Acknowledgement
I gratefully express special appreciation for Marty who has contributed to this academic diary through his time, his benevolence, his frank conversation, and his faith of spirituality.Specifically, his practical examples for practicing to pronounce “V” VS “W”, “R” VS “L”, and “Ch” VS “Sh” sounds.
Purposes of the second academic diary are to record experiences I had during the course of the semester provides me with real-life contact in the human and to gain insight into the
development of a man during adulthood life span. It was almost three year for unobtrusive observation and six hours for formal interviews was used to collect data. I spent two hours, each time, with the participant for the formal interview.
Describing of the participant
I met Marty while I was walking pass his backyard to school in the morning of the fall 2005. Two impressive pictures of this early fifty man with glasses, seventy one inches tall, slim figure, white vest, short pants, and sport shoes who always plants, waters, prunes, and works in the garden, also his well decorated and peaceful garden vividly appears in my memory when I think about Marty. I may magnify that Marty’s garden is a symbolization of his spiritual practice and discovery. On 25 February 1955, Marty was born into a simple and a small community surrounded by farmland, in Minnesota. Most of his neighbors were blue-collar workers. His father was a factory worker, and his mother was a service worker. He has eight siblings; six brothers and two sisters. Marty is the middle child. He recognized that his parents worked very hard, they led by example, they seldom argued to each other. He impressively narrated a play about his childhood, playing baseball, football, sledding and toboggan with his siblings. He loved walking in the woods and exploring the environment around him. “War” was his favorite game to play with his high school friends. They had to divided into two teams, and had to try and catch people from the opposite side. They ran, and they enjoyed playing that game all day long. He received his BA. in Business. He started his career in commercial construction which he worked for five years, before becoming a fire man until now. He has been married to a very sweet young lady who he met her in the Church for twenty three years; they had no child. Throughout their marriage, they havedemonstrated great affection for each other after year of familiarity. When love traveled to the end of the road, they made a decision to divorce in 2005. Currently, he is a celibacy man, with no linking relationship, and no intimacy. Spiritual life is his final destination which is over physical needs. In a religious context, he defines himself as a believer, Christian’s faith is his spiritual introduction. He has questioned whether or not there is more than one way to get spiritual life. In Marty’s view, people have to experience in the real sense to understand spirituality. Since he is a hardworking person, his phobia is an immobilization.
Discussion
Marty’s observation analysis illustrates a wide perspective of a man’s life span from middle childhood through adulthood. As social-cognition theorists proposed that the most of a child’s learning comes from his actively imitating or modeling what he sees and hears other people say and do (Thomas, 2005, p. 150). Based upon this theory, I respectfully would like to say that Marty became a good human being because his parents were good models, and he has observed and learned reciprocal actions from people that surrounded him. On other words, Marty’s childhood memory reflected how children’s environment affected traits in their adulthood. Aging is an important sign to show how a person’s growth stops. Marty still looks strong and healthy because he is a vegetarian which implies that he eats more nutritious food. He gets regular physical and mental exercise by gardening. There are visible age-related changes seen from Marty’s physical appearance such as his skin has become thinner and drier, he is less flexible,
wrinkles around the eyes, his hair has turned grayer and is thinning (Berger, 2008, p.528)
Following Atchley’s phase of retirement, Marty is in a remote phase because he has very little awareness, and he has prepared a plan and activity for his retirement already. I can predict Marty will be classified as the “happy well” elder because he has already followed Vaillant’s suggestions such as get regular exercise, avoid being overweight, be future-oriented, get an education, empathize with others, and being active with other people.
In conclusion, I gain a realistic experience about the human life span by using research methodology and applying human developmental theories to analyze and understand individual’s development.
References
Berger, K. (2007). The Developing Person through the Life Span. 7th ed. New York: Worth Pub.
Thomas, R, M. (2005). Comparing Theories of Child Development. 6th ed. CA: Wadsworth.
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