This is Walden University DPSY 6215-2/ PSYC 6215-2 Week 2 Discussion 1. It is written in APA format, and it has been graded (A).

1. Thread: Week 2 Discussion 1 – DPSY-6215-2 and PSYC-6215-2
Post a brief description of the fictional human character (i.e., cartoon character, film/TV
character, virtual character) and the event/period-of-time you selected.
Charles Dickens (an acclaimed novelist, actor, and director [1800s]) created his main character
“Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge” in “A Christmas Carol” (Dickens, 1843); a frail, aged antagonist who
most villagers viewed as unreasonable, mean-spirited, and cruel with an uncanny dislike for
people with few or no resources. The setting symbolized a period-of-time (1800s) when
population growth exceeded gross domestic production by large margins
(https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/christmas-
carol-charles-dickens-1843).
Describe Two of the Three Developmental Processes
The study of social development examines how people develop social, emotional, and behavioral
skills and traits across the lifespan, especially children and adolescents (Greenfield, 2009;
Susskind, 2005). Concepts of healthy social development, for instance, align with one’s ability to
create mostly positive relationships and other positive character traits. On the other hand,
dysfunctional social development usually evolves, for example, from traumatic childhood and
adolescent experiences such as being abundant by parents or caregivers or unloved by family
members and associates (Greenfield, 2009; Susskind, 2005). In contrast, cognitive development
explores humans’ ability to think, to remember, to reason (rational or irrational), to solve
problems or address issues, and to communicate, (constructive or destructive) (Bailey, 2005;
Harris, 2005).
Explain Any Character Changes
As a child and throughout adolescent and adulthood, Ebenezer Scrooge was alone, abandoned by
those he loved or wanted to love (Dickens, 1843). For example, his mother died during his birth,
and his father blamed him for it. Similarly, his beloved sister died while giving birth to his
nephew. Moreover, during most of his adolescent life, Scrooge attended bordering school;
however (unlike most of his classmates who went home for holidays), his father refused to send
for him. Further, Scrooge failed to establish meaningful relationships with his classmates.
Later in life, his fiancé abandoned him. She accused him of caring more about creating wealth
than about caring for her (Dickens, 1843). These experiences created abandonment problems for
Scrooge as well as an inability to establish positive social relationships, which the Ghost of
Christmas to Come underscored when it showed him that he would die alone and that no one
would mourn (Dickens, 1843). Such traumatic experiences not only influenced Scrooge’s social
development but also his cognitive development in term of his inability to recall important
memories as well as make rational decisions (Bailey, 2005; Dickens, 1843; Greenfield, 2009;
Harris, 2005; Susskind, 2005).
Take, for example, when the Ghost of Christmas Past showed him how happy he was when his

2. sister visited him at school or took him home with her and when he was a young apprentice, a
very good one. This trip into the past helped Scrooge regain his cognitive abilities to invoke:
positive perceptions of self, appropriate memories, and compassion for others to name a few.
The primary difference then as opposed to his current life was that although he was poor, he was
happy, loved by his sister, and admired by his apprentice boss (Dickens, 1843). In contrast, his
decision to outwardly demonstrate his lack of compassion for poor, less fortunate people like his
clerk, Mr. Bob Cratchit who served him faithfully for years (e.g., never late for work and never
spoke any harsh words about Scrooge) even though he refused to give him a much deserved raise
as well as a shorter work schedule on Christmas Eve (Dickens, 1843).
Nonetheless, the ghosts of Christmas past and future helped Scrooge make remarkable social
development progress which was evident by Scrooge eagarness to cultivate new relationships
with his nephew to whom he had avoided for years, with Bob Cratchit to whom he bought the
largest turkey the local merchant had available, and with town folks to whom he happily greeted
as he laughed and skipped alone streets in his village, enjoying his new social and cognitive
transformation (Dickens, 1843).
References
Bailey, R. (2005). Physical development and growth. In Neil J. Salkind
(Ed.), Encyclopedia of human development, 1001–1007.
http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.4135/9781412952484.n485
Dickens, C. (1843). A Christmas Carol. Retrieved from https://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/160/a-
christmas-carol/
Greenfield, P. M. (2009). Linking social change and developmental change: Shifting pathways of
human development. Developmental Psychology, 45(2), 401–418. doi:10.1037/a0014726.
doi:10.1037/a0014726
Harris, Y. R. (2005). Cognitive development. In Neil J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of human
development, 275–280. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.4135/9781412952484.n138
Susskind, J. (2005). Social development. In Neil J. Salkind (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Human
Development, 1191–1197. Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org.ezp.waldenulibrary.org/10.4135/9781412952484.n574