Paradigm Shifts

Examples of paradigm shifts:

1. The evolution of the helicopter parent
We've all heard about the rise of the helicopter parent who is overprotective, over-involved, and over-connected to their children's successes and failures in school and life. But forty to fifty years ago, when our parents were growing up, parents and children alike looked at parenting in an entirely different way. Your parents may have told you, as mine did, that they grew up bike riding to school uphill both ways for 15 miles with a broken leg and a broken arm in the snow. While, this is clearly an over exaggeration, there is some truth to the idea that children today are more sheltered than they were before. Check out the graphic below to see how parents have become more involved in their children's lives.

I think there are many factors that have caused this shift. Definitely one of them is economic. After the economic crash in 2008, it became especially hard for people just out of college to find jobs. This, along with the introduction of the common application (which made it easier for students to apply to multiple colleges), increased the college craze and the obsession to get into a good school. Parents still believe that getting an Ivy League acceptance can guarantee their children a good life. Therefore many of them have taken it upon themselves to help get their children there. Another possible cause of the shift is that more parents are working full time today than were in the past. This may make them worry about neglecting their children, so they will often overcompensate by getting over-involved in some aspects of their children's lives. It's also important to remember that we often hold parents accountable when their child exhibits good or bad behavior. Parents may be motivated to help their children, so that they gain societal approval. As their kid succeeds, they succeed.

2. The move from institutionalizing mentally challenged people to trying to develop different programs to help them
Before the mid-1900s, if you were mentally ill, you were usually institutionalized for life. This was not meant to be a punishment; at the time, people genuinely believed that this was the best way to help these struggling individuals. Unfortunately, while they were able to get care, many of the institutions were poorly funded, so many patients lived in poor conditions.

Courtesy of PBS

Over time, we started to view mental health differently as more research was done and some antipsychotic drugs entered the market. This led to the new belief that these individuals would benefit more from living in society than in dreary hospitals where they had little human interaction. This recognition that these people needed to socialize and to be part of a community to be happy resulted in a large deinstitutionalization movement that ultimately improved mental health care.