Biopsychosocial Reflection Paper

I experienced some negative feelings towards Paul as well when he talked about how he spent all his saving on his toys, instead of saving anything. He said that now he wished that he would have bought his wife a real house instead of a trailer home. He said that he’s recently realized that he should have bought her some of the things he always said he would, like a house, but never did. My initial feelings were more negative towards Paul about what he described in the second encounter as he would be reflecting on his life choices. Then I realized that he was experiencing the crisis of Erikson’s life span theory which is ego integrity versus despair (Arnett, 2016, p. 589). In this stage, ego integrity is when an older adult looks back on …show more content…
I had some problems with negative feelings towards Paul that largely had to do with the way he treated his family. It was very difficult for me to listen to Paul talk about how he treated his wife in a way that to him was just normal. He never considered her and always did things for himself. I know that that type of behavior is typical for his generation, but it was difficult for me not to pass judgements towards him. I considered his behavior very selfish throughout our interviews. It was hard to excuse his behavior due to childhood trauma as the way he talked about his marriage indicated that he was emotionally abusive to his wife. My observations of their interactions also indicate that he is emotionally abusive. It is difficult to accept that his treatment of his wife even though I know that it was the norm for his generation and was considered acceptable by the most, especially by the police. The fact that I am aware of the judgements I made against Paul during our encounters can help me prevent it in the future. Instead of judging a client like Paul in the future, I can work on being more understanding as I am aware of my