CASE STUDY: LAURIE

Question

Laurie, a Grade 11 student was sick again. Why was she running this low-grade fever? She was tired. She had no energy. Could it be mononucleosis (kissing disease)? Laurie had heard that lots of teenagers felt this way from mononucleosis. Could that be the reason she was feeling ill?
After a series of blood tests revealed nothing definitive, the doctor mentioned the possibility of stress. Laurie was not able to identify anything that could be triggering it. And she knew that fevers are not caused by stress, or so she thought. Soon she started to feel better and forgot all about her symptoms and her fever until the next marking period when the symptoms reappeared. After four months of this recurring ailment, her parents and doctor began to note a predictable pattern It seemed that during her senior year of high school, Laurie became ill every time a paper was due in her advanced English class.
Could this be? Could written assignments trigger these symptoms? This deserved serious consideration, especially when her mom recounted the machinations she went through to complete the last assignment. Laurie was to write about Shakespeare, and after great difficulty deciding upon the right topic, she finally chose to write about the men who in Shakespeare's time played women and disguised themselves as men in the plot.
It was Laurie's pattern to choose the most difficult and obscure topic she could find or invent. To make matters even worse, Laurie lived in a university town and had access to the university library where she consulted highly advanced reference materials to support her tasks. Both these events, finding the topic and the resources, were rather challenging. Often she would procrastinate until the final moment came to sit down and write the paper. This repeated procedure was true for this paper as well.
With time almost running out and her stress levels increasing, Laurie felt fatigued and feverish. Laurie's grandmother had been an English teacher and an expert in classical literature. Her grandmother offered to help. Laurie accepted the invitation and arrived at her grandmother's house feeling so stressed by this time that a minor provocation initiated a screaming temper tantrum. As Laurie explained, "The screaming and crying, as I began to understand, was a way for me to relieve my stress. But my grandmother didn't know that and offered to drive me home." Her stress level lowered after the crying and screaming, Laurie felt greatly relieved. She calmed down and was able to talk through her ideas with her grandmother. Then she spent the rest of the night completing the paper. Completely drained the next day and still running a mild fever, she stayed home from school but managed to send the paper in.

According to Erikson, an unresolved conflict at a particular stage negatively affects development in the subsequent stages. This means that if Laurie’s conflicts were not resolved at her current stage, she would experience difficulty in resolving this conflict.
Industry versus inferiority
Intimacy versus isolation
Identity versus role confusion
All the conflicts are correct.

Answer 1

In the context of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, Laurie's situation appears to primarily align with the conflict of Industry versus Inferiority, which occurs during the school-age years (typically ages 6 to 12), but can extend into adolescence as well. This stage is characterized by the development of a sense of competence and achievement through success in school and social interactions.

Laurie's recurring illness and stress related to her school assignments, particularly her tendency to choose difficult topics and procrastinate, suggest that she may be struggling with feelings of inferiority when she is unable to meet her own or her perceived academic expectations. The pressure of producing high-quality work might be affecting her sense of industry, leading to the symptoms she experiences.

While Identity versus Role Confusion (a key conflict for adolescents) could also be relevant as Laurie navigates her identity as a student and individual facing academic pressure, the immediate concerns in this case seem more centered on her academic performance and the stress it induces rather than identity formation.

Intimacy versus Isolation might apply to Laurie's relationships, but within the context of this case study, it does not seem to be the primary influence on her symptoms.

Thus, while all conflicts can impact development, the most relevant conflict in Laurie's case appears to be Industry versus Inferiority.