Case Vignette

Assignment #1 Person-In-Environment The case vignette that was assessed was about an elementary school student named Charlie. Charlie’s biological factors include being 6 years old, African American, and male. It is unclear if Charlie was premature, and if his mother, Eloise, was taking prenatal care during the pregnancy, which are also a part of Charlie’s biological factors. In regards to the psychological factors, Charlie appears to be having challenges interacting with the other children. Additionally, he becomes easily irritated and distracted, cries when someone tries to correct his behavior, and constantly has tantrums. His usual bedtime and mealtime routine have changed since his mother is not always available to attend. The social

The dynamic systems theory is holistic in that a person’s development is due to diverse relationships instead of isolated variables (DeRobertis, 2011, p. 8). The dynamic systems theory also has three main features: the focal system, the subsystem, and the suprasystem. The focal system is the primary attention or focus, which are usually families or individuals, while the subsystem is the smaller internal components of the focal point. (Robbins, Chatterjee, & Canda, 2011, p. 37). The suprasystem, on the other hand, is the external or outside factors of the focal system (Robbins et al., 2011, p.38). Dynamic system theory has the idea that the development of a person is due to relationships, and extends out beyond the epidermis, the subsystem, and into the person’s surroundings, the suprasystem (DeRobertis, 2011, p. 8). As the focal point, Charlie’s biological, emotional, and cognitive structures are a part of the subsystem. His family, which contains his mother, step-father, aunt, and sister, is one of the many suprasystems. Imbrogno and Canda mentioned how dramatic and major changes can force a system into disarray (as cited in Robbins et al., 2011, p.

The dynamic system theory was able to show that he may be having difficulty adjusting to the new situations, such as living with a different person at a new home, which is resulting in distress and misconduct. With this information, it is clear that Charlie requires support in becoming accustomed to the changes occurring in his suprasystem, specifically his family. On the other hand, the limitation of the dynamic system theory is the fact that it is incapable of locating the change that had the most influence. For example, having more contact with his aunt, Eleanor, may have had little to no influence since he has known her since birth, and she would be his primary caregiver when Eloise was incapable of giving Charlie the proper attention. However, it is possible that Eleanor has different house rules and expectations that Charlie is not accustomed to. It is more likely that having less contact with his mother, who has raised Charlie, is the main source of the issue. The birth of his sister, Pearl, might also be a reason as to why Charlie is misbehaving. Having the role of a big brother is something that Charlie is not familiar with, therefore, could be causing him tension and confusion. If it were possible to identify the primary issue, an intervention could be chosen that will help in improving his