Developmental Psychology Independent Project #2
Joe Shmoe (not his real name) is a sixty year old Caucasian male. He is a dentist, a divorced (after twenty five years of marriage) father of four. He has been neurotic his whole life, although his self-criticism has slightly improved over the years. He has changed from extremely introverted to fairly extroverted over the course of his life. He seems to have never been terribly open to new experiences. As far as conscientiousness, Joe is a “workaholic” if there ever was one, and he has always been this way. Joe is very agreeable. He was pleasant to be around, and had the ability and willingness to run with any topic of conversation I introduced.
Joes’ marriage to Patsy (not her real name) was the ideal communal model of love for almost twenty years. They were madly in love in their early twenties, when they got married and proceeded to have four children. Towards Joes’ forties his marriage began to dwindle. He became more emotionally distant/ involved in his work, and Patsy transformed from having a secure attachment to having a suspicious insecure attachment of love (with just reason). As Joe grew more in love with his work in dentistry he developed an intimate relationship with his dental hygienist. At the age of forty-five Joe had what he referred to as his mid-life crisis. This mid-life crisis allegedly began when he cheated on Patsy and asked for a divorce. After the divorce Joe “picked up drinking again”, moved out on his own, and left the kids to Patsy (although he continued financially supporting his kids). His mid-life crisis was a failure in the respect that it caused stagnation and decline in many aspects of Joe’s life. He quit going to the church he was a deacon of as he shied away from Christianity. His interests became increasingly self-centered during his forties, and he spent much of his time and money on self-gratifying hobbies (new boat, paying to build a new pond, expensive guitars,...