“Time of My Life: My Childhood Memory”

While discussing my childhood days

openly with my parents, I have come to

realize how an individual's childhood

experiences matter in molding one's

personality. With this, I come to know how the

theories discussed in the past have played a

role in identifying the agents that are relevant

while I grow up in my very own environment

as the person I am now. Through this

reflection, I have come to understand the

importance of the theories of nature versus

nurture in influencing a person's character

and life outcomes. Over time, I have begun to recognize that my personality and life

outcome have been heavily shaped by both my environment and inherited genetics, but

childhood experiences play the most vital role in shaping a person.

In my own experience, the most significant theory is Lawrence Kohlberg's Moral

Development Theory. In the past, I was always tasked with taking care of my younger

brothers in exchange for a reward, whether material or non-material, which correlates to

the second stage of Lawrence Kohlberg's theory. This theory states that at this stage,

one is motivated by rewards and punishments that exist within their own social context,

which explains my behavior for the past couple of years. Moreover, while I was young, I

tend to get scolded whenever I played boy's stuff instead of girl's stuff since I was more
into those things that my brothers loved to

play as I was the only girl among us. So

growing up, I learned that following the rules

would lead to rewards, while not following

them would have consequences, either a

reward or a punishment.

Therefore, I think that the second

stage of Kohlberg's theory is quite accurate

when it comes to my own experience, which I

have had throughout my life and which has

held a strong sense of justice based on the

rewards and punishments that I encountered in my social environment. Furthermore, as

I became a teenager, I became someone who was constantly in need of society's

approval. I wanted to be accepted by my peers and admired for conforming to their

standards, so I strived to stay within the boundaries that society set for me. In this way,

my own sense of justice was

determined by a combination

of both external influences,

such as rewards and

punishments, and an internal

need to conform to societal

expectations. This is an apt

description of Kohlberg's
second stage, in which justice is determined by what one perceives as right or wrong

according to social norms and expectations. I was motivated to act in a way that would

bring approval from my peers, and I followed social rules in order to fit in. At the same

time, I was also aware that certain rules of conduct were expected of me and that there

could be consequences if I stepped outside those boundaries. As a result, I believe

Kohlberg's second stage of justice is an accurate portrayal of my own experiences as a

child.

JANA JEMIMA D. ABDULLAH

STEM 11-3