6.10: Personal Application Questions
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26 .
Reflect on a time in your early childhood when you wanted to take initiative in a new activity or social situation. How did the adults around you respond? Did their response encourage or discourage your sense of initiative? How does your experience relate to Erikson’s stage, initiative versus guilt? How do you think this experience has influenced your willingness to take initiative in new situations today?
27 .
Consider your ability to regulate your emotions as a child. Were there specific strategies or techniques that you used to calm down or manage your feelings? How do these early experiences with emotional regulation compare to the strategies you use today? Reflect on how early experiences with emotional regulation have shaped your current emotional intelligence.
28 .
Consider your early understanding of gender roles and identity. How did your family, school, media, and toy/play preferences shape your views on gender during early childhood? Reflect on how these early experiences may have influenced your current views on gender.
29 .
Think about a time during your early childhood when you first became aware of racial or ethnic differences. How did your environment (e.g., family, community, media) influence your understanding of race? Reflect on how these early experiences have shaped your current perspectives on racial identity and diversity.
30 .
Reflect on your own childhood experiences with your caregivers. How would you describe their parenting styles? Did they use a more authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, or neglectful approach? How do you think that parenting style influenced your development and your relationships with others?
31 .
Consider the rewards and punishments used in your family or by your caregivers when you were growing up. Were you more motivated by praise and rewards or by avoiding punishment? Reflect on how these experiences shaped your behavior, self-discipline, and attitudes toward rules and authority.
32 .
Think about the influence of siblings in your early childhood, if applicable. How did having siblings (or not having siblings) impact your social and emotional development? Reflect on whether sibling rivalry, cooperation, or role modeling played a role in shaping your personality and relationships.
33 .
Reflect on your early childhood experiences with friendships. What qualities did you value most in a friend at that age, and how did those friendships impact your sense of belonging and identity? Consider how your early experiences with peers shaped your current approach to building and maintaining relationships.
34 .
Recall a time when you were either excluded from or included in a group during early childhood. How did this experience make you feel, and how did it affect your understanding of friendship and social belonging? Reflect on how such early experiences might influence your social behavior and preferences today.
35 .
Can you remember a time when you experienced aggression as a child? Reflect on the type of aggression. Describe the aggression in terms of dimensions based in the text. For instance, was the aggression instrumental or hostile? Were you the instigator or the reactor? Were there consequences for this behavior, and did they come from parents, teachers, peers, or something else? How did you respond to these consequences, and did they influence your behavior moving forward?
36 .
How has the presence of technology and media impacted the way children develop socially and emotionally? Reflect on your experiences or observations. How do you think limited or increased screen time could influence a child’s ability to connect with others face-to-face?
37 .
Consider a favorite TV show or digital content from your childhood. What values or behaviors did it promote? Reflect on how such content might have influenced your social interactions, attitudes, or understanding of the world.
38 .
Think about a young child you know. How do their media habits (e.g., watching YouTube, playing video games, etc.) compare with the way you interacted with media at their age? How do you believe this shift in media exposure could impact their long-term development?