a case study of mark

2006.12.10 18.55

I saw STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN last night at the Lagoon cinema. Good times! Around 100 other folks showed up for the screening, so I wasn't completely alone. One of my coworkers was joking that I was going to go see the film in costume. How silly is that? I don't even own a Star Trek costume. Well, okay, I own several uniforms, but hey, I don't wear them. They're just in case of any unanticipated Star Trek related emergencies.

I installed Google Desktop Search on my computer and it found all sorts of freaky stuff that I've had for years and years. There's literally stuff from 1986 that I have somehow transferred from 5.25'' floppy to 3.5'' floppy to computer to computer. I used to go out with a girl named Betsy (pictured to the right) that was a Elementary Education major. She wrote a case study on me and I just found it again. It's not very funny, but I figured I'd throw this one up on the site in case you had nothing better to do than wonder what someone thought I was like in the April 1993 timeframe. I weighed 8 pounds more then than I do now, which is weird. It says my mom dressed me up until the 4th grade. I'm like, say what? No way. I don't think that's true. If you take a look at the pictures of me in elementary school I totally look like I slapped everything together. So, read for yourself. I'll be posting lots more semi-interesting articles like this as Google Desktop Search and I find them. Good luck!

A Case Study Of Mark
by Elizabeth Russey
in partial fulfillment of the requirements of psychology 3313
submitted to Ann Owen, Ph.D.
April 30, 1993

The subject of this case study is a twenty-three year old male named Mark. He has dark brown hair and brown eyes. Mark weighs about 170 pounds and he stands five foot and ten inches. He is a native Houstonian and has lived in Houston all of his life. Mark is a college student at Houston Baptist University. He lives with his parents, sister, brother-in-law, and grandmother in a house in Jersey Village. His family is upper middle class and votes Republican during every election [note: No longer true. We're Dems now!]. Although Mark has a good relationship with his family now, this has not always been the case. As a child, his relationship with his father was very strained because of his father's fiery temper. His mother was born in Beirut and is of Armenian descent. She works as a registered nurse at Methodist hospital. His father grew up in Kentucky, the youngest of thirteen children. He works as an electronic technician at Compaq. Currently, Mark is working as the chief photographer at Houston Baptist University.

Method

The method used to gather information for the case study of Mark was naturalistic observation and interviews. I also watched videotapes of him as a child. This was helpful to see how he acted then and how he has developed. Mark and I have been dating for almost six months. During this time, I have been able to observe his behavior in several situations and in a variety of atmospheres. I interviewed Mark's mother on one occasion in order to find out about the child-care he received as a toddler. I also conducted two interviews with Mark. During the interviews, I asked him a series of questions that brought me closer to understanding his self-concept and behavior.

Results

When asked about his childhood, Mark said, "I was mostly happy but I remember a lot of the bad times as well." As a young child, Mark was cared for by his mother in the mornings and by his father at night. Both of his parents have worked all of his life. Mark was placed in pre-school at the age of three. His mother said she wanted him to interact and make friends; however, instead of playing with the other children, Mark would sit by himself and be creative with Play-Doe. Mark was not particularly interested in school. He saw it as "a place to be picked on" because from the fourth grade through the eighth grade he was teased about the way he looked, dressed, acted, and about his glasses. About a month ago, while watching a video of himself at age eleven, I noticed how sad he looked. He then said, "How could anyone stand me? I was so obnoxious." His relationship with his father during these years was not ideal. They could not relate at all because his father was "mean and strict." Mark used to worry about what he said to his father because he did not want to upset him. His father would become destructive when he was mad. Mark can remember having three or four record players because his dad would smash them to pieces if Mark did something wrong. I could tell that Mark did not like to talk about this subject. It is during this period of his life that Mark developed his attitudes about keeping a tidy and organized room. He said, "What I couldn't fix about myself, I could fix in my room. I could make my room better than myself." Today he is still an organized person. He has all letters put in binders, all his videotapes catalogued, and he carries a daily planner with him. Mark not only keeps his room neat in the respect of being tidy, but neat in the sense that his room is interesting. He has several movie posters all along his walls and ceilings along with Star Trek related items in display cases.

Before he started his freshman year in high school, Mark began wearing contact lenses instead of glasses. He feels that people treated him differently after he switched over to contact lenses. Mark was accepted by his peers and had many friends. He played the trombone in the school's marching band. He was known as "the joker" in high school because he always made people laugh with his practical jokes. During his junior year, his relationship with his father changed. Mark's father was in a serious automobile accident that caused him to become more forgiving and understanding. Mark describes their relationship as one of "best friends" now. They constantly go to dinner and the movies together. It was also during his junior year that Mark realized he needed to start thinking about college and a career. His mother constantly talked to him about his becoming a doctor, and she would get upset if he mentioned any other career goals. Although Mark did not want to pursue a career in the medical field, he was persuaded by his mother to major in biology and chemistry in college. After graduating from high school, Mark attended the University Of Houston for two years. He then transferred to Houston Baptist University. He is currently in his fourth year. In college, Mark has had a problem focusing on his studies. He feels that he is "very easily distracted." Mark said, "I have so many things that I want to do, but not enough time." He enjoys maintaining the bulletin board he runs on his computer, going to the movies, and writing movie scripts. He would pick doing these activities over studying very easily. Fortunately, my study habits seem to be having an effect on him, and he has been doing better in school in the last few months. Low grades in chemistry caused Mark to change his chemistry major to english at the end of his second year at Houston Baptist. His mother still wants him to attend medical school; she has mentioned this to me on several occasions, but Mark has a different desire. He hopes to fulfill his fantasy of becoming a movie director. He feels that this goal is obtainable. When I asked Mark about how he felt about himself, he revealed that he used to be intimidated by pretty girls. He said that he was afraid of rejection. Mark also said that he does not think that he is physically attractive. He describes himself as plain. Mark believes that his assets are his sense of humor and his patience. He also admitted that he uses humor as a defense mechanism when he feels uncomfortable or threatened. When I asked Mark if he had reached his ideal, he said no. His ideal self is "Mr. Self-Dependent." He wants to be independent of his parents; Mark constantly complains about wasting so much of his parent's money by taking so long to finish college. When I asked him if people could rely on him he said, "Yes, but my parents know about my poor memory and they don't rely on me too heavily."

Discussion

Mark's sense of humor stands out quickly when he meets people. In daily conversation he tries to make people laugh, and as he said, he uses his sense of humor when he feels threatened or uncomfortable in situations. Yovetich, Dale, and Hudak (1990) found that humor appeared to be a defense mechanism and a means of relief from anxiety. For Mark, humor is his means of taking away some of the stress in a stressful situation. A study conducted by Carrol and Shmidt (1992) revealed that people who said they use humor as a coping strategy have fewer health problems than those who said they did not use humor in this manner. I have noticed that Mark is rarely sick. He has never had any major health problems. Also, he rarely complains about headaches, backaches, or other pains.

Mark's sense of humor developed early on. I watched several videotapes of him as a child and I quickly saw this fact. Fabrizi and Pollio said, "Fisher and Fisher found that being a comic child while in school was frequently related both to childhood feelings of low self-esteem and to finding school a relatively confining experience (1992, 760)." Mark admitted that as a child he had a low self-esteem because he was often the victim of ridicule by his peers. School bored him to a certain extent, and although he was a very creative child, his grades did not always reflect that. Mark seems to be having difficulties gaining independence from his parents. This problem is not something new. When Mark graduated from high school, he allowed his mother to choose his majors despite the fact that he did not want to work in the medical field. She made up his mind for him because of his indecisiveness. It was not until four months ago that Mark told his mother that he did not plan to attend medical school after graduating from Houston Baptist. Zirkel, and Cantor (1990) found that college students often worry that they will not measure up to their parents' expectations. Mark often has trouble with his indecisiveness. He is typical of those people who have problems making decisions because they are afraid of failure (Moore, Jensen, and Hauck, 1990). In a study by Frank, Pirsch, and Wright (1991) found that fifty percent of children under twenty-four years of age report relying heavily on parents for assistance in making decisions. Mark relies on his parents frequently for their advice. He is aware of his situation; he wants to become "Mr. Self-Dependent," but becoming autonomous is difficult for him.

Mark's problem with developing autonomy indicates that he had difficulty with Erikson's second stage, autonomy versus shame and doubt. Toddlers are supposed to develop virtue of will and begin making their own decisions as well as feeding and dressing themselves (Papalia and Olds, 1992). Mark did not begin dressing himself until he was in the fourth grade. Unlike most toddlers, Mark did not begin to trust his own judgment over his mother's. Mark's father had a great deal to do with his feelings of shame as a child. As a result, Mark did not master this stage of development.

At the same age Erikson's autonomy versus shame is taking place, Freud's anal stage is occurring. I can see a correlation because Mark also had trouble with this stage due to his parents' rigid method of toilet training. Children whose parents are strict when toilet training may later develop into adults who are obsessively clean and neat or may be tied to schedules (Papalia and Olds, 1992). Mark fits the role of the adult who prefers to keep his room immaculate and carries a daily planner with him.

Mark is an Erikson's sixth stage, intimacy versus isolation. In our relationship I can see that he is trying to develop the virtue of love. As time progresses, I see progress in his development of independence from his parents. Although a slow process, I forsee Mark accomplishing this goal.