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Lifespan Development and Personality of Princess Diana

Development is a life long process that describes the sequence of changes, transition and transformation that an individual goes through in the various stages of their lives. Human development and personalities are bound to be influenced by various factors such as heredity, environment and life experiences. What makes a person who s/he is depends on how one perceives the positive and negative influences of their lives and how they take them emotionally and morally. This paper shall critically analyze the life of a famous individual who I feel has undergone many adversities which have had both negative and positive impact in her life. Her environment and emotional upbringing have been influential to the decisions that she made in her lifetime. Her life is viewed by many as one filled with conflicts as she portrayed selflessness and generosity to those in need even though she came from a royal affluent background. This famous individual is Princess Diana. In order to understand a person’s personality, we must critically look back from where that person has come from.

Early Life

Princess Diana was born Diana Frances Spencer George in July 1, 1961 to her rich and affluent parents, the eighth Earl Spencer and Lady Frances Althorp. Unfortunately, they separated in 1967 and finally divorced in 1969. Diana was sent to a boarding school at a tender age and therefore she was also separated from her brother and sisters. However, this does not mean that Diana lived a lonely life. On the contrary, she was very social with a large circle of friends. These social activities were meant to bring her up in royal status and environment.

At the tender age of twenty, Diana Spencer married Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales and the prospective heir of the throne in Britain. The marriage to the Prince of Wales who was thirteen years her elder changed her status to Princess Diana. She bore him two sons, Princes William and Harry in the period between first and fourth year of their marriage. Their marriage lasted until 1992 when they separated and finally divorced in 1996. Princess Diana’s life ended tragically when she was involved in a fatal car accident in August, 1997.

Major Impacts in Diana’s Life

Childhood is a life development stage in the period between infancy and adolescence. Diana was privileged in terms of being born in a royal family where money and riches was in abundance. Her life seemed to be a quiet and reserved one as she was attended home school up to the age of nine. She loved swimming and dancing activities that matched well with her great sense of humor (Weiten, 2007). Her parents’ divorce when she was barely eight impact her negatively as she became a depressed and lonely child. Shyness became a big challenge in her entire life.

The adolescence stage is an individual’s phase of transition and development where physiological, cognitive and behavioral changes are seen to be in action. The generalized age for this period is usually the age from twelve to eighteen a stage that marks the transition from puberty to maturity. At this stage, the adolescent seeks to interact socially, and always has an urge to be independent away from the family’s protective nest. In other words, s/he seeks an identity. It is at this stage in Diana’s life that she became Lady Spencer after her grandfather’s death. As she struggled to cope with her parents’ divorce, she was even more isolated from the rest of the family when she was enrolled in a boarding school. This impacted her negatively as she underwent psychological changes evidenced in a lonely and homesick self.

The adulthood stage of development was marked with tremendous growth and twists in Diana’s life. She dropped out of high school and got married to Princes Charles. Her status at this point changed again this time as Princess of Wales. Diana became a media limelight during her marriage. Shortly after the birth of their second son, her marriage started to fall apart. She became even more depressed and lonely and at one point was diagnosed with bulimia. Bulimia is an eating disorder that is as a result of one psychologically perceiving themselves as not physically perfect and thereby inducing vomiting after meals (Schimelpfening, 2007). The divorce was a blow in her life and she faced her tragic death a year after the divorce.

The psychological development of Princess Diana’s must have definitely been influenced by the fact that she came from a royal and noble family. Her moral development was positively influenced in that as a child and an adolescent, she was trained and made to engage in social activities with the royal and noble individuals and therefore bred to fit in the royal status. It is therefore true to state that her heredity played a major role in enhancing her moral development. Her expectations from the society were of great help in shaping her moral development as she got the various titles of Lady and Princess. In contrast, her emotional development was severed from a tender age when her parents divorced and also when she herself got divorced. She is supposedly thought to have begged her father,” If you love me, please don’t leave me here” (Weiten, 2007). Diana therefore grew up as a lonely and insecure child who experienced had eating disorders as an adult due to depression. She grew up a shy child which proved to be a great challenge in her adult life as she was always on the public limelight. However, she was seen to overcome this in her involvement in charity work. It is evident that she sought her own happiness by helping others in need.

Erickson’s personality theory states that development is a sequence of changes that are bound to take place throughout one’s life. Each stage of development is marked by conflict a determiner whether the resultant influence is either positive or negative. A successful resolution in a specific stage results in a favorable outcome (Franz & White, 2006). According to this theory, stage five of development is the adolescent stage that is between the ages twelve and eighteen. He describes the ego identity as a major driver of development. It is that sense of knowing who we are as at now, where are heading and knowing our place in society. This stage for Diana was characterized by conflict between identity and confusion. The end result for this was loneliness, insecurity and depression. The fact that her newly acquired title brought with it new expectations and the engagement into marriage at such a tender age proved exhausting to a girl who wanted to be independent and seek her own identity.

Her young marriage was a period where Diana’s life experienced conflict between intimacy and isolation. Erickson’s theory states that achievement of an identity is likely to influence positivity on intimacy. The lack of an identity during her adolescence can be seen as the factor preceding her failed marriage. She was rumored to have also engaged in several love relationships which were also a failure. This caused her more depression and psychological disorders such as bulimia.

The second personality and development theory is the humanistic psychology theory. Although there is no aggregate definition of this theory, there are major statements that are always there in its discussion. The emphasis it presents on personal responsibility, the “here and now” perspective and the critical analysis of personal growth. The theory basically states that one is personally responsible for the events in their own lives, s/he should focus on the events that are happening in their lives now and not the past or the present and finally, looking at life from the perspective that there is more to life than just the urge to make your immediate needs catered for. Diana is the perfect example of this personality theory in that she did not try to blame anybody for the events of her life. She focused on her present life and finally sought to make herself happy by helping others. She presents an individual who believes that life is not about meeting our own immediate needs but finding happiness in the activities that engage in, in the present.

Erickson’s theory in my view best explains the individual behavior and achievements of Princess Diana. This does not mean that it fully explains her personality but the fact that it presents the identity crisis which seem to be the cause of conflict in her overall life is proof of it being the best theoretical approach to describing her personality. Diana did not have a chance to create a personal identity in her adolescence stage due to the various titles that came with different expectations. The depression evidenced in her childhood was with her throughout her life and therefore she was unable to hold on to intimate relationships. Instead, in search of personal happiness, she ended up in charity work where millions of desperate cases benefited.

References

Franz, C.E & White, K.M (2006) Individuation and Attachment in Personality Development: Extending Erickson’s Theory. Journal of Personality Vol. 53(2) pp. 224-256Nieboer, S. (2007) Diana, Princess of Wales: Learning To Give Retrieved April 28, 2010 from http://www.learningtogive.org

Weiten, W. (2007). Psychology: Themes and Variations. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth

Schimelpfening, N. (2007). Depression Retrieved April, 29, 2010 from HYPERLINK “http://depression.about.com/mbiopage.htm” http://depression.about.com/mbiopage.htm