Cultural Identities in Childhood Identities developed during childhood can impact adulthood. According to Santrock, identity is formed by decisions that are made over time (2014). The social messages that people receive can shape their identities, both positively and negatively. Experiences also greatly affect identities. Two identities from my childhood that shaped my adulthood are being a military child and being a female.
Military Child Identity
My dad is in the army, therefore my family and I have to move every three to five years wherever he is told to go. I have lived in Montana, Oklahoma, Utah, Arizona, and Germany. When we lived in Germany, we lived on a military base and I went to an American school with other children who were in …show more content…
My peers viewed me differently. I was an American who grew up in another country and I felt like an outsider. I received explicit social messages from my peers that let me know that I was different. I was called names such as “army brat” and would consider myself to fall into the peer status as a rejected child. According to Santrock, a rejected child is one who is disliked by their peers and that no one considers to be a best friend (2014). These social messages greatly impacted my development.
Another way I was socially impacted was by having to make new friends and then being forced to move away from them. Every time I started to feel as though I fit in, I would have to move away again to an entirely new place and have to start all over. It affected my peer status because I was always the new girl. It impacts my social development in adulthood because I am able to relate to a more wider, diverse group of people because of my exposure to other …show more content…
I was intrigued by baby dolls and they were all I wanted when we went to the store. I would enjoy playing house and I loved pretending to be a mother with a large family. My mother would tell me it was not nice if I was not holding the baby doll correctly. She was conveying social messages by giving me the dolls and by explaining how to interact with them. It affected me cognitively because I learned my gender specific role of knowing how to hold a baby the proper way. This is an example of the social cognitive theory of gender. This theory says that children learn gender development through others and through behavior that is either rewarded or punished (Santrock,
Military Child Identity
My dad is in the army, therefore my family and I have to move every three to five years wherever he is told to go. I have lived in Montana, Oklahoma, Utah, Arizona, and Germany. When we lived in Germany, we lived on a military base and I went to an American school with other children who were in …show more content…
My peers viewed me differently. I was an American who grew up in another country and I felt like an outsider. I received explicit social messages from my peers that let me know that I was different. I was called names such as “army brat” and would consider myself to fall into the peer status as a rejected child. According to Santrock, a rejected child is one who is disliked by their peers and that no one considers to be a best friend (2014). These social messages greatly impacted my development.
Another way I was socially impacted was by having to make new friends and then being forced to move away from them. Every time I started to feel as though I fit in, I would have to move away again to an entirely new place and have to start all over. It affected my peer status because I was always the new girl. It impacts my social development in adulthood because I am able to relate to a more wider, diverse group of people because of my exposure to other …show more content…
I was intrigued by baby dolls and they were all I wanted when we went to the store. I would enjoy playing house and I loved pretending to be a mother with a large family. My mother would tell me it was not nice if I was not holding the baby doll correctly. She was conveying social messages by giving me the dolls and by explaining how to interact with them. It affected me cognitively because I learned my gender specific role of knowing how to hold a baby the proper way. This is an example of the social cognitive theory of gender. This theory says that children learn gender development through others and through behavior that is either rewarded or punished (Santrock,