Life Span Development and Personality Paper
Samantha Kimball
PSY/300
June 22, 2015
Kristen Fowler
Life Span Development and Personality Paper
Warren Steed Jeffs is one of the most influential leaders of the 21st century. He was born in the year of 1995 to Marilyn Steed and Rulon Jeffs, a high-ranking official of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (FLDS) community. He was the 14th child out of an estimated 65 Rulon had with his estimated 75 wives. Emotional, psychological development played a part in his growth. Warren was considered the golden child because he was born three months early and thrived. His strength as an infant caused his parents and others to treat him better than the other children as well as gave him a sense of self-entitlement ("Warren Jeffs Biography"). Environmental, psychological development played a vast role as well in how Warren developed who he is today. Growing up in a polygamist church Warren was exposed to the concept of large families with many wives..
Warren Jeffs is a third generation polygamist. He and his father were both raised in a very strict religion where the women were extremely obedient to their husbands and the husbands were to have multiple wives and many children. Some men of high authority had as many as 40+ wives over their lifetime. Rulon, Warren’s father, was elected to Prophet in 1986 and took the complete power of the church by eliminating the council that helped govern over the members. In 1998, Rulon had a severe stroke and Warren seized control of the church by becoming a speaker for his father. Once Rulon passed away, Warren took over and became the prophet of the FLDS Church, which gave him control over not only the people but the property holdings of the people in the church. Warren Jeffs' began to force plural marriage and included the marrying off of underage girls. The women were traded to other men when they were not obedient to their current husband and the children were married off at young ages. The FLDS believes that for a man to gain salvation he must have at least three wives. The more wives a man has, the higher he will is said to be in the church. Warren himself was believed to have 60+ children and as many as 79 wives. The number of wives and children are hard to secure as he hid the entire church from the outside world due to his need for complete and total control as well as his fear of government persecution. Warren was taught at a very young age that men were superior to women and were meant to lead. He is still well known for being a stickler for the rules and complete and total obedience. Once he seized complete power he also began to ban members from contact with the outside world. Warren instructed that walls should be put up around FLDS communities. Sigmund Freud developed the psychodynamic theory. One aspect of Freud’s theory of psychodynamics is ambivalence. “From childhood on, we constantly interact with people who are important to us, but those interactions include both pleasant and unpleasant experiences. The same people who teach us how to love invariably teach us about frustration and rage (Kowalski & Westen, 2011 p.438)”. Psychodynamic theory is made up of the id (in charge for instinct and pleasure-seeking), the superego (someone who tries always to comply with the rules of society and parents or elders), and the ego (mediates among the other two according to the strain of reality). The psychodynamics theory commonly points to experiences thru upbringing determine personality. When you look back at the childhood experiences, the theory would suggest that Warren Jeffs' became the man he is thru the way he was raised. Jeff's shows traits of control and dominance most likely came from the personal interactions he had as a child. Growing up in a very strict and controlled religion Warren had been trained and indoctrinated his entire life. The way his father and other authority figures appeared to Warren set