1.In the case study of Johnny, the behavior I will explain will be his temper and behavior with other children at school. I will first explain this behavioral pattern using Freud’s psychoanalytic th

1.In the case study of Johnny, the behavior I will explain will be his temper and behavior with other children at school. I will first explain this behavioral pattern using Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. In psychoanalysis, Freud focused attention on the unconscious mind. The foundation of psychoanalysis is that unconscious thoughts and internal conflicts are responsible for our conscious thoughts and actions. These unconscious thoughts are repressed, which is the defense mechanism that shuts out any anxiety-arousing wishes, thoughts, and feelings from our conscious mind. Freud believed that this repression could enable other defense mechanisms such as regression, reaction formation, projection, rationalization, displacement, and denial. In Johnny’s case, he is most likely experiencing displacement — the shifting of sexual or aggressive impulses towards more acceptable or less threatening people. Johnny acts out his aggressive impulses towards other children his own age since they do not pose a threat to him. As for the cause of Johnny’s temper, it is possible that Johnny could be wrestling with an Oedipus complex. This complex is when a boy develops sexual desires for his mother, while simultaneously fostering jealousy and hatred for his father, who he now views as a rival. This complex occurs during the Phallic stage of Freud’s psychosexual stages, usually when a child is between the ages of 3 and 6. However, a strong conflict can keep a person fixated in a stage even after that stage is over. So even though Johnny is 7, he could still be dealing with unresolved feelings about his parents, which in turn causes the displacement that triggers the aggressive impulses towards his classmates.

Looking at Johnny’s behavior from a humanistic perspective, I would look at the ways in which Johnny’s current environment nurtures or limits his growth potential. Rogers’ approach to humanistic theory was a person-centered perspective — that people are essentially good and equipped with self-actualization tendencies. People are ready for growth and fulfillment provided that they are in a growth-promoting environment that contains three elements: genuineness, acceptance, and empathy. Johnny is unable to be genuine with his classmates since he is not open with his own feelings and does not drop his facade, which in this case, is his combative persona. Johnny also seems to lack empathy towards his classmates. There is also an element of acceptance missing since Johnny isn’t willing to let his guard down around his peers in recreational settings, as well as showing an inability to have unconditional positive regard, which is an attitude of total acceptance towards others. Since Johnny has shown an aggressive nature with his classmates in the form of name-calling, being argumentative and short-tempered, it is possible that this is the result of being exposed to an environment that does not contain the necessary elements for growth, thus inhibiting his own growth.

2.  From the philosophy of the psychoanalytic theory, Johnny’s argumentative and short temper towards other students can be understood to be a result from sibling rivalry and displacement. In the traditional parent-offspring relationship parents provide love, safety, and support to their children. Children are dependent on the care of their parents to survive and thrive, thus any threat to said support would negatively affect the child. In families with only one child, all the attention and love from the parents is directed to the single child. In families with multiple children attention and care needs to be split between each child. At times one child may be receiving more attention than the others, such as a newborn baby who requires greater attention than a young boy who is somewhat more self sufficient. In Johnny’s case, his father works a low skilled job and presumably works a larger amount of time and may be somewhat absent from the family. Johnny’s mother is a stay at home mother who is currently caring for a newborn baby. Johnny’s younger siblings require greater attention from the parents, while Johnny who is the eldest requires less attention. Negative attitudes and thoughts regarding the siblings may be held by Johnny who then displaces his impulses towards other students at school. If Johnny’s aggressive impulses were directed towards his younger siblings he might lose the support from his parents so he directs it towards people outside his family.

Humanistic Theory

          The humanistic theory might attribute Johnny’s aggressiveness and short temper with other students to a lack of growth and fulfillment to achieve self-actualization. Influenced by Maslow and Rogers the Humanistic theory believes that personality has the potential for growth when given adequate support and care. People have an innate ability to eventually achieve self actualization but require support to grow to that goal. Similar to how sibling rivalry might influence Johnny’s personality Humanists might interpret Johnny’s behavior as a result of him not fulfilling the level of belongingness and love needs. Attention being diverted to the younger siblings at Johnny’s expense may be causing him to not feel fully loved or accepted. Being that his needs for belongingness and love are not being met he cannot move up the Hierarchy of Needs to reach his esteem and self actualization needs. Not being able to develop respect and recognition from others and having the sensation of not fully belonging, Johnny may be directing his anger towards his fellow schoolmates.

3.I recently came across an article that discussed about a program which is aiming at injecting aerosols into the atmosphere from high altitude aircrafts. The researchers have been looking into the costs and effectiveness of such a program, but may end up keeping it a secret if it does go through. It is estimated to cost $2 billion yearly in the first 15 years, which is obviously very costly. However, there is currently no aircraft designed at the moment that can do this job and would have to be built special to do it. This would be an amazing concept to to see and hear about, but if people detect it, it could be deterred. If such a thing were to go through would be beneficial to our planet. 

4.Rain from thunderstorms and flash flooding occurred in Sydney this week at 9 a.m. on Wednesday. It led to road chaos, flood in buildings and train station. More than 4,000 properties were without of power as lightning strikes as well as strong winds damages the lines (McGowan). In less than two hours, a month’s worth of rain occurred in Sydney through a thunderstorm and effected the south coast to the northern river. It rained since 5 a.m. to the afternoon and roads became flooded and lead chaos when dealing with transportation. It is surprising to see these natural events occurring every day and how much damage it led to as well as the impact on the community. The images are frightening and surprising to see how much rain fall on the area.