Case Study Project on Adult Development

Daniel Christian Smith was born on 11/28/1977 in Bossier City, Louisiana. He is a white Caucasian, 27 years old and not married yet- still looking for his dream-girl. Daniel comes from a relatively large family because he has a sister Sarah, 25, and brother, David, 28. The family served as a spring-board to the future for Daniel.

His parents have taught him how to work hard, how to succeed and relate to people, that is why he owes all of his present success to them. Daniel’s parents are both teachers and the atmosphere in the family has always been very favorable for learning. Daniel mentions that he has felt knowledge running through his blood since the very first days when he was born.

Daniel is a great professional in the information systems field at present but he needed to study very hard to obtain all of the skills which he possesses now. He finished school with honors, then attended technical college and finally got a degree in management at Louisiana State University of Shreveport.

As Daniel mentions himself, he was already a highly-qualified professional in information systems when he got out of college. All of his friends and relatives lined up to his doors when their computers were broken. However, Daniel wanted to attend LSUS in order to obtain its diploma in management- that magic slip of paper which could say he was worth something in the business world. Studies at LSUS were particularly difficult for Daniel because he needed to work at three jobs in order to pay for college.

As he remembers now, there were many nights when he thought he needed to give up because he was too exhausted but instead, he gathered all of his efforts and kept studying more.

Today he can look back at all of the hardships which he had to go through and say that it was worth it. He is CIO at a large company now and has to travel a lot about the country to monitor the IT departments in different cities.  Daniel is planning to keep studying in future to obtain an MBA because his promotion greatly depends on the educational background.

Daniel’s psychological and biological characteristics are quite unique in many ways. He is a choleric and his neurotransmitters are not balanced at all. The reactions in his system go very fast and he is overly sensitive and emotional.

Due to the personality type, Daniel’s endocrine system functions normally and all of the processes in his body go very fast. Unlike melancholic types who have very slow processes in their body, Daniel has very fast processes and endocrine system functioning on the highest level.

Daniel has left prefrontal asymmetry which has a deep impact on all of his activities and abilities. Left prefrontal asymmetry enables him to be very good at subjects dealing with logics and analysis. He has always been skilful in sciences and mathematics because he could catch the teacher’s idea immediately.

At the same time, this type of brain asymmetry has a negative impact on Daniel’s skills in such fields as arts and humanitarian subjects. It is usually much easier for Daniel to write a new computer program than deal with the interface of some application because design has never been an apple of his eye.

He cannot be creative but instead can critically analyze large amounts of information. The type of job which Daniel is doing welcomes left prefrontal asymmetry. The only problem which he can face due to this kind of asymmetry is his relatively low abilities to manage people.

The development of Daniel’s personality is going to occur very intensively during the next year. Changes are going to occur in his body, mental capacities, life perception, emotional ties, attitudes towards politics and his job. He got appointed as the company’s IT manager only a very short time ago, therefore his development will be happening very rapidly.

First of all, Daniel is going to develop his professional skills greatly. He is going to learn how learn many new things and develop his communication skills to a large extent. In the past, he needed to combine work with education and could not apply his skills to the fullest. During the next year, Daniel will be able to concentrate only on his responsibilities in the company and achieve much better results.

Some change in values and interests of Daniel is also going to occur. During the period of time when a person enters a new level in his career, the re-evaluation of many values occurs. Family will become less important because more and more time will be devoted to work.

Friends will also stop being a high priority because career will take all of the time. Daniel will realize that the higher he gets on the career ladder, he more he will have to work in order to be prosperous and successful. Daniel will also realize that the priorities in his life have changed greatly.

If in the previous year he considered the diploma at the university the most important goal of his life, in the next year he is going to change his goal. Most likely, his strategic objective is going to become obtaining the position of the CEO of the company. This goal is quite realistic for Daniel, due to his strengths.

The rapid development of Daniel is going to be caused for the most part by his strengths which will get even more emphasized in the following year. One of the greatest strengths which Daniel has is willingness to succeed.

This quality will develop very much during the next year. Daniel always achieves his goals, no matter how difficult the road to success is. There are other strengths which Daniel possesses, such as good communication skills, high determination, and great problem solving skills, broad mind. He has a great ability to work in a team, good analytical skills, and lots of energy.

Above all that, he has willingness and capability to achieve all the goals, ability to acquire new skills fast. All of these qualities are going to develop even more during the next year. For example, Daniel’s problem solving skills are going to become much more advanced due to his work.

Daniel does not have many weaknesses in comparison with the strengths which he possesses. His major weakness is orientation on his emotions more than on his brain.

However, during the next year this weakness will disappear for the most part because Daniel will have to make many important decisions and he will need to base his judgments not on emotions but on his brain. Daniel’s managing skills will develop very much, despite his left prefrontal asymmetry due to large experience which he will gain.

Daniel’s development will go even more rapidly during the next five years. His new responsibilities will have a very deep impact on his perception of life. Owing to success-orientation, Daniel is very likely to achieve the CEO position within 5 years.

Such a major change in his life is going to influence his ideas about marriage. Daniel will choose a wife who can provide the most convenience to him. 32 years is the same when one of the crises for Daniel can occur, and he will probably want to secure himself by getting married and having children.

Parenting is going to change many values which Daniel had and start a new stage in his life. However, Daniel has always been a workaholic, and his work is going to remain the greatest priority in his life.

The predictions about the development of Daniel may not be completely accurate because some changes in lives are initiated by the individual himself while others are beyond his control. Some of the events which can shape his life greatly might never happen.

For example, it is impossible to predict how his career promotion will go. It depends not only on Daniel and his abilities but also on the situation in the company and some sort of luck. The development of personality is mostly determined by major events which happen in the life of the person. It is possible to predict the events which might happen, but it is impossible to predict them with a 100% probability.