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Person Part One & Two

Luiscarlo Martinez

PSY 1100

Dr. Pamela Lemons

12/04/2022
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This is a story about Ringo, but to talk about him and the developmental process of his

physical and cognitive states throughout his life, we have to talk about how he came to be. The

life of Ringo first begins with his parents. His parents will determine how they raise their

children. They will be the first to be a part of his life and the ones who will see how he first

develops emotionally, physically, and intellectually. His parents will also be the ones who pass

on their genes to Ringo.

Eric is a shy teen, who comes from a divorced family. While Kelly is an outgoing,

talkative girl who came from a “normal” family. The two met at a college party, and even while

being polar opposites to each other they instantly hit it off and dated for 3 years before settling

down and getting married. They had talked about having children and decided to have one.

After trying for a few months, Eric and Kelly are expecting their first child. Kelly is nine weeks

pregnant, this is called the embryonic stage. This stage occurs within the first eight weeks of

conception and begins to develop three different layers which contain different systems such as

respiratory, circulatory, and sensory systems. (Santrock 2021, p. 52).

Kelly who is now in the fetal period of pregnancy, which is the period after the first two

months after conception (Santrock 2021, p. 54), is now at the four-month mark of pregnancy and

is wondering how big her child is. They learn after visiting the doctor that the baby is now

around four inches long which is the size of an apple (Santrock 2021, p. 54). At this stage of

development, the fetus’s heartbeat is strong, the skin is transparent, and it is starting to have

some coordinated movements(Santrock 2021, p. 55). Eric and Kelly can also find out the gender

of the baby but prefer to keep it a surprise until they hear their baby cry.

A few months pass and Kelly is worried about their baby's health during her pregnancy.

Despite having regular checkups with good news from the doctor Kelly is constantly anxious and
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stressed about how the baby is doing. Her husband Eric had mentioned this to their doctor and he

had said she was in good health and eating correctly and that malnourished mothers have a

higher chance of giving birth to a child with issues or malformations (Santrock 2021, p. 63). This

is something she did not have to worry about since she was keeping up with her caloric intake.

Eric reminded Kelly to keep her stress low if she could help it since anxiety and stress

during pregnancy can lead to cognitive and psychological problems (Santrock 2021, p. 64). Eric

reassured her that everything would be okay and that worrying was a normal part of being a

parent, but to try not to put not just her health but the baby’s in jeopardy as well. A suggestion

made by her husband was for both of them to exercise daily as a couple. This would help since

exercising while pregnant helps keep stress down and maintains a healthy weight during

pregnancy (Santrock 2021, p. 65). Of course, Eric insisted on coming with support and

motivation for one another.

Six months pass and it is time for the baby to meet the world. While at home making a

snack, Kelly’s water breaks. She has been expecting this since she is at the nine-month mark.

Kelly tells her husband that it is time to go to the hospital and deliver the baby. Kelly enters the

first stage of the birth process. This process is considered to be the longest of the three stages. In

this stage, Kelly begins to feel contractions that can go from fifteen to twenty minutes apart and

can last up to a minute (Santrock 2021, p. 67). The contractions begin to happen every two to

five minutes, getting faster. This process can last up to six to twelve hours for a woman having

her first child (Santrock 2021, p. 67). The first process took Kelly seven hours to get through.

The second stage has begun, and the baby’s head has now started to move through the

cervix. (Santrock 2021, p. 67). Eric is holding Kelly’s hand as the second process ends and they

are now parents of a beautiful baby boy. The birth process completes with the end of the third
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and shortest process when “the placenta, umbilical cord, and other membranes are detached and

expelled” (Santrock 2021, p. 67). Kelly holds Ringo shortly after giving birth to him, this forms a

physical relationship called bonding. According to research, bonding is a “parent-infant

relationship, formation of a connection” (Santrock 2021, p. 74). This attachment can lead to

better development while Ringo is growing up.

Ringo was the name given to the new face in the family. He was born at a healthy weight

of seven pounds and is twenty inches, This is in the range for ninety-five percent of all full-term

babies in the United States (Santrock 2021, p. 80). Before being discharged, he explains that

some of this weight, anywhere between five to seven percent, may leave the newborn in the first

couple of days as they are adjusting to digesting and swallowing. (Santrock 2021, p. 80). He tells

Kelly and Eric if they see this type of weight loss occur, to not worry. After Ringo adjusts he will

begin to grow rapidly.

After coming home from the hospital, the brand-new parents were excited. Excited to

have their child come with them and experience life together as a family. Exciting was not the

only feeling the new parents had. Underneath the excitement, they were nervous and worried

about what could happen to Ringo if they were not watching him. They noticed he had been

sleeping more than they had expected. Ringo was sleeping around seventeen hours a day. This is

a normal amount, the recommended sleep for a newborn to be getting should be around fourteen

to seventeen hours of sleep per day (Santrock 2021, p. 84). It is important for the parents to keep

Ringo on a consistent bedtime routine to help prevent nighttime awakenings (Santrock 2021, p.

84). This will help both the parents and Ringo get to sleep.

The main concern the parents had was leaving Ringo unsupervised while sleeping, the

main stressor and cause of anxiety was the possibility of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS).
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“SIDS is a condition that occurs when an infant stops breathing suddenly, usually during the

night, and dies suddenly without apparent cause” (Santrock 2021, p. 84). Eric and Kelly have

been taking the right steps to prevent this from happening. A common cause of SIDS they make

sure to avoid is bed-sharing and placing Ringo on his stomach while sleeping. Sleeping on his

back instead lets him get “increased access to fresh air” (Santrock 2021, p. 84). SIDS is

something all parents want to avoid, and Ringo's parents are taking the appropriate steps to

prevent this from happening.

A few months now pass, and as Ringo becomes older he starts to develop some emotions

such as joy, surprise, fear, and anger. While Kelly is singing to Ringo he smiles at her, and she

also notices Ringo smiling in his sleep. These types of smiles Ringo does are called a reflexive

smile which is usually done during his sleep (Santrock 2021, p. 121). When Ringo smiled at his

mother while she was singing, that was called a social smile. This smile occurs in response to

some sort of external stimuli (Santrock 2021, p. 121).

While visiting a friend's house with Ringo, Kelly notices that Ringo is not having a hard

time adapting to his environment. Instead, he is accepting of unfamiliar surroundings and is in a

positive mood with strangers. Kelly found this odd since she has seen other babies react

negatively to new surroundings. These different behavioral styles in children are called

temperaments. These temperaments “refers to individual differences in how quickly emotion is

shown, and how strong it is, how long it lasts and how quickly it fades away” (Santrock 2021, p.

123). Ringo can be described as an “easy child”, a child who is in a good mood and can adapt to

his surroundings. While the other child who reacted negatively can be classified as a “difficult

child.
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Ringo is now four years old and has been developing his fine motor skills. They first

started to come into play when he was around three years old. He could clumsily pick up an

object between his thumb and forefinger (Santrock 2021, p. 147). Now at four years old, he has

more precise control over his motor skills. Ringo is now able to draw, his father sees that his

drawings resemble things in his day-to-day life. He draws trees, cars, and even his dog. Ringo is

now at the preoperational stage. This stage spans from two years of age to year seven. He can

represent the world with words, images, and drawings (Santrock 2021, p.151).

Ringo is now in his middle-late childhood age, and his parents are letting him be a part of

more exercise activities and do not allow him to have so much screen time. They encourage him

to be a part of sports teams and are also involved in Ringo’s exercise activities. “Parents play

important roles in their children’s exercise levels, growing up with parents who exercise

regularly provides positive models of exercise.” (Santrock 2021, p. 205). When Ringo exercises

consecutively, his attention span and his academic success can increase. On the other hand, if

Ringo’s parents allowed him to have a lot of screen time it could lead to an increased risk of

being overweight and bad sleep patterns. (Santrock, 2021, p. 205). A lot more children around

Ringo do not exercise as much and prefer screen time, this is something Eric and Kelly do not

want for Ringo.

While in school Ringo is being taught how to read. His teacher is helping him sound out

words in a book. This approach is called the phonics approach. By doing this Ringo “will relate

the spoken phonemes to the alphabet letters that are used to represent them” (Santrock, 2021, p.

229). Ringo’s parents noticed him sounding out words while shopping at the grocery store.

With Ringo getting older, he is starting to spend less and less time with his parents. Eric

and Kelly no longer get to do as many activities as they did with Ringo, but his parents are still
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important in his life. “Parents serve as gatekeepers and provide scaffolding as children assume

more responsibility” (Santrock 2021, p. 249). Ringo now wants to spend more time with his

friends that are the same age and gender as him. Social interaction with Ringo’s peers has

increased by ten percent since year two (Santrock 2021, p. 250). Ringo is very social with his

classmates and peers, he tells his parents that he likes everyone in his class and they like him too.

A popular child is a term to describe Ringo at school, he has many kids who think of him as a

really good friend and is not disliked by his peers.

August twentieth, the first day of eighth grade for Ringo who is now thirteen. He is now

in the adolescence stage of his life. In this stage, Ringo and kids his age will start to try on

different identities, behave differently, and start to try things they might not have done before.

Santrock 2021, p. 266). He starts to see different changes happening to his body over time this is

called puberty, and this is when physical changes will begin to occur.

During this stage of adolescence, Ringo’s brain will undergo some changes. “The corpus

callosum, where nerve fibers connect the brain, thickens in adolescents and this improves

adolescents' memory to process information.” (Santrock 2021, p. 271). Other changes can occur

in the brain, the neurotransmitter dopamine can increase which can increase the chance of drug

use (Santrock 2021, p. 271).

Now in high school, Ringo is 16 and is still the same athletic, friendly kid but with some

new people in his life. While hanging out with a new group of friends, Ringo is asked if he

wants to try marijuana. He accepts because his new friends are doing it and tries drugs for the

first time in his life. According to research “when adolescents’ peers and friends use drugs, the

adolescents are more than likely to also use drugs” (Santrock 2021, p. 283). Because of the

constant use of drugs (although not hard drugs) Ringo’s performance in school began to decline.
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His parents decide to talk to him about what has been going on at school and he tells them about

his drug use and friends. After explaining to them, his parents were understanding what he had

done but decided to impose strict rules to prevent further drug use, which resulted in helping

Ringo. “Parents play an important role in preventing adolescent drug use, parental monitoring is

linked with lower incidence of problem behavior by adolescents” (Santrock 2021, p. 283). Eric

and Kelly hope that their intervention is enough to keep him away from further alcohol or drug

use.

It was ten in the morning when Ringo woke up for school late. He raced out of bed and

quickly put his clothes on as fast as he could. He was never one to be late to class. In the chaos of

getting ready for school, Ringo did not do his hair, His hair did not look bad undone. But to him,

if he did not have his hair done it was the end of the world. He showed up to class and realized

he had a cowlick on the back of his head and he was mortified. He felt like all eyes were on him,

it felt like everyone was making fun of him and laughing at him. The feeling of everyone being

as interested in his hair as much as he is called an imaginary audience. This component of

adolescent egocentrism, “encompasses the belief that others are interested in them as themselves,

[they] are noticed, visible and on stage”(Santrock 2021, p. 286). His worst day, when he thought

everyone was watching was just a normal day from the perspective of others.

The last year of high school for Ringo, who is now eighteen, was an experience he will

never forget. Ringo was a late bloomer when it came to relationships. This meant he had never

had a girlfriend or a romantic relationship of any sort. ( Santrock 2021, p. 304) He had met a girl

who he was head over heels for. His parents were worried that his grades might drop because of

a relationship, “Dating and romantic relationships at an early age can be especially problematic,

one study found that romantic activity was linked to depression.” (Santrock 2021, p. 305).
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Instead, she had the opposite effect. She became someone who motivated Ringo to do better in

his academic and personal goals. His girlfriend Sophia would become his first and only love.

The final day of high school had come and Ringo was ready to go and get out of school.

There were plenty of good memories and bad ones as well. With today being graduation day he

wanted to walk down the stage with his friends and his girlfriend, This Rite of passage was

important to Ringo as it marked the transition from being a high school student to a graduated

adult. (Santrock 2021, p. 307).

After graduation, Ringo wanted to go to a party but both Eric and Kelly were against this

since they thought this party was dangerous and he was not allowed to go. Ringo still wanted to

go and an argument ensued. This push for autonomy comes from Ringo wanting his own

responsibility. (Santrock 2021, p. 299). After a long discussion, they decided to let Ringo go to

the party believing him to be responsible. Ringo went out with his friends all night to celebrate

his graduation with his friends.

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Chapter 2

Ringo is now eighteen and now having finished high school he is now in college. He is in

the emerging adulthood stage where he will begin to experience different key features of this

stage in his life. The emerging adulthood stage lasts from the age of eighteen up until twenty-five

(Santrock 2021, p. 319). Although some studies now show that this stage can last until twenty-

nine but more commonly seen within the age group of eighteen to twenty-five (Santrock 2021, p.

319). Some of the few stages or key features that are seen in emerging adulthood are identity

exploration, instability, self-focused, feeling in between, and the age of possibilities.

Ringo has moved out of his parent's home for the first time and is now living in an

apartment close to his college. Ringo is still determining what he is wanting to study, he changes

his mind often and is now currently taking health sciences classes to see if they are interesting.

All of these changes can be a feature of emerging adulthood called instability which is changes

to residences, work, and even education (Santrock 2021, p. 319). In this case, Ringo cannot

decide what program to be in and has just moved away from home. Ringo also does not feel like

a full adult yet, he doesn’t feel like the same adolescent he was before he moved out. This feature

of emerging adulthood is called the feeling in between. He doesn't consider himself either an

adolescent or an adult. (Santrock 2021, p. 319).

With Ringo now starting his few days in college he feels like he is more mature and feels

like he is able to make his own choices. According to research “ Students are more likely to feel

grown up, have more subjects from which to select, opportunities to explore different lifestyles,

and greater independence from parental monitoring” (Santrock 2021, p. 321). Ringo goes out

often with his friends and has the opportunity to explore his interests. On the flip side, when he

talks to his girlfriend, Sophia, she is more anxious and stressed about living away from home.
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She is becoming more anxious and stressed with all the new responsibilities since she left home

to go to college. (Santrock 2021, p. 321).She is an example of someone who does not thrive as

well with new responsibilities.

Ringo has always been athletic, he wakes up early in the morning to start his runs before

class. He can now go further distances on his runs than he could and finish them in shorter times

than in his teens. This is because his physical performance has begun to reach its peak. Most

adults reach their physical peak performance by the age of thirty but in some sports, athletes will

reach their peaks at a later age, sports like golfers and marathon runners. (Santrock 2021, p. 322).

In Ringo’s case, he is starting to see this peak in speed at the age of nineteen. Because of this

constant exercise, Ringo has put himself at a lower risk of getting disorders like heart disease and

diabetes. “One of the main reasons that health experts want people to exercise is that it helps to

prevent disorders such as heart disease and diabetes” (Santrock 2021, p. 324). Ringo’s runs last

an hour a day which meets the recommended time of thirty minutes of exercise a day. Ringo’s

daily exercise also helps lower anxiety and depression, overall Ringo feels satisfied with life,

(Santrock 2021, p. 324). Although Ringo has many healthy habits, he also has some that are

impacting his health.

A bad habit Ringo has recently picked up while away at college is not sleeping. Ringo

stays up late at night and wakes up early in the morning for class. He stays up to finish

homework and go out with his friends. Ringo is among seventy percent of college students that

do not get enough sleep, these sleep-deprived students will try to compensate by drinking energy

drinks which on top of lack of sleep can lead to stress and anxiety. (Santrock 2021, p. 323).

These are one of the many healthy choices that affect young adults in the emerging adult stage of

their lives. Since moving into his apartment, he and his friends have begun going out more often
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to parties and social gatherings and have participated in drinking alcohol. Ringo has a beer or

two socially with friends, but he does not participate in binge drinking. This form of drinking is

having five or more drinks in a row in a short period of time. This can cause students to miss

class, participate in unsafe sex, and have problems with the police.

While living in his apartment Ringo starts to see his roommate's habits when it comes to

their lifestyle. He notices that they do not exercise regularly and are eating meals that have no

nutritional value at all, all for the sake of convenience. Emerging adults compared to adolescents

or infants, have the knowledge to prevent illness and improve their health but often don’t do so.

A study shows that “bad habits engaged in adolescence, increased in emerging adulthood.

Inactivity, poor food choices, obesity, substance use, lack of reproductive health care, and

insufficient health-care access worsened in emerging adulthood (Santrock 2021, p. 323). In this

case, his roommates would start to gain weight since they were eating more fast food places and

not exercising at all, leading to an increase in health problems.

The relationship between Ringo and Sophia is Ringo’s first-ever relationship. Even

though they don’t live together and have different friend groups with parties and activities, Ringo

trusts Sophia and does not stress about their relationship. He thinks positively of them as a

couple even as there is less time spent due to school. This can be called a secure attachment style

(Santrock, p. 344). Sophia has more of an avoidant attachment style, she will try to distance

herself from Ringo at times. (Santrock, p. 345). With Sophia’s attachment style being so

different, Ringo understands and works together with her.

Ringo and Sophia are now twenty-two and have decided to move in together before

getting married. This form of living together is called cohabiting. “Cohabitation refers to living

in a sexual relationship without being married. (Santrock, p.350). However, research shows that
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cohabitation can result in lower marital satisfaction and marital instability in first marriages to be

weak, (Santrock, p. 350). This is something Ringo and Sophia wanted to explore. They both are

now employed after graduating and want to begin their life together and believed the first step

for this was to move in together.

Now engaged for a few months, and marriage is soon to be an exciting event in both the

lives of the couple, Sophia brings up the idea of seeing a specialist in premarital education as it

could help them with their soon-to-be marriage. “Premarital education was linked to a higher

level of marital satisfaction and commitment to a spouse, and 31 percent lower likelihood of

divorce”. (Santrock, p.352). This is something the couple commits to doing in order to ensure a

smooth start to the rest of their lives.

Having gone through many changes in the early adult stage of his life, from the instability

of first moving out with friends and then with his wife Sophia, to the instability of not knowing

what to study. Ringo is about to receive the news of the biggest change in his life, one that will

change it forever. When a now twenty-five-year-old Ringo came home from a long shift as a

nurse, his wife had news, They are now expecting a child.

Now with some gray hair starting to show Ringo who is now forty years old, is the father

of a fifteen-year-old boy Andres. Ringo is now in the middle adulthood stage of his life, In this

stage, Ringo will start to show visible signs of aging like his thinning hair and streaks of gray

showing in his scalp and Ringo will become more conscious of the time he has left and will try

to pass on something meaningful to the next generation. (Santrock, p. 367). Ringo has also

noticed that he is not as strong as he was when he was younger. This loss of strength and muscle

mass that Ringo has experienced with aging is called sarcopenia ( Santrock, p.368).
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Though they have seen a decrease in his physical ability, Ringo and Sophia keep up with

their daily exercise and eat healthy food which helps keep him from having health issues like

cardiovascular problems like hypertension and heart disease. According to research, there are

strategies to improve cardiovascular health, “American heart association has proposed a list of

strategies for improving cardiovascular health, these seven strategies are: manage blood pressure,

control cholesterol, reduce blood sugar, get active, lose weight, quit smoking” (Santrock, p.369).

Ringo and his wife have been applying these to their lives already. They do not smoke, are in a

healthy weight range from constant exercise, and maintain cholesterol by eating healthy.

Sophia who is now also in her forties is experiencing changes of her own. She has hit

menopause, Which means her period has completely ceased. Although the average age for this to

happen to women is fifty-one, there is a variation of menopause occurring in women ages thirty-

nine to fifty-nine years old (Santrock, p. 371). Symptoms that Sophia can experience from

menopause are hot flashes, nausea, and tachycardia. This is due to a decline of estrogen produced

in her body which can result in these symptoms (Santrock, p.371). Although many women

experience these symptoms, not all women do.

Even with busy lives Ringo and Sophia understand the importance of having some leisure

time to themselves. “Leisure refers to the pleasant times after work when individuals are free to

pursue activities and interests of their own choosing” (Santrock p. 379). Leisure is very

important as research shows that “What U.S. adults regret the most, not engaging in more leisure

time pursuits was one of the top six regrets”(Santrock, p.378). Ringo and Sophia like to use their

leisure time away, not just from work, but from their child as well, to play golf and travel around

the world.
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Marriage with Sophia and Ringo is able to work, unlike so many others who end up in

divorce. Ringo thinks this is because they engage in activities together. “Middle-aged partners

are more likely to view their marriage favorably if they engage in mutual activities: (Santrock,

p.392). The couple who is going on fifteen years of marriage frequently play golf and go on

walks together. The main reasons for divorces like abuse, cheating, and different values are not

an issue for them. The two tend to talk out their problems and have no plans of cheating on one

another.

Five years have passed and their son Andres is now twenty. Now it is his turn to leave

home and explore the different paths to take his life. After he left, rather than Ringo and Sophia

experiencing what is called empty nest syndrome which is a decline in marital satisfaction

(Santrock, p.394), Andres leaving had the opposite effect, the couple had a greater increase in

marital satisfaction. They were able to start pursuing interests and hobbies they wanted to do

since they had more free time. They both wanted to try art, so they converted Andres’ old room

into an art studio to explore this hobby.

Now sixty-nine years old Ringo is an older man in his late adulthood. He is starting to

have a decline in his physical in mental health. Ringo is having a hard time recounting episodic

memories, these are memories and experiences from his life. The older the memories are the

harder is to remember them and they are less accurate (Santrock, p.418). His son Andres notices

this when he tries to recall memories from vacations he has been on to his grandkids and stories

from his youth.

Ringo is now retired and is adjusted well to his new life according to studies “ adults who

adjust best to retirement are healthy, have adequate income, are active, are educated” (Santrock,

p.426). Ringo has always been active and Sophia has come along with him to do physical
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activities and hobbies like golf walks, etc. Ringo has had a good job over the years and is

comfortable in retirement.

Ringo has lived a long life and he feels like he has no regrets. He lived an active and

healthy lifestyle with a few choices some would consider bad. He went to school and got married

to his only girlfriend. He had a child and grandkids of his own. In a life with many possible

outcomes and paths, he is happy with the way his turned out.
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References

Santrock, John. “Essentials of Life-Span Development.” Essentials of Life-Span Development, 5

Jan. 2021, https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/essentials-life-span-
development-santrock/M9781260726800.html.