Free «Bio-Psycho-Social Assessment of Antonio» Essay Sample

Bio-psycho-social assessment is used to define how the biological influences, psychological influences and social perspectives determine the behavior of a person. According to this form of assessment, every individual person is a part of the large social system (Zathrow & Krist-Asam, 2010). Antonio is four and a half years old. He was referred for mental health assessment at Rainbow Services since he started showing disruptive, anxious and aggressive behavior. The domestic violence that Antonio experienced while growing up could be a reason for this behavior. Ecological theory and objects relations theory could be used for bio-psycho-social assessment of Antonio’s behavior.

Ecological theory can be used to assess the behavior Antonio. Urie Bronfenbrenner developed this theory and it states that different types of environmental systems influence the development of every human being. Such environmental systems include microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem and chronosystem. Micro system refers to the direct environment that influences the life of a person. It includes family members, teachers and friends of a person. Micro system theory argues that people contribute to the construction of the micro system environment and not just receive experiences from it (Kelly, 2006). At first, Antonio did not like playing with other children. When he actually played with them, he ended up hitting them. It shows that he created a violent environment.

Mesosystem mainly concentrates on defining relationships between microsystems that are present in the life of a person. When parents neglect a child, there is a high chance that the child will develop poor relations with his peers or teachers (Berzoff, Flanagan & Hertz, 2011). Daniel, the father of Antonio, was always busy. He did not find time to spend with Antonio and he preferred to spend his time drinking with his peers. This made Antonio to develop aggressive, anxious and disruptive behavior while he was in school. Macrosystem refers to the culture that a person lives in. Aspects included in the macrosystem includes race of a person, social economic status and ethnicity. When Hilda was growing up, she seemed more attached to her mother compared to her father. It shows that people are more attached to their mothers compared to their fathers in the race that Antonio belongs. It could suggest the reason that Antonio seemed more attached to his mother compared to his father. Cronosystems refers to transitions and shifts that occur in the life of a person (Wormer, 2010). They involve social-historical context that affect the life of a person. Antonio witnessed violence when he was young. He always cried during violence between his father and mother showing that he did not like the way that his father treated his mother. However, during therapy he drew a picture of his father smiling and his mother proving that he still wanted his family to be together.

Objects relations theory can also be used to explain the behavior of Antony. According to this theory, people tend to relate with other people or things based on the experiences that they received during infancy (lubbe, 2011). This theory is mainly concentrates on the relationship that occurs between the subject and his/her internalized objects. It also considers the relationship between external objects and a subject. Objects refer to the internalized images of the mother or father of a child. Melanie Klein contributed greatly to this theory. She gave an example of the relations of a child with breast. When a child is hungry and the breast happens to feed the child, the child becomes satisfied and loves the breast. However, if it fails to produce enough milk, the child hates the breast. In this case, the object is the breast and the child hates or loves the mother depending on the breast. When Antony was young, he usually liked to suck his thumb whenever he received care and affection from his mother. Whenever Antony cried because of wetting his bed or being hungry, Hilda was always there to care for him. The internalized image that Antony developed for the care that his mother offered him was the act of sucking his thumb. When Antony was in Rainbow Services, he always sucked his thumb whenever his mother dropped him for classes showing that he cared for his mother and he wanted to be with her. In addition, when Antony was successfully potty trained, his mother gave him a little dinosaur as a gift. The dinosaur was also an internalized image of his mothers care. Antony bonded with Roberto when they played with dinosaurs. When Roberto suggested to Antonio that they to play with cars instead of the dinosaur, Antonio refused claiming that he did not want to since the baby needed him. He also stated that the baby was scared. It proves that the dinosaur was the object that Antonio related his mother’s love with and that is he felt that he had to protect it.

To conclude, ecological theory and objects relations theory could be used for bio-pysio-social assessment of Antonio’s behavior. One of the components of ecological theory is mesosystem. Mesosystem shows the relationships between Microsystems present in the life of a person. It can be used to explain how Daniel’s neglect when Antonio was a child caused Antonio to have anxious and disruptive behavior when he was in school. In addition, objects relations theory can be used to explain why Antonio loved to suck his thumb and play with dinosaurs. His thumbs and dinosaurs were internalized images of his mother’s love.