Week 9 Assignment: Childhood Trauma and Brain Development 150 Points Possible Assignment Overview The purpose of this assignment is to analyze The Boy Who Was Raised As a Dog text by Bruce D. Perry an

Integrating Developmental and Human Behavior Theories in Work with Antwone Fisher

Katherine Alexandre

Capella University

SWK5003

Dr. Eichelberger-Searcy, Kimberly

November 23, 2025

Integrating Developmental and Human Behavior Theories in Work with Antwone Fisher

Introduction

The social work practice is based on the understanding of human behavior in terms of developmental and person in environment perspectives. The case of the film Antwone Fisher (2002) is helpful. Antwone is a late twenties black man who is an African American and a U.S. Navy member. His father was murdered when he was unborn, and his mother was incarcerated, and he spent his childhood life in foster care where he was subjected to severe emotional abuse, physical neglect and inconsistent care givers. He is an adult and has regular anger breakouts and physical attacks on the peers, which are disciplined and referred to the Navy psychiatrist, Dr. Davenport.

The present paper combines the theory of psychosocial development created by Erikson and the ecological systems theory by Bronfenbrenner to inform the assessment, intervention, and evaluation of Antwone. The model by Erikson emphasizes the contribution of unresolved developmental crisis to his present struggle whereas the ecological systems theory describes the impact of various environments on his behavior. These theories when combined can be used to promote a culturally responsive, anti-oppressive approach, which aligns with the social work values.

Human Behavior Theory: Ecological Systems

The theory of ecological system perceives human behavior as a result of interaction between individuals and the environmental system: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem (Bronfenbrenner, 2009). Microsystem incorporates intimate relationships and environments like family, friends and working environment. The mesosystem is the linkages of these environments- such as impact of conflict at work on relationships at home. Exosystem is defined as systems indirectly impacting the individual like child welfare agencies or military policies. The macrosystem refers to cultural values, social norms, and structural conditions and the chronosystem is given to the life transitions and historical context.

This theory is applicable in the case of Antwone since his actions cannot be isolated to childhood mistreatment, racial minority, foster care placement and military culture. The ecological systems theory believes that the assessment and intervention must not be limited to the examination of the pathology of persons but also include the contribution of systems to risk and resilience (Germain & Gitterman). It also addresses the structural imbalance and institutional racism on a macrosystem level, which is in line with the anti-oppressive practice.

Assessment of Antwone Fisher

The psychosocial theory developed by Erikson suggests that there are eight life span stages, each having a center crisis whose resolution aids in the development of healthy personality (Erikson, 1963). The history of Antwone indicates that a number of early stages have been interrupted. His father passed away, his mother was imprisoned, and his foster homes were abusive, which led to his lack of trustful and caring caregivers during trust versus mistrust. He probably formed a long-term mistrust and anticipation of being rejected when he was not shown regular love and protection. Related to autonomy versus shame and doubt, punitive treatment during foster care most likely caused a sense of incompetence and strengthened the feeling of shame, which led to the low self-esteem and inability to control emotions. During the adolescence stage, identity versus role confusion, he was raised as a black male outside of his biological family and cultural agreement, and there were minimal positive accounts of his story. His subsequent quest to find his biological family members and the inability to establish a sense of belonging may be regarded as the efforts to correct the previous developmental deficiencies and build a unified portrayal of self-identity (Kroger, 2020).

The ecological systems theory introduces an ecological system viewpoint person-in-environment. In the microsystem, peers in the Navy, relationship with Cheryl, and work with Dr. Davenport are the elements of the current environment of Antwone. Peer pressure provokes him into anger, although Cheryl and Dr. Davenport provide some support that emerges. The exosystem and a macrosystem involve the child welfare system that put him in unsafe households, the disciplinary system in the Navy and other larger forces of racism, poverty, and stereotypes about black masculinity (Germain & Gitterman, 2020).

Intersectionality takes centre stage. Being Black, male, and once in foster care, as well as being a senior-most sailor, Antwone is disadvantaged, has power disparities, and is deprived of resources. Nevertheless, he displays toughness, hardworking instincts, ability to be intimate, and braveness in facing the painful memories. He has shortcomings of mistrust, anger management problems and poor social supports. On the whole, a combined developmental and ecological evaluation would help to consider the case of his behavior as a rational response to lifelong adversity instead of an individual flaw (Zastrow et al., 2022).

Intervention Plan Based on Ecological Systems Theory

Such an intervention based upon the ecological systems theory focuses on internal coping of Antwone as well as systems that influence his life. Individually, therapy sessions with Dr. Davenport based on trauma informed counseling would assist him in coming to terms with childhood abuse, understanding what causes his anger, and learning other coping mechanisms. Grounding skills and basic cognitive restructuring are some of the techniques that help in emotional regulation. It is important to strengthen the therapeutic alliance in order to overcome his experiences of betrayal and restore trust.

At microsystem and mesosystem, the social worker would promote the development of supportive relationships by Antwone. Cheryl could be involved in relational sessions to talk about triggers in an effort to come up with common conflict management strategies. Work and therapeutic environments would be connected with the assistance of collaboration with his commanding officers, which would provide specific expectations and a more positive reaction toward his progress (Germain & Gitterman, 2020).

On an exosystem and macrosystem level, Antwone and others would be benefited by advocacy in the Navy on such practices as trauma informed and culturally responsive mental health services. Former foster youth or African American veterans can be connected to community groups, and this will help him develop affirming networks (Cootes et al., 2021).

Two short term objectives are to accept the disciplinary incidents within a period of three months and to employ at least two coping mechanisms whenever he is provoked. To have a stable employment and stable relationships without acting out aggressively on a regular basis and to have a higher sense of identity and belonging are two long term goals. These objectives indicate a cross system functioning and the desired improvement of his person-environment fit. Culture and diversity are considered by taking into consideration racism and structural disadvantage and engaging in supports that respect his racial and cultural identity (Zastrow et al., 2022).

Evaluation of Ecological Systems Theory

There are a number of strengths of the ecological systems theory in this case. It puts the activities of Antwone in a web and relationship with a focus on the role of the child welfare practices, racism, and military culture in his miseries. The model is consistent with the person in environment perspective of social work, as well as promotes multi-level intervention (Germain & Gitterman, 2020).

Its weaknesses are its extensive application with little instruction on the particular clinical methods. The ecological systems theory is more abstract when compared to the cognitive behavioral theory (CBT) which provides specific techniques of altering thoughts and behaviors. CBT may assist Antwone to challenge beliefs like no one can be trusted one and may fail to consider structural realities that informed such beliefs. The ecological systems theory is therefore the best to use and methods in models such as CBT are incorporated where necessary.

Considering the aspect of cultural competence, the ecological system theory is overall robust since it expressly recognizes cultural norm and structural conditions on the macrosystem level. An anti-racist and critical angle are also needed to make sure that power and oppression have a central role (Cootes et al., 2021). In general, the theory is quite applicable to Antwone as it is a very complex theory that takes into account both personal and systemic transformation.

Value of Theories for Personal Social Work Practice

The combination of the Eriksonian psychosocial theory and the ecological systems theory has significant implications to the social work practice. The structure by Erikson will guide the practitioners to think about how childhood experience and crises that were not resolved still affect adult behavior and treat the client such as Antwone with empathy versus condemnation (McLeod, 2023). The theory of ecological systems supports the necessity to measure clients in the context of several environments and provide interventions that do not work on a single level. Combined, these theories help social workers consider both clients as resilient persons in complicated social environments and to adopt culturally responsive, anti-oppressive practice when dealing with individuals and families.

Conclusion

Antwone Fisher case demonstrates that developmental and ecological approaches can enhance social work assessment and intervention. The psychosocial theory as developed by Erikson elucidates that early lack of trust, autonomy and identity leads to his adult life troubles of anger, mistrust and belonging. The ecological systems theory extends the discussion to a multiplicity of systems, family, child welfare, the Navy, and more, as well as the systems of racism and poverty, that influence his experiences. The combination of these theories will help create a trauma-informed culturally responsive plan aimed at not only decreasing the symptoms but also enhancing relationships and overcoming systematic obstacles. This practice-driven application of theory demonstrates the fundamental aspect of social work that has to comprehend clients and their surrounding and work with them to achieve healing, justice, and well-being in the long-term.

References

Bronfenbrenner, U. (2009). Ecology of Human Development: Experiments by nature and Design. Harvard University Press.

Cootes, H., Heinsch, M., & Brosnan, C. (2021). ‘jack of all trades and master of none’? exploring social work’s epistemic contribution to team-based health care. The British Journal of Social Work, 52(1), 256–273. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcaa229

Erikson, E. H. (1963). Childhood and society (2nd ed.). W. W. Norton.

Germain, C. B., & Gitterman, A. (2020). The life model of social work practice: Advances in theory and practice (4th ed.). Columbia University Press.

Kroger, J. (2020). Identity development: Adolescence through adulthood (5th ed.). Routledge.

McLeod, S. (2023). Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

Zastrow, C. H., Kirst-Ashman, K. K., & Hessenauer, S. L. (2022). Understanding human behavior and the social environment (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.