Unit 4: Development Through The Life Stages-Michael Jackson's Development

Serena Osman

Unit 4: Development Through The Life Stages P2 & P3-Michael Jackson

P2: Explain the potential effects of five different life factors on the development of an individual.

During Michael Jackson's adolescence, he faced a lot of changes which has made a huge impact on his self-image. As he became a teenager his appearance and voice changed noticeably and it made an effect on his confidence and the way he viewed himself. The reason for this could be because teenagers find it embarrassing to notice their bodies changing and isn't used to all the change but it also could be because of the people around making comments on those changes. In Michael Jackson's case it was both but mainly because of what was being said to him by other people. Michael Jackson was first known as a child star, people thought he was extremely talented and also very cute. As Michael Jackson got older, he started to feel that people didn't want him to grow up and wanted him to be a child star forever. In his interview with Oprah Winfrey in 1993, Michael Jackson said that whenever people came to see him as a teenager they were always expecting a little Michael Jackson and as soon as they saw him they would say 'Oh. What happened?'. Another person that affected the way he saw himself when growing up was his father who made rude comments about his appearance. He would make fun of his acne and his nose constantly and his brothers would occasionally tease him about his acne as well. This made Michael Jackson very introverted, shy and have low confidence. He stated that he 'couldn't look in the mirror' and felt ugly. This could possibly be the reason why he decided to have plastic surgery as an adult to the point that it turned into an addiction. Michael Jackson changed his whole appearance, especially his nose which was the feature that most people teased him on the most.

Another factor that effected Michael Jackson's development was a genetic factor that effected him as an adult. According to Jackson's biographer J.Randy Taraborelli, Michael Jackson was diagnosed with a skin disorder called vitiligo, a condition where patches of skin lose pigment and spread over time, in 1984. It was confirmed by Michael Jackson in Oprah Winfrey's 1993 interview and in Michael Jackson's autopsy report and the 2014 autopsy documentary 'Autopsy: Michael Jackson's Last Hours'. Michael Jackson stated that he inherited the skin condition from his father's side of the family. Michael Jackson's skin started to become noticeably lighter over the years, specifically during the mid 1980s and became fully white in the early 1990s. Not only was his skin colour changing but his facial features changed along with his skin colour. Leading the media and the public to assume that Michael Jackson was bleaching his skin because he didn't like being black. In 1993, Jackson denied rumours of him bleaching his skin and that he used make-up to even out the vitiligo patches. He also said that he was a proud African American. However, his autopsy report, his mother and his biographer, J.Randy Taraborelli have confirmed that he did bleach his skin with a skin bleaching cream called Porcelana. His mother, Katherine Jackson didn't exactly say that he bleached his skin but she said that he 'did something about it' and when asking why Jackson wanted to change his skin colour. She stated that he said that he 'didn't want to look like a spotted cow' because of the vitiligo so he did something about it.

As somebody that was incredibly famous and always watched by the public, these factors must have caused a lot of stress on Michael Jackson and hurt his feelings when they wrote about his looks and skin and published it for the public to read. This could possibly be one of the reasons why he developed the sleeping disorder, insomnia which led him to be dependent on many drugs and medication.

P3: Explain the influences of two predictable and two unpredictable major life events on the development of the individual.

Predictable

Predictable life events such as puberty, which everyone goes through, and education, which most people are fortunate enough to get can influence our lives and impact our development in either a positive or negative way. They are events that are expected to happen in our lives.

Education

The first predictable life event I will talk about is attending school and having an education. This is a major life event that many individuals are expected to have. This life event can have a huge impact on a person's development emotionally, mentally, socially, intellectually and physically. School can impact your physical development through PE, which helps you gain physical strength through exercises and school lunches can also impact your physical development depending on how healthy or unhealthy they are. School can impact your social development as it requires you to meet new people and be able to form relationships, this can cause you to make friends and make enemies. As a child, according to Michael Jackson in his 1988 autobiography 'Moonwalk', Jackson had a hard time at school because he was a child star and everyone in his school knew him. The children in the school would treat him like a celebrity and give him a hard time. This led to him and his brothers to become home-schooled. He really enjoyed subjects such as English and Art. Because, Jackson was home-schooled and on top of that he had a really busy schedule because of his career, he never had an opportunity to make friends. The only time when he could socialise was during his free time where he could play with his neighbours occasionally. But he stated that his siblings were like his true friends.

Relationships

Relationships are ways people gain experiences and is an event that everyone has faced in their lives. You can form positive relationships with good friends and a caring and loving family or having healthy romantic relationships. You can also form negative or abusive relationships with bad friends, a dysfunctional family or unhealthy romantic relationships. Being in a relationship isn't just an emotional and mental thing, it's also a physical thing as well. Sexual relationships could be seen as a part of a person's physical development as the person is mentally ready to be involved in certain things. Another way it could be physical is by doing activities like going to the park or the funfair with your significant other. It could also affect your intellectual development as well, by debating or discussing certain topics and learning about each other. It's also an emotional development because you start to understand your significant other better and may have to deal with scenarios such as break-ups or a rocky relationship. 

Michael Jackson identified himself as a heterosexual. However, according to his autobiography 'Moonwalk' and others around him felt that he had trust issues with women, mainly because most of the women he got involved with were starstruck and only saw him as a pop star and tried to take advantage of his fame and money. Jackson confirmed in his 2002 interview with Martin Bashir, that his first time being in a relationship was in the late 1970s when he was 17 and that was with actress Tatum O'Neal. Jackson said that O'Neal tried to seduce him but he was terrified by the idea of being sexually intimate. Many people assume that Michael Jackson was also asexual as he didn't seem to be very sexual and most of his song were not sexual either, also, whenever he was asked sexual questions he would seem very conservative and shy to talk about it. That could be because of the way he was brought up or he could be asexual but it was never confirmed by anyone including Jackson that he was asexual. Michael Jackson married Lisa Marie Presley in 1994 but divorced in 1996 due to irreconcilable differences. Later in 1996, Michael Jackson married his nurse Debbie Rowe, who treated him for his vitiligo since 1986 who was also a huge fan. They married because Debbie promised him that she would give him children and she did. She gave birth to Prince Michael Joseph Jackson Jr. on the 13th February 1997 and Paris Michael Katherine Jackson on the 3rd April 1998. However, Jackson and Rowe divorced in 1999 with Jackson getting full custody rights of the children.

Unpredictable

Unpredictable events are things we don't expect to happen in our lives. It can impact us positively or negatively. Unpredictable events could be things such as getting into an accident or getting arrested.

Accident: The Pepsi Incident

On the 27th January 1984, as Michael Jackson and his brothers were filming an advert for Pepsi, the pyrotechnics accidentally started a fire on Michael Jackson's hair which resulted in 3rd degree burns on his scalp which cause him to have surgery, and be dependent on painkillers his whole life. Those painkillers had a side effect which caused insomnia, a sleeping disorder Michael Jackson suffered with and had to use drugs used in general anesthesia such as propofol to put him to sleep. On the 25th June 2009, Michael Jackson died from a cardiac arrest caused by acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication. The Pepsi Fire could possibly have been the reason why Jackson died even though it happened 25 years before his death. Both events being extremely unexpected.

1993 & 2003 Child Sexual Abuse Allegations

In 1993, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse by Evan Chandler on behalf of his then 13 year old son, Jordan Chandler. However, the case was closed and Jackson was clear of all charges due to lack of evidence that Jackson abused Chandler, because Jordan Chandler admitted that he lied about being abused and his father Evan Chandler was taped planning on accusing Jackson of abuse to ruin his career and the final reason being that Jackson settled a civil suit in court with the Chandler family for $22,000,000 dollars in January 1994. According to his mother Katherine Jackson in a 2011 documentary 'Michael Jackson: The Life of an Icon', the reason why he did that was because he wanted to get the whole situation done with so that he didn't have to cancel his Dangerous tour.

In 2003, Jackson was accused of child sexual abuse for the second time but this time by a then 13 year old Gavin Arviso. The allegations came after Jackson and Arviso appeared in the 2003 documentary Living With Michael Jackson, in which Jackson admitted to sharing his bed with children in a non-sexual way. On the 13th June 2005, Jackson was found not-guilty of the charges.

These allegations left a huge emotional and mental scar on Jackson and it resulted in him being depressed, stressed and having trust issues towards people. It also led Jackson to be in a huge debt of $500 million.