Leonard Pearlin Precious's Life

Leonard Pearlin’s theory of psychological distress goes into detail about the 4 crucial elements that she believes determines the path that individual lives will take. Pearlin demonstrates how she believes that adulthood does not occur in different stages or phases rather adulthood occurs continuously over a period in which individuals might experience occasional periods of stability. Using examples from the events experienced by Precious, the theory of psychological distress can be implied and demonstrated to Precious’ life.
To begin with, the first element of Pearlin’s theory suggests that individual characteristics, such as gender, race, intelligence, family background, personality, and education determines the path that individual lives will take. This element is demonstrated in Precious’ life as
In Precious' life, Precious goes through events and experiences that require social support but her mother provides no social support. The fact that Precious' mother does not support Precious is significant because in life individuals need support from others such as family and friends to get through tough times but Precious does not have the availability of that support. In Precious' life, we see the role of the mother and daughter switch as in the film, the mother sits on the couch waiting for food that is cooked by Precious and we see Precious doing all the chores and cleaning. The impact of deprivation of lack of social support means that when Precious needs support or reassurance, no one is there to help her which effects her overall development. Later in the film we see Precious open up to Ms. Rain about her situation and Ms. Rain helps Precious build confidence and gain a healthy safe image. Here, we see the how the availability of social support networks provides positivity in Precious'