of child development, assess how contextual factors impact on the aspects of the development of a child and look at the narrative’s conclusion of the experiences and construction of childhood development.
Several aspects of child development can be observed from the development of Mason. The observed aspects include social and emotional, cognitive, language and speech, and fine motor skill or physical development (Smith, Cowie and Blades, 2015). Mason is a curious child at school in the beginning. This means that he was enthusiastic about learning or knowing something in schoolwork and homework. This is evidently cognitive development (Burger, 2010 p. 141). According to Burger (2010, p. 141), cognitive development is the capability of a child to learn and solve problems. Therefore, the skills demonstrated by Mason on curiosity in schoolwork and homework, in the beginning, are purely cognitive. Mason demonstrates social development when he hangs out with Tommy, his friend (Serpell and Mashburn, 2012 pp. 21-23). While Mason and Tommy hang out, they are checking through magazines for provocative photos of ladies and before that, they spraying graffiti. According to Serpell and Mashburn (2012, p. 21), social development is ability of a child to interact with other people or children. This is demonstrated by Mason’s interaction with his friend Tommy. Furthermore, Mason gets annoyed by his sister, Samantha who has been nicknamed ‘Sam,’ for always enjoying messing with him. Samantha infuriates Mason by always singing ‘Oops I Did It Again’ every time when she messes with him. The fact that Mason is annoyed or infuriated by the actions of her sister means that he is emotionally developing (Grusec, 2011 p. 243). Grusec (2011, p.243) states that emotional development of a child is the expression of fear, joy, anger and sadness. Mason’s demonstration of irritation and annoyance by his sister’s messing elaborates on emotional development of a child. More so, when Olivia, Sam and Mason move to Houston at a house that Olivia’s mother looked for, Mason’s father came to take the children out to have fun. Mason’s father asks both Sam and Mason if they are ready to have fun and they jump up and down with amusement and on top of their voices they say ‘yes.’ Therefore, in the year 2003, Mason demonstrates language and speech development (Ramirez‐Esparza, Garcia‐Sierra and Kuhl, 2014, p. 880). Language and speech development is the capability of a child to not only understand but also use language. It is evident that Mason could understand what his father was asking about and he could also use language to respond (Ramirez‐Esparza, Garcia‐Sierra and Kuhl, 2014, p. 880). On the other hand, while Olivia is driving with Sam and Mason to Houston, they are in the back seats of the car. Both Sam and Mason are playing with a pillow and while Olivia is talking to them, Mason punches the pillow on Samantha’s face. This demonstrates physical development by Mason which is also referred to as a child’s fine motor skill development (Park, Fertig and Allison, 2011 pp. 255-257). Physical development is the child’s capability to utilize muscles and in particular, their fingers and hands. In this case Mason uses his fist to exert force on the pillow hence exercising his muscles (Park, Fertig and Allison, 2011 pp. 255-257). Therefore, in the film ‘Boyhood,’ Mason shows all the aspects of a child’s development.
The various aspects observed from Mason’s development as a child can be connected to the various theories of child development. In this case, there are three theories that can be related to the observed aspects. The theories comprise Freud Sigmund’s theory of personality or psychoanalytic theory, Erikson Erik theory of psychosocial development stages and Lev Vygotsky theory of social development (Pinter, 2011 pp. 7-10). According to Freud Sigmund’s theory of personality, the behavior of human beings is an outcome of interrelations and association between three components of the human mind: the id, the ego, and the superego. Freud also developed the five stages of psychosexual development which comprises of oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital stages (Pinter, 2011 pp. 7-10). Mason exhibited the language and speech development from the instance that he responded to his father about having fun. He demonstrated being able to not only comprehend but understand speech. In the same instance, Mason fulfilled the oral stage of Freud’s theory (Freud and Princess, 1954). Furthermore, while Mason hangs out with his friend Tommy, they peruse a magazine that has provocative pictures of women. Therefore, Masons fulfills Freud’s assertion of the stage he called Phallic. This is when sensitivity is focused on the genitals and Mason has become aware of the differences in sex (Freud and Princess, 1954). The other theory that can be connected to the various aspects of development is Erik Erikson theory of psychosocial development stages. Rosenthal, Gurney, and Moore (1981, p. 525) state that there eight stages of psychosocial development. They range from trust versus mistrust to integrity versus despair. However, Mason's aspects that can be connected to the stages of this theory: that comprise Industry versus Inferiority and Identity versus Role Confusion. Industry versus Inferiority stage happens when the child is between six and twelve year. According to Rosenthal, Gurney, and Moore (1981, p. 525), children begin to compare themselves with those that are of their age. The children start to measure up with their peers, and if this does not happen and they have negative peer and home experiences, they may develop the inferiority complex. This is evident when Mason Sr. takes Sam and Mason bowling. While Sam continuously scores four strikes, Mason misses. Mason asks his father for bumpers which he declines to give him stating that he does not need them. Mason and Sam compete for attention from their father. First, the aspect of social development is connected with this stage of the theory. Sam exhibits social development with interaction with his family. Secondly, the physical development aspect is demonstrated with Mason’s bowling. He exercises his muscles particularly his fingers and hands. According to Rosenthal, Gurney, and Moore (1981, p. 525), the stage of identity versus role confusion happens when the child is between twelve and eighteen years. The child tries to develop the sense of self. This is usually trying to establish who he or she is. When children are successful in this stage, they may develop a strong identity, but if they are consumed by the pressure of conforming to how their parents may have turned out, they may end up experiencing role confusion. The aspect of emotion can be connected to this stage of development of the theory. Masons stepfather Bill, orders him to have a haircut while at home. However, Mason is not excited about it as he was really happy with the long hair he kept. He tells his mother about it, and she promises to talk to her husband, Bill. However, he gets the haircut still, and when his mother drops him at school, except for one girl, the other children laugh at him. It is evident that an aspect of emotion was involved and that at this time, Mason was trying to form an identity of who he is. He obviously did not want a haircut to avoid the laughter he received from other kids at school. The last theory is Levy Vygotsky theory of social development. Vygotsky (1978) argues that social interaction plays a crucial role in cognition development. More so, cognition development potential is achieved when a certain level of social behavior and interaction is achieved. Mason demonstrated curiosity at the beginning of school and thus the aspect of cognitive development. Further, when they hang out with his friend Tommy, they used to spray graffiti and peruse adult magazines. This is the level of social behavior and interaction that fulfills the potential for cognitive development. Therefore, social development and cognitive development can be connected to the theory of social behavior as exhibited by Mason.
There are several contextual factors that can impact on the observed aspects of a child’s development. The contextual factors that impacted on the aspects of development demonstrated by Mason comprise resources, catalysts, connectedness, and history of work (Ungar et al., 2013 p. 150). The resources of human, finance, and environment impacted on the social and emotional aspects of Mason’s development. Mason’s parents had divorced, and her mum remarried. Mason’s stepfather started drinking and changed the way he was treating him before. The resource of environment made Mason unhappy especially with the decisions that he made such as asking Mason to cut his hair. Mason was unhappy, and therefore, it is clear that the environment resource impacted on the social and economic aspect of his development. According to Ungar et al., (2013 p. 150), catalysts include the existing challenges and circumstances which can affect the cognitive aspect of development. In the beginning, Mason was curious about learning at school however with the divorcing of his parents, his interest in school and homework dipped, and he became a little undisciplined. On the same contextual factor, because his discipline was also affected, it is clear that the social development of the child can also be impacted on. Ungar et al., (2013 p. 150) states that connectedness and history of work can impact emotional aspects of a child’s development. Mason was always annoyed by Samantha’s constant messing with. Therefore, connectedness played a role in his emotional development. Secondly, Mason was not happy about his mother’s choice to move to Houston for school and a better job. Therefore, history of work can also impact on the emotional aspect of social development.
In conclusion, Mason’s biographic narrative shows that there are among others cognitive, social, emotional, language and speech, and physical or fine motor skills aspects of a child’s development. Cognition involves learning and being able to come up with solutions, social and emotional aspects involve interaction with others and feelings, language and speech comprise of the ability to comprehend and use language to express oneself, and physical aspect includes the capability of a child to exercise their muscles particularly their fingers and hands. There are also theories that can be connected to the observed aspects of child development. These theories comprise of Freud’s theory of personality, Erik Erikson theory of psychosocial stages of development and Lev Vygotsky theory of social development. These theories have different perspectives on the stages of development of a child. Some of the stages from the theories include oral and phallic from Freud’s theory and identity versus role confusion from Erik Erikson theory. Furthermore, there are also contextual factors that can impact on the observed aspects of a child’s development. These contextual factors include connectedness, history of work, resources and catalysts. Mason’s biographic narrative served as a good construction of the experiences of a child’s development.
References
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