Life Span Development Marilyn Monroe Essay

Introduction
Many factors influence and contribute to a person’s psychological development such as heredity and environment. This paper will discuss the psychological development of Marilyn Monroe and what factors affected her personality traits and behaviors, and how Marilyn’s family issues and social support systems influenced her psychological growth and development. This paper will also discuss which personality theories apply to her and which theoretical approach best explains Marilyn’s behaviors.
Emotional and Moral Development
It is very difficult to tell what parts of Marilyn’s personality development and behavior parts of her behavior was caused by heredity because little information is known about her mother and her father is still unknown. However, it would be safe to assume the heredity contributed to Marilyn’s beauty that was the foundation of her success. Marilyn had a very traumatic and unstable childhood. “She was put in foster care at only two weeks old and until her marriage at the age of 16, she was passed between foster care, orphanages, and guardianships” (Leaming, 2009, p. 5). There is little known-about the people or places she resided in throughout her childhood. However, “Marilyn herself said “these events made me feel like a “mistake” easily abandoned” (Leaming, 2009, p. 7). These events definitely contributed to Marilyn’s emotional development and were the root cause of her abandonment issues. Her abandonment issues were likely the cause of her many divorces as she sought out acceptance and emotional attachment.   With a very unstable childhood Marilyn probably had little to no moral guidance and a very unstable support system. “In addition, she was sexually abused; it is believed that she was abused by a few different men. Every time the abuse occurred, she was given things is exchange for her silence” (Leaming, 2000, p. 33). At a young age Marilyn learned that sex was her way of getting attention and getting things she wanted. “In the...