Allen Whitcomb Reports

There are a number of psychological elements that make or shape up an individual. The development, motivation and emotion, social behavior, personality, perception, learning and memory and brain and human behavior of a person play a significant role in shaping up a person. The immediate environment, context, and the experiences of an individual affect the functionality of such elements. Below is a case study on Allen Whitcomb who was involved in a road accident where he lost his leg during the tragic accident. The research, therefore, seeks to show just how the various psychological elements listed above affected Allen Whitcomb and how it influenced and changed his normal life and behavior but in this case negatively due to the side effects of the accident. Moreover, the study shows how prior experiences and environmental set-up can affect or shape a person’s personality and character even at a later stage like in the case of Allen Whitcomb.
Allen Whitcomb is 47 years of age and is blessed with two children who are in college. Most of his life he has lived a healthy person till he had an accident that eventually led to him losing his leg. Apparently, he was texting while driving a factor that contributed to his accident. He complains of chronic pain and thus attributes his troubles at work due to pain. He knows if he pulls together he can succeed as he has been affected by accident and reportedly he has gained twenty pounds due to the accident. The accident has affected him psychological and thus he is in great need of therapy from professionals to help him get through this.

Brain and behavior
The brain stem is one of the main parts of the human brain. The brain stem starts by forming the medulla that controls the heart rate and the human rate of breathing. After the accident, Whitcomb was affected by it in that it interferes with his heart rate when he hears the same type no song that was playing during the accident. The medulla interrupts his normal breathing rate and increases the normal rate of breathing to high levels. The accident also affected Whitcomb’s limbic system specifically the amygdala part of the system that regulates perceptions and more so reactions to fear and environmental or emotional aggression. As such, when he hears the song that he was playing during the accident, the system does not effectively control his reaction to fear (“Interactive Case Study”, 2016). The system helps us learn from the situations that cause fear and avoid them in the future, but the accident disrupted this system hence he easily remembers the action but does not avoid it hence the constant fear when hearing the voice. The abnormal functioning of the Amygdala makes Whitcomb experience anxiety most often and might lead to him succumbing to depression. The hypothalamus also controls the body and emotional moods hence Whitcomb moods since the accident has been affected where he is buried in self-pity and feeling of unwantedness from the other colleagues. He does not do seem to have accepted he has lost his leg.
Sensation and perception
The sensation is a passive process where outside information or from the environment is brought into the human body and to the brain while perception involves the selection, interpretation, organization of the outside world information that is brought to the human brain by the sensory organs like the skin, nose, ears. Whitcomb’s accident affected his sensation and perception in many ways. His perpetual expectancy was adversely affected especially the pain receptors. The accident affected his perceptual organization of proximity and similarity where he perceives any song that is related to the song that he was playing during the accident to be similar or closer to the actual one hence increasing his heart rate and the high level of breathing. It’s because of similarity in perception that he sees all his managers in the company be overly directive during work. The accident also affected his perception of pain. It’s because of his negative personality that he keeps on experiencing pain even after the accident. Moreover, Whitcomb’s moods which are bad and mostly appear to be unhappy with life has made him keep on experiencing pain. The troubles he is experiencing at work is because of his perception namely being moody and self –pitying in that he sees others be treating him different because of his accident. Whitcomb has thus developed perceptual constancy regarding the pain due to the accident (“Interactive Case Study”, 2016). Moreover, Whitcomb’s sensory organs have grown adaptive to the sound and pain receptors negatively even when a given pain and sound does not exist. For example, he grew adaptive of the music sound during his accident hence the increased heartbeats during encounters with such sounds.
Learning and memory
Learning can simply be said to be the process of acquiring knowledge of the environment and the world we live in thus it’s a permanent change in the behavior of a person that is systematically acquired through practice. Memory, on the other hand, is the process by which an individual encodes knowledge, stores and later when required retrieves it. Whitcomb has learned the hard that he made a mistake by texting while driving. However, his explicit memory has become episodic due to the injury whereby he keeps on remembering the accident he underwent especially when he comes to the music he was playing thus resulting in his episodic high rates of breathing. Moreover, he has undergone non-associative learning. In this case Whitcomb through the painful sound of his accident and the music he was playing, he has become more sensitized to the sound hence he is affected by pain and high levels of breathing. His implicit memory has been disrupted because of the sound of the music which is mostly is a fearful stimulus as it has affected the amygdala part of the brain (“Interactive Case Study”, 2016). Whitcomb is dwelling too much on his implicit memory which is of the past thus the feeling of anxiety and the feeling of isolation by others because of his disability. This is clearly expressed in his current behavior thus impairing the retrieval of his past good and positive memory that can help him move on from his past accident.
Development.
This is the process through which human beings develop over their lifetime both micro and, macro sense development throughout their life coupled with the ever changing and development of culture. Development, therefore, occurs in stages during the lifetime of an individual and should affect his behavior in some ways depending on the influence and experiences of that person.
Mr. Whitcomb has undergone development throughout his lifetime that has shaped his character and development in many ways and even after the accident his level of development is depicted in many ways. Whitcomb lacks trust in others, especially after the accident. This is because of the experiences he had while he was a child where his mother kept on telling him he was not good enough. As such he has developed a feeling and attitude of insecurity when being with others. Moreover, he has developed the tendency of being insecure, ashamed and doubtful as opposed to being autonomous. This is coupled with his high levels of anxiety since he has lost confidence in himself. Moreover, his lack of impulse control suggests the lack of guilt development control during his young stages hence he lacked the ability to take the initiative. This is evidenced by him accepting that if he keeps things together, then everything will be okay and thus blames himself for his current situation where he is unsuccessful (“Interactive Case Study”, 2016). His development has been hampered by not being general with others hence the feeling of self- absorption developed in him. This is characterized by feeling inferior to others at the workplace hence keeping himself isolated from the rest of the stuff and develops the notion that they do not want to be with him because he is lame.
Motivation and emotion
Motivation is the burning desire that is shown by individuals to be successful in life in everything they are doing both social and their economic lives. Whitcomb has lost his natural and biological instinctive motivation to survive. He is being consumed by the various challenges he is going through in life, and the accident that he was involved in has made him think he cannot be successful in life. He seems to have given up with life’s basic elements like his working life since he feels he is not good enough. He blames this for the accident, but it’s a deeper burning feeling in him of the words of his mother that he is not good enough that makes him lose his biological motivation of distinctiveness to survive and fight for his place in the society.
Humans are always driven by nature to achieve their maximum potential so as to be successful in life. This is their motivation characterized by the need to satisfy their wants from their basic needs. After the accident, Whitcomb seems to have given up on this. Due to the challenges he has experienced, the loss of his leg, he has rested to resort to self-pity and thinks that his disability is a hindrance to him achieving his goals and wants in life, the loss of his leg has deprived him of his motivation and willingness to reach his maximum potential. Moreover, the desire for motivation is the working of the mind through the ID, ego and super ego that call for satisfaction. It’s the working of the mind that motivates individuals to go for certain goals (“Interactive Case Study”, 2016). Whitcomb seems to have lost this; his minds desire through the ego seems to have lost the motivation to go and achieve certain things in life due to the impact of the accident. The accident also affected his emotional set –up. He lost his feeling of joy after the accident since the loss of his leg has impaired his ability to meet up to his expectations. Moreover, he has plunged into a feeling of sadness since he feels he is being treated differently after he lost his leg and cannot normally work as others can. He is filled with fear mostly when he hears the music that was playing when the accident occurred. This emotional set-up is coupled with the emotional attitude of anger towards his managers that has made things worse especially in the workplace.
Personality
This is the individual organization of a person through his psychological make up that shapes up his character in life. The character of an individual is thus shaped by the mind through early childhood instinctual drives and influences thus the interplay of the person s instincts and the immediate environment surrounding shapes up his character. Whitcomb’s parental experiences shaped up his character in numbers of ways. We are told that he is anxious even at his older age because his mother told him that he is not good enough. This shaped his personality in that he developed into a neurotic person where he is unstable and anxious most of the time. Whitcomb personality is that of a worrying person and with moodiness due to the isolation from others as he feels inferior to them because of the accident. Personality is majorly developed at birth and shaped by an individual’s environmental experiences thus influencing their behavior in some ways. The internal cognitive part of a person plays a major role in his personality hence Whitcomb’s habits of isolation, anger and being moody are attributed to his immediate environmental experiences and in this case the accident that he had shaped his personality. The accident has clearly shaped his personality through his character (“Interactive Case Study”, 2016). The personality of an individual is shaped by the character that one depicts. His emotional instability, paranoia, anxiety, lack of liveliness and tension have shaped up his personality of being neurotic.
Social behaviour
Social behavior focuses on the behavior of an individual in a social context and how the individual interacts with others in a social context. Whitecomb’s behavior is non-conforming in that he has an opposite behavior compared to what others are doing at the works place. His colleagues work and interact together while he isolates himself from others due to the feeling of inferiority to them when he lost his leg, His behavior is that of resentment and anger towards his office and work something that is directly opposite of his mates who seem to be working in conformity. His behavior is personal when attributed and thus has an effect on the company majorly due to low productivity as he resents working with others and taking orders from his managers. Its thus a hedonistic behavior in that his behavior is doing more harm than good both to his family and work mates where he does not measure up to his maximum potential (“Interactive Case Study”, 2016).
Whitcomb’s behavior is not socially desirable. He isolates himself from others and keeps to himself even at the workplace when other are in conformity. The accident that he had made him lose his leg. He perceives this as a reason not to socialize with others as they will see him differently. It’s, therefore, sound to say that the accident was greatly impacted his social behavior but in a negative way where he does not feel connected to others.
Allen Whitcomb lived a healthy and fulfilling life. The accident changed his life in many aspects and most especially in a negative way. He lost his leg because of the accident and it’s from this that his behavior, personality, development and even his learning and memory got affected. The accident impaired his willingness to achieve his lifetime goals. He is plunged into darkness due to the pain and suffering, both physical and psychological caused by accident. Through, hope and therapy, Whitcomb hopes to recover one day and be what he was one day and be normal just like others.
References
Interactive Case Study. (2016). Mym.cdn.laureate-media.com. Retrieved 31 October 2016, from http://mym.cdn.laureate-media.com/2dett4d/Walden/PSYC/1001/CH/mm/case_study/index.html