Understanding the Complexities of Parental Self-Reporting
School
Southern New Hampshire University**We aren't endorsed by this school
Course
PSY 205
Subject
Psychology
Date
Dec 12, 2024
Pages
2
Uploaded by JLapplebottom5
My assumptions about the case and the stepfather were that he was misunderstood. It seemed like he genuinely wanted a relationship with his children and wanted to become a better father for them. According to him, he was abused as a kid and now wanted to do right by his children. In his parent self-report, he gives the impression that he is being lied about and that his parents are against him but upon reading the evaluation it told a vastly different story. I think it is very telling that in his self-report, Mr. Esmond stated that when his child misbehaves, they “are warned and then if behavior continues placed in timeout”and later on even wrote that he tries to “avoid having to spank a child” (Barter, 2008), but the evaluation showed that there was video whereas a punishment he entered his stepson Matty’s bedroom and threatened him with hot sauce. The video also showed Mr. Esmond grabbing Mattyt’s face, slapping him, using foul language towards him and reminding him of a previous experience with the hot sauce (Barter, 2008). The evaluation then went on to detail Mr. Esmond’s childhood, past dating experiences, run-ins with the law, and drug use and abuse. The constant blaming of Matty for the way he treats him is also very telling in this situation as Matty is only 3 years old and just began learning the ins and outs of being a functional human as well as his downplaying of the extent to which he drinks alcohol. Self-reporting is useful when it comes to parent evaluations as it gives insight to the psychologist of the parents' mindset surrounding the situation, but it can also be misleading depending on how the parents' answer. This case is the perfect example. Mr. Esmond gave the impression that while he went through a rough childhood and has a strangled relationship with his parents, he was trying to do differently with his kids even stating that he “came out stronger.”(Psy 205 Parenting Sentences, 2008)The evaluations showed his true colors and that he is indeed physical with Matty at least, even though in his self-report he constantly talked about using timeouts as a form of punishment. ReferencesBarter, W. M. (2008). THE SPURWINK CHILD ABUSE PROGRAM. https://snhu-media.snhu.edu/files/course_repository/undergraduate/psy/psy205/psy_205_sample_child_abuse_pcap.pdf
psy 205 parenting sentences. (2008). https://snhu-media.snhu.edu/files/course_repository/undergraduate/psy/psy205/psy_205_parenting_sentences.pdf