Case Study Elie Wiesel's Theory
I choose to analyze the case of Yisel. Yisel is a 21 years old female and a college student studying psychology at the U of M. She lives currently apart from her family because of her study. Her parents are Mexicans and they moved to Minnesota in the 1980s. Yisel is a second-generation immigrant. Her older sister was born in Mexico, but Yisel and her brothers were born in the US. Although both her parents now have jobs, they had encountered many difficulties in finding jobs because of language barriers and having their credentials accepted in the US. I consider social class of her family to be middle class. Although she received financial assistance from her parents, she said that her parents expect her to provide financial support for her
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Applying Yisel’s case into person-centered theory, I think that her anxiety and unmotivated feelings are caused by a gap between the parents’ expectations and who she actually is. She witnessed that her older sister had failed expectations of her parents and it was obvious for her that her parents would project their unsatisfied expectations to her. In addition to expectations, there is great pressure that she needs to provide financial support for her younger brothers’ college tuition. Due to the feeling of responsibility, she wants to get into the medical school. However, with her poor grades in science classes, she thinks that she will not be able to get into the medical school. This makes her demotivated and fall into despair. Also, her responsibility against family prevents her from desiring what she really wants. She says that she is happiest when she is tutoring struggling high school students and helping others. However, her favorite part is different from what her parents expect to her. She rather chooses to follow her parents’ expectations than the actual her desires because of the feelings of guilty and selfish. I think organizing and making plans dependent on family might be due to her low self-confidence. Having a C average in science classes might make her feel that she cannot achieve the goal. Also, she says that her parents always said that “she is the smart one” in the family; however, she says that she feels like she will never be good enough. I think that her fears were expressed through her
Applying Yisel’s case into person-centered theory, I think that her anxiety and unmotivated feelings are caused by a gap between the parents’ expectations and who she actually is. She witnessed that her older sister had failed expectations of her parents and it was obvious for her that her parents would project their unsatisfied expectations to her. In addition to expectations, there is great pressure that she needs to provide financial support for her younger brothers’ college tuition. Due to the feeling of responsibility, she wants to get into the medical school. However, with her poor grades in science classes, she thinks that she will not be able to get into the medical school. This makes her demotivated and fall into despair. Also, her responsibility against family prevents her from desiring what she really wants. She says that she is happiest when she is tutoring struggling high school students and helping others. However, her favorite part is different from what her parents expect to her. She rather chooses to follow her parents’ expectations than the actual her desires because of the feelings of guilty and selfish. I think organizing and making plans dependent on family might be due to her low self-confidence. Having a C average in science classes might make her feel that she cannot achieve the goal. Also, she says that her parents always said that “she is the smart one” in the family; however, she says that she feels like she will never be good enough. I think that her fears were expressed through her