Washington Family’s Gerbil

The issue of unraveling what happened to the Washington family’s gerbil is a complex
one. There are people who are suspects but still, no evidence points directly to the exact person
who could have killed the gerbil. First of all, grandma loves the idea of having children keep
pets. She, therefore, could not have been the person who could harm the pet. She was open o the
idea of having Ema keep the pet. She seems to be in the “encore phase,” which, according to
Cohen, entails reflecting on one’s personal life, restating, reaffirming as well as celebrating some
of the major themes in life (Oxman, 2018). Spending time with her happy grandchild made her
happy. It also made her happy to see the young girl happy taking care of her pet.
However, the same cannot be said of grandpa. Grandpa was not open to the idea of
having a pet. He believed that it would bring some sort of plague upon the family. According to
Perry’s theory of cognitive development, grandpa David could have killed the pet. Perry’s stage
of multiplicity holds that an individual believes that there are conflicting answers, and since the
right choice is not yet known, then everyone has a right to their own opinion (Taber, 2020).
Grandpa’s opinion was that Emma should not have the pet. In this case, he could have chosen to
pursue his desires and kill the pet. After all, there was no consensus within the family on whether
it was right or not for the child o keep the pet.
Ava is a plausible suspect. However, it is unlikely that she could have killed the pet. She
admits that she did not like the pet, but she understands that killing is wrong. She seems to be in
the conventional stage of morality. Kohlberg states that individuals at this stage begin to
internalize moral standards (Mathes, 2021). They demonstrate an acceptance of social rules and
know what is right from what is wrong. Ava asserts that there is no way she could have killed as
the Bile condemns killing.

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The person who had the intent and whose behavior supports that he could have killed the
pet is grandpa David. He had beliefs that other family members found questionable. Liam says
that great-grandpa ike says that grandpa David was bad. Tyler is worried that grandpa David
reads weird stuff from the internet and is influencing Liam negatively. Of all the members of the
Washington family, grandpa David seems to have had something to do with the death of the pet.
Overall, several theories exist that explain human behavior. Human behavior is impacted
by one’s environment, nature, and general events taking place in life. Old age is one aspect that
affects behavior. For instance, according to Erickson, an individual at the despair versus integrity
stage may either depict signs of life and satisfaction or of hopelessness depending on how well
they think they navigated their past life. Knowledge from human development is crucial in
interpreting human behavior. Understanding the different stages explained by different theorists
such as Cohen enables one to understand why people behave the way they do. For example,
grandma Betty seems to be in the integrity stage. She is content with her life and is reevaluating
and reaffirming how her life unfolded. She does not seem to have any regrets concerning her past
life, and this can show.

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References

Mathes, E. W. (2021). An evolutionary perspective on Kohlberg’s theory of moral development.
Current Psychology, 40(8), 3908-3921.
Oxman, T. E. (2018). Reflections on aging and wisdom. The American Journal of Geriatric
Psychiatry, 26(11), 1108-1118.
Taber, K. S. (2020). Developing Intellectual Sophistication and Scientific Thinking—The
Schemes of William G. Perry and Deanna Kuhn. In Science Education in Theory and
Practice (pp. 209-223). Springer, Cham.