Life Story Synthesis

Amalyne Chongchareun, Dion Bui, and Emmanuel Santuray

Emerging Adulthood (18-25 years)
Life Chapters:
- Oblivion (newborn-9 years old):
- Not knowing what he should know
about the world
- Curiosity (9-17 years old):
- Questioning how the world works,
finding his place, seeking education
- Awareness (17-20 years old):
- Learning to use knowledge, time and
resources more efficiently to
accomplish goals
Critical Events:
- Peak Experience:
- Making his first sale → Influenced his
pursuit in finance and investments
- Nadir Experience:
- Stress → Job ended, needed to pay rent,
finals week → Perseverance, resilience
- Turning Point:
- Huge argument with dad → Learned to
appreciate
Emerging Adulthood (continued)
Life Challenges:
- Balancing personal life with school life
- Finding the separation and dealing
with it day by day
- Outcome:
- Became more resilient, learned to
cope
- Able to desensitized unnecessary
emotions that hinder productivity
(overthinking)
Influences:
- Positive:
- Family and close neighbors
- Taught him morals and responsibility
- Erikson’s 6th stage of intimacy vs. isolation
- Negative:
- Himself
- You can only blame yourself
- If you fail to prepare, you’re prepared to fail
- Failure from chance or lack of preparation
Emerging Adulthood (continued)
Alternative Futures:
- Positive:
- Living independently, healthy
- Being financially free (no worries)
- Working in finance
- Parents having their dream home
- Negative:
- Dead end job/ jobless
- Living at home with parents
- No support
Life Theme: Don’t stop working for what you want.
Personal Ideology:
- Catholic, monotheism, afterlife
- Religion → individual pursuit to be content,
not involving society; for morals rather than
judgement
- Important value:
- Integrity → keeping one’s word, trust,
healthy relationships
- Fundamental beliefs:
- Do everything fully and with purpose, don’t
let the world break you, stay humble
Middle Adulthood (30-60 years)
Life Chapters: Critical Events:

- Winnipeg (birth-6 years old): - Peak Experience:

- Born & raised in a family home - Graduating from college a second time and
- University (18-22 years old): becoming an x-ray technician → Glad to
- New language, newly found finish the most demanding time of his life
independence, education and get a career out of it
- Nadir Experience:
- Receiving his first paycheck → Had goals of
buying a home and a car, but realized the
pay was not enough (felt disappointed since
he worked so hard)
- Turning Point:
- Move to LA → Wanted to be independent
and risk everything to get what he wanted
Middle Adulthood (continued)
Life Challenge:

Becoming fully independent Influences:

- Relied on parents for housing,
groceries/food, and laundry until age - Positive:
30 - Friends from college
- College was his favorite time in life
- Needed help finding a place to stay - Life was simple
when moving to LA from Canada - Negative:
- Outcome: - The tax man
- - Takes his hard earned money
Learned how to deal with situations on
- Has things he would do differently, but has
his own
no negative influences
- No longer relies on anyone for needs
- Achieved need for esteem
Middle Adulthood (continued)
Alternative Futures: Personal Ideology:

- Positive: - Raised Catholic

- Financially stable
- Belief in higher power that is looking out for
- Ability to travel and see the world him, although it may not correlate with the
- Start a family (marry and have kids) Bible
- - The church is not what it used to be
Negative:
-
- Important value:
Unable to retire at a good age
- Gratitude → being grateful for one’s life
- Stuck in a small apartment
- Fundamental beliefs:
- Single forever with no kids or wife - Be grateful for the one life you have. Be
careful with what you do and cherish every
moment.

Life Theme: Don’t be afraid to risk everything to get what you

Late Adulthood (65+ years)
Critical Events:
Life Chapters:
- Saudi Arabia (28 - 30 years old)
- First time she left the Philippines (country of
birth) to provide for her mother and siblings
- Experienced a cultural shift and adjusted to
it
- Newlywed (37-40 years old)
- found out of his passing when she visited
Met her husband, a former classmate, at a
job recruitment center
- Had to part ways after being married in
order to continue supporting each of their
own families
- Worked abroad in different countries
- Peak Experience:
- Marriage → Change of pace in her personal
life with it being more than just school or
work; met new people through extended
family
- Nadir Experience:
- Death of father → Guilt over working when
father past away. Promised to visit and
the day after
- Turning Point:
- Moving to the US with her family → Left a
fairly stable life in UAE to seek better
work/living, but had to start all over
(Rented out a tiny room for the family,
unemployed with no license/experience
within US for nearly 5 months
Late Adulthood (continued)
Life Challenges: Influences:

- Being able to support herself, her own - Positive:

- Her father
family, and the family back home
- Guided her in choosing a career path
- Making big decisions, like working - Encouraged to set higher goals for
abroad, after her father’s passing herself and dream
- Outcome: - To strive for success
- Lessened the fear of taking risks - Negative:
- Career - determination for income - Her grandmother
turned into a passion - Treated her and her siblings with
- Became highly independent least respect compared to her
cousins
- Verbal abuse
Late Adulthood (continued)
Alternative Futures: Personal Ideology:

- Positive: - Roman Catholic, monotheistic belief in God

- Last years living strong and healthy;
able to perform Activities of Daily
Living
- Some kind of business or source of
income (putting property for lease)
- Retiring in the Philippines
- Negative:
- open-minded, kind deeds
Being alone and needing lots of
assistance in daily life
- Bedridden illness/vegetative state
- Inability to speak and remember
- Religion → grateful for positive outcomes
and continuous prayers; used to participate
in religion like a routine; now content for the
source of guidance
- Important value:
- Empathy → caring for one another,
understanding someone’s position, being
- Fundamental beliefs:
- Treat others as how you would treat yourself

Life Theme: Don’t waste time. Strive for a life that you can be content with before the end of it.
Emerging Accomplishment
Independence: Accepting responsibility, going to school away from home, new friendships, and
learning how to interact with the world

Erikson’s 6th stage of Psychosocial Development -- Intimacy vs. Isolation

- Intimate and loving relationships/ connections with people to bring deeper self-
understanding
- Influence him and help him grow
Contrast:
- Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle)
- Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Late)
Middle Accomplishment
Graduation: Completed most stressful and demanding part of his life, putting in the hard work
for a career, taught him responsibility and independence, gave him resources for his future
Erikson’s 7th stage of Psychosocial Development: Generativity vs.
Stagnation
- Adults want to be “productive in a caring way”
- Desire to be more than just someone’s son motivated him to
seek a career as an x-ray technician
Contrast:
- Intimacy vs. isolation (Emerging)
- Ego Integrity vs. Despair (Late)
Late Accomplishment
Made the Decision to Work Abroad: Acquired independence, first time she left
her home country, met her husband, supported her family

Erikson’s 8th stage of Psychosocial Development -- Ego Integrity vs. Despair

- Sense of fulfillment and content when looking back in her own life
- Felt accomplished by her achievements and is at peace with herself (having
very few regrets)
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs -- Self-Actualization
- Deep sense of spirituality as evidenced by gratefulness in “God’s love”
Contrast:
- Intimacy vs. Isolation (Early)
- Generativity vs. Stagnation (Middle)
Synthesis:
Each stage had an overall theme of being independent and working for what you want without looking
back.

Life Themes:

Emerging: Don’t stop working for what you want.

Middle: Don’t be afraid to risk everything to get what you want

Late: Don’t waste time. Strive for a life that you can be content with before the end of it.