Essay on Psychological Development

Adulthood According to Margaret Sullivan 1

Adulthood According to Margaret Sullivan
Megan Sears
Chamberlain College of Nursing-Columbus Campus

Adulthood According to Margaret Sullivan 2

Originally I had begun to study on of my residents at the nursing home where I work. Sadly to passed away before I was able to finish the interview process. My new subject is my mother, Margaret Sullivan. She is 68 years old. Lives independently and has lived a very full and event filled life.
Margaret was born on April 17, 1945 to Augustine and Mervin Roland. She was the first of five children. She was born and raised in Bexley, OH to an affluent family. Her father was in the Air Force and her mother was a stay at home mom but due to health conditions and dependence on prescription medications she was not a very active member of the household. Margaret was essentially left to raise her siblings which have led to much resentment between them all. This will be discussed in detail shortly. She is currently a Psychosocial Therapist.
Margaret was always a very independent woman. She had become accustomed to not relying on others for anything due in large part to having parents that were not very present in her life. She attended Saint Mary of the Springs for college and earned a degree in history. She developed a deep relationship with one the nuns that taught her. Her name was Sister Kieran Quinn and although there was a 25 year age difference between them the friendship lasted until Kieran’s death in 2004. Margaret believes that their friendship filled a void in her life left by her mother. Kieran was who she relied on for support and comfort, often to the point of putting her before her own family. She admits that her dependency on Kieran was abnormal but she didn’t realize it until after her death. Shortly after graduation she married my father, Timothy Sullivan, after a 10 year courtship. He was enlisted in the Army and they were stationed in Aberdeen, Maryland. There she was very lonely. She wasn’t working, didn’t have many friends there and her husband spent most of his time in training. She continued to keep in contact with her friends from home but the distance made it hard.
After his honorable discharge from the military my parents returned to Columbus, Ohio. My father took a job as a probation officer for the county and Margaret began teaching elementary school. Although she enjoyed her work she dreamed of being a stay at home mom. She had maintained relationships with many of her friends from high school and college. They were all starting families and were bonding on a new level. My mom really wanted to be a part of it too. What further deepened this desire was the fact that her family was falling apart. Her siblings held much hostility towards her, although she still remains uncertain about why. They excluded her from family functions and were generally very unkind to her. She felt that having a family of her own would help to ease that pain. Because of this she felt very isolated.
According to Erikson the sixth stage of psychosocial development is Intimacy vs. Isolation. It occurs between the ages of 20-24(http://www.psychpage.com/learning/library/person/erikson.html) . Being as she is in the field of Psychology she said she has an understanding of Erikson but feels she developed

Adulthood According to Margaret Sullivan 3

feelings of intimacy with her husband and children but isolation when it came to her parents and siblings. She explained that as time went on she probably leaned more to the feelings of isolation because the relationship with them fed into her depression that will be examined shortly.

On October 5, 1974 I was born. She says it was the happiest day of her life. She was able to quit teaching and stay home to raise me. Three and a half years later she gave

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