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Beginnings
I Courtney Nicole Copeland was born to Michelle and MIchael Copeland on Sept. 26th 1987. I am the second child so my mother was well versed in prenatal care. My mother whom is a smoker stopped smoking for her entire pregnancy with me but my father continued to smoke, exposing my mother to 2nd hand smoke, therefore exposing me an unborn fetus to 2nd hand smoke. I was born a healthy baby with no complications at birth. -
First Two Years
Cognitive: According to my mother through discussion I successfully went through the six stages of sensorimotor intelligence and I started to babble trying to communicate. -
First Two Years
Psychosocial: My developing emotions appear to be that on the normal end according to picutres and conversation. I do feel as though I was attached with my mother because she was the more stable parent. My father was in and out of the picture causing dysruption. Often, my mother raised us as a single parent, allocare was important. I was often looked after by a family member or neighbor, i never went to a daycare setting. -
First Two years
Biosocial: I was born a healthy baby and continued to achieve normal baby milestones with experience-expectant brain functions. I was vaccinated according to guidelines with no adverse effects. I was breast fed until the age of one. -
Early Childhood
Biosocial: early childhood nutrition was adequate. I found my dominant hand to be my right. In these years I went from feeding myself with a spoon to riding a bicycle by myself to dressing myself in the morning. I started having organized ideas, sing in rhythm and climb trees to do cartwheels and catch balls with accuracy. I rememer getting excited because I was able to do a lot of things that my older sister was able to do. -
Early Childhood
Cognitive: animism was a big part of my childhood, I use to think my dolls that I played with during the day came awake at night and played in my room without me. I consider my older sister my mentor, I wanted to be just like her. I remember trying to do my own hair like hers in a braid, she would help me but then try to teach me how to do it myself. -
Early Childhood
Psychosocial: Intrinsic motivation was evident in my early childhood. I had an imaginary friend named benny that would go with me wherever I went. Going back to our discussion piece I discovered that my mother was an authotitative parent. My mother was strict with her rules but took into consideration my thoughts or reasoning. I was a girly girl, I had gender schema, I don't rememver having trouble knowing the difference in genders. -
Middle Childhood
Biosocial: At this age I suffered from multiple asthamatic attacks resulting in hospital stays. With asthma I had difficulty running and playing with the other kids, I remember always having to sit out or take breathing treatments after playing for 15-20minutes. I had to sit out in gym class as a child because most teachers didn't know how to handle an asthmatic child. I am against the odds according to the book, I grew up on a farm, I am the second child and I was a natural birth. -
Middle Childhood
Cognitive: I remember listening to my parents or the "adults" talking and knowing what they were talking about hence I wasn't allowed to hang out in the same room as the adults. Learning to read was a struggle but I got so excited when I was able to read an entire paragraph and understand the context. -
Middle Childhood
Psychosocial: I remember getting more responsibility around this age. Having chores to earn money to buy things that I wanted instead of what I needed. At this age I started to have stresses but found ways to work through it. I was raised in a well functioning family. My family provided all of the needs of a child in middle childhood. Although my family was close, my freinds became very important at this age. -
Adolescence
Biosocial Developement: This is the stage when puberty begins and your body starts to have phyical changes. Unfortunately I was a late bloomer which led to a lot of teasing and feelings of not fitting in with my friends. Nutrition is important and I can say my mom was always an advocate for no pop, fruit instead of processed which has helped with my eating habits still. -
Adolecence
Cognitive Developement: This stage is particularly hard to look back on because I was a brat and everything revolved around me. I remember wearing bright blue eye shadow because i thought it made me stand out and different. The digital world was just starting at this point, I remember begging my parents to buy a computer so I could chat online with my friends like everyone else was doing. -
Adolecence
Psychosocial Developement: I remeber this stage as being particularly hard, trying to be my own person and still fit in with all of my friends. I will say that I experience role confusion, my parents were worried that I was too much of a social butterfly and didn't care enough about my future. Up until this point my family ate dinner together every Sunday because our schedules were so hectic this was the only time for everyone to catch up. I was a cheerleader so my teammates became my friends. -
Emerging Adulthood
Biosocial Developement: I was very active in this stage, involved in Cheerleading and Track and Field. I started dating my now Husband as a sophomore in High School. We were sexually active. My sister had a child at age 16 so it was important to me to not have that happen to me. I never experienced with drugs, we had the occasional party with drinking but it was a huge part of my life like some of my classmates. -
Emerging Adulthood
Cognitive Developement: This was my freshman year at College. First time on my own, away from my parents, free to make all of my own decisions. I started my college education as undecided because I still wasnt' sure on what I wanted to do for a living. -
Emerging Adulthood
Psychosocial Developement: I am still with my longterm boyfriend, I left college and went to a vocational school after realizing college life was not fit for me. My husband graduated with a bachelors degree and we moved to another state. We got engaged this year. This was tough, all of my family and friends were back home and making new friends at this point in life was challenging. I picked up roller derby to find girls with a common interest. -
Adulthood
Psychosocial Developement: I was married on this day, my husband and I had been together for 10 years at this point. My mom is like my best friend and I appreciate my parents on another level at this point. -
Adulthood
Biosocial Developement: I decided at this age that I did not want to have children. I started birth control for the first time. Social drinking is more common in my life at this point. My weight fluctuates constantly. I have yearly check ups, my health is great. I have excercize enduced asthma but is controlled. -
Adulthood
Cognitive Developement: I am a full time Nurse at a Rehabilitation center. I train all of the incoming nurses. I am going back to school to further my education. -
Adulthood
Graduate from Schoolcraft with my RN ADN. Working full-time and going to school full-time to achieve one of my life goals. -
Late Adulthood
Biosocial: I don't plan to retire early, I enjoy working and having a busy schedule so I anticipate having to experience some ageism with working with younger generations as a late adult. I hope to make some great changes in my life that include a healthier diet and exercising to better myself thus helping myself when I get to the late adulthood status. I hope that I experience primary aging only and not secondary aging. -
Late Adulthood
Cognitive: This is something that I am particularly afraid of, I already find myself having difficulty with remembering and details I dread this getting worse. I try to exercise my brain as much as possible to help minimize these symptoms. Alzheimers and dementia do not run in my family, Depression on the other hand does. Stress causes me to have depression like symptoms now so it is something that I am going to have to be careful about and monitor for symptoms in this stage of my life. -
Late Adulthood
I hope to experience my final stage of developement like Erikson theorized. Integrity versus despair. When I look back on my lifetime I want to view it as an accomplishment and pass stories on to my loved ones about all of my adventures and trying times and be proud of my personal history, the small notch in the world that was my life. -
Epilogue
I believe that being happy is the best medicine, and I mean truly happy, not about how nice your car is or how big your house is. I believe that life stresses me out and sometimes I get down in the dumps but overall I am a very lucky and happy person. I have a wonderful husband, steady health and a great life plan. I plan on dying at the age of 87 as a happy old women. Even if I die by fatal illness I will be happy because I will know that my life was full of wonder, adventure and happiness.