Madonna Psychology Learning is a key component that influences an individual’s life. The nature versus nurture debate has always been prevalent in determining which influence has the most substantial impact on a person’s psychological development. Learning is a type of reform that enables an individual to assess a situation, process the discovery, and prosper from that information. Media icons, like Madonna, are iconic for portraying irrational behaviors that contrast heredity and environmental influences. Once these behaviors are obtainable the behavior is exhumed. Madonna is almost defined by her independence and her lack of support through particular family issues that really influenced her development and psychological growth. Madonna’s influences of psychological development were primarily environmental. Her morals were flawed by her mother’s death. The lack of development during the first five years of maturity was skewed, for Madonna’s bond with her mother was unsurpassed. The primary years are filled with an enormous amount of transformation and growths through these intervening years are prevalent. Therefore, outside influences had changing and lasting effects on her psyche. According to Waldrop (2007), “caregiver grief [is] highly influenced by social context; relationships with family and friends (more cohesive versus conflicted) shape responses.”
Madonna’s emotional development was faltered by the onset of remarriage. This marriage occurring in only a few short years after her mother’s death escalated Madonna’s emotional distress. With her emotions in shambles her mental processing could not associate “normal” behaviors with her feelings. With this Madonna protested her cultural traditions. This type of conditioning is presented through culture and upbringing. Madonna having been raised with a strong tie to “Catholicism gave her a foundation of faith upon which she has said she would always be able to fall back upon even as an adult,” Taraborrelli (2001) stated. Her faith above all else is an unconditional love that has flourished throughout her life (Madonna, 2013). Freud’s psychodynamic theory is most significant in relation to basic needs, wants, fears, desires, and to have the acceptance of a loved one. These are fundamentals of faith, to have an unconditional love and acceptance by a father. Acquiring religious foundations promotes boundaries and restricts negative behavior. Feelings of guilt are expressions of our conscience, expressed through behavior and self-imagery, which are also formable through the critical inner voices of parents in an effort to be assured of their love. Desires have infinite range, “from the obvious and commonplace, to the less obvious and unconscious” (Kowalski & Werner, 2011). Fears are also prevalent in Catholicism, Madonna’s religion, for the fear of being punished may result in not being loved.
During her early life Madonna experienced true tragedy with the death of her mother when she was five. Madonna was deeply scarred by this loss resulting in an adolescent rebellion. The absence of her mother led her to being estranged from rules in protest against her father’s will for control. During this adolescence Madonna struggled with what Freud referred to as ego versus superego. The ego tries to balance the ego’s conscience of the differences between right and wrong (Kowalski & Werner, 2011). Madonna once stated, ‘"I think the biggest reason I was able to express myself and not be intimidated was by not having a mother,’ she says. ‘For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations"’ (Madonna, 2013).
After the death of her mother when her father remarried, she became the middle child of six children when she began to establish independence. This independence was a cornerstone in her rebellion. Most children during early childhood are beginning to experience autonomy at this age; however, the