Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader): A Child Development

Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader): A Child Development Analysis

Hunter Rust

University of Missouri-St. Louis

ED PSY 2212: Child & Adolescent Development

Professor Niara Savage

February 19, 2023

Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader): A Child Development Analysis Anakin Skywalker, later known as Darth Vader, is the single greatest tragedy of the Skywalker Saga, an informal name for the movies 1-6 of Star Wars. The movies take us through his early childhood years as a curious aspiring pilot, to the end of his life as a callous and hateful sith lord. Somewhere along the lines, Anakin started to lose his humanity as he drifted towards corruption. He began his life in slavery, serving a cruel shopkeeper named Watto, who had affixed a bomb

It was a very stressful life, but he had the constant love and support of his mother to get him through it. As he neared pre-pubescence, he was taken in by the Jedi Order, who offered him safety and a purpose, but he had to leave his mother behind. The Jedi Order taught distance and emotionlessness, something that Anakin would struggle to adopt. Whilst he was within the jedi, he was manipulated by a sith lord, who would tell him that the jedi were wrong, and that he was right to trust his emotions. This would cause a split within the jedi, and cause him even more issues. By the time he reached adulthood, he was extremely stressed, cynical, and paranoid of all those who were close to him. Not to mention that he was fighting in a civil war, and was constantly losing his friends. Years later he would embrace the teachings of the sith lord, and slaughter

Piaget outlines four developmental stages, outlining the typical growth of a child’s psychosocial development. The stages are as follows: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The sensorimotor stage exists from birth to the age of two, and covers the development of a child’s ability to interact with the world through basic senses as well as the beginnings of symbolic comprehension. Anakin is thought to have had a fairly normal sensorimotor stage, despite being the son of a slave. Next is the preoperational stage, which goes from ages 2 to 7. At this point the child will have a much greater understanding of symbolism, and will start to depict the world with images and words. Anakin would have gone through this stage in a mostly normal manner, as his language development was consistent thus far. It is most likely that his fascination for mechanics developed at this time. Third is the concrete operational stage, which will go from 7 to 11 years of age. It is at this point that logical thought and other important facets like conservation and reverse thinking arise. Anakin began to build his own machines at this point. His development here would be greatly impacted by his lack of access to education, making much of his development go towards staying alive as a slave. Near the end, he would have been taken by the Jedi, who would educate him, but would separate him from his