PRINCIPLES OF PSYCHOLOGY

WEEKDAY CLASS
ASSIGNMENT 4

The following assignment carries a total of 10 marks. Attempt all parts.

1. Ahmed is in his 30’s and he has not been able to establish himself in his career or his
personal life. Ahmed is working in a 9-5 office job where he mostly drags himself out of
his bed in the morning to get ready for work. He only gets the bare minimum done.
Whenever someone asks him the reason he chose to work in marketing, besides the
notion that he’ll earn a lot of money, Ahmed seems to be clueless.

When applying for an MS-Marketing program in the US, Ahmed was found Googling for
tips on how to write the personal statement essay, which is an essay where you write
about ‘who you are as an individual’ and ‘the reason you want to apply for the program’.

Ahmed doesn’t have any close friends on whom he can confide in and he doesn’t know
the type of friends he would like to have. Whenever his mother asks what type of a girl
he would like to get married to, Ahmed just replies ‘whatever you think is best’.

Ahmed slowly started finding himself feel depressed due to the thoughts in his mind,
questioning the purpose of his existence. Due to this, his performance in his job went
from average to poor and noticing Ahmed’s irritable behavior his boss referred him to the
therapist in their company.

In his sessions Ahmed’s therapist found out that he had a difficult adolescence. His
parents, although very caring people, did not let Ahmed have the independence he
desired. His parents mostly made the decisions for him in terms of his career and even his
social life. Whenever Ahmed protested to their cultural views, and the choices they made;
his parents always made him feel guilty for not having the same views as them. There
used to be intense fights whenever Ahmed protested to certain decisions and one time he
was kicked out of the house by his father for not abiding by his decisions. Being in his
teens and not equipped to survive in the world alone Ahmed decided to listen and
implement all the decisions his parents made for him instead of understanding and
deciding things for himself.

Using concepts from Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development answer the following
questions: (10)

a. Which psychosocial crisis is Ahmed experiencing? (1)

 Intimacy vs Isolation.
b. At what age does one experience the psychosocial crisis mentioned in part a (1)
At stage 6.

c. What is the basic strength of that psychosocial crisis? (1)

Love.

d. Define the basic strength mentioned in part c. (1)

It is the basis of the psychosocial crisis because during this time of age a person is
looking for someone to take care of and who can give that care back which leads towards
love.

e. What happens if the psychosocial crisis mentioned in part a is not resolved

(1)
A person becomes isolated, lonely and even depressed.

f. In context of the information given in the case, explain how Ahmed’s psychosocial crisis
(mentioned in part a) was addressed and how has this impacted his work and personal
life along with his mental health? (5)
During the 4th stage of development where the psychosocial crisis is initiative vs guilt
where the basic virtue is purpose, the purpose in every aspect of life, the stage where the
child initiates to the process of independence, his parents were very controlling of him
and did not let him take actions and making him feel guilty of not inheriting his parents
beliefs. His father kicked him out of the house when he protested and demanded a degree
of autonomy, this was the stage of Identity vs Role Confusion with fidelity being the
basic virtue and, this incident led Ahmed to role confusion where he does not understand
his identity and role in the society. That is why Ahmed is doing a job without even
knowing the reason he started the job and he seems not to like the job too.

FA18-BBAH-0043
WALI MUHAMMAD