Biography Project

1. Michelle Obama
AMBER N. SMITH
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

2. Few Facts About Michelle Obama
 Lawyer
 Health Care Executive
 First Lady of the United States, Wife of President Barack Obama
 Mother of Malia and Natasha “Sasha” Obama

3. Childhood
 Born in January 17, 1964 in Chicago, Illinois
 Father was a janitor
 Mother was a stay at home mom
 Learned to read at an early age (prior to
beginning school)
 She and her brother Craig were raised by
both parents
 Mrs. Obama often credits her father for
being very influential in her life, and refers to
his work ethic as inspiration

4. Fraser Robinson, Michelle Obama’s Father
 Employed as a station laborer (or janitor)
 Had Multiple Sclerosis
 Credited as being a diligent provider for his family
 Worked in Chicago for several years during the Civil Rights Movement, gaining
several promotions throughout his tenure and able to move his family out of the
“black belt” to a more affluent neighborhood that offered better schooling
 Ambitious; Community Activist

5. Marian Robinson, Michelle Obama’s
Mother
 A full-time housewife, unlike many African American mothers during this time
 While many African American mothers worked during the 1960s and 70s, Fraser
Robinson’s sole salary permitted Marian to stay at home full-time with her
children
 Taught her children to read during their preschool years

6. Michelle’s Personality during Childhood
 Independent
 Focused
 Determined
 Competitive
 Could be hard-headed

7. Early Childhood Pastimes
 Barbie and Ken
 Playing the piano
 Board games
 Playing “office” with her brother
 Watching sports

8. Later
Childhood/High
School Years
INDUCTED INTO THE
NATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY
SENIOR CLASS TREASURER
PRACTICED BALLET

9. Michelle’s Personality in High School
 Studious
 Diligent
 Personable
 Friendly
 Appreciated diverse settings
 Vocal about wrongdoings
 Active
 Persistent and determined to prove people
wrong; was told she couldn’t get into
Princeton, but she did

10. College Years
Attended Princeton University
Began looking at the issue of race as a
black student in an Ivy League
University
Involved in black-based extracurricular
organizations
Used her experiences to make a
difference and for social justice
Voiced her beliefs in her thesis that
not enough was being done at the
time to support black students
Graduated with departmental honors

11. Post-
Undergraduate/Y
oung Adulthood
ATTENDED HARVARD LAW
SCHOOL
INVOLVED IN AFRICAN
AMERICAN BASED
ORGANIZATIONS
INTERESTED IN INDIVIDUALS
LIVING IN POVERTY WHO
NEEDED LEGAL SERVICES

12. After Harvard
 Went to work for Sidley & Austin, a law firm that
practiced corporate law in Chicago, Illinois
 Took another route and got into entertainment
law
 Worked with trademarking, distribution, and
broadcasting of Barney, the purple dinosaur
 Met future husband Barack Obama; assigned as his
advisor while he was a summer intern at Sidley &
Austin
 Married Barack Obama in 1992
 Worked as a health administrator
 Made contributions to her husband’s senatorial
and presidential campaigns

13. Theories Displayed in
Michelle Obama’s Life
ERIKSON, SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY, VYGOTSKY

14. Erikson
 Erikson’s Psychosocial theory is about how children learn and develop through
culture and individual identity and through each stage, something valuable is
added to that, keeping us on a constant quest of exploring our identity.
 Erikson states that our identities are formed at an early age and is built upon
throughout our lives
 Michelle Obama’s life is an example of Erikson’s theory in the following ways.

15. Erikson
 During this stage children look up to their
parents as superior, powerful figures who
serve as ole models and children aspire to be
like them (Miller, 2011, p. 152).
 This is evident in Michelle Obama in the fact
that she not only credits her father for his
perseverance and work ethic, but that her
personality traits mirrored his in early
childhood where it was established and these
personality traits remained with her
throughout childhood and into adulthood
where she continued to have experiences that
built onto her existing personality.
Stage 3: Initiative Versus Guilt

16. “
”
She was disappointed in herself.
She used to have a little bit of
trouble with tests, so she did
whatever she had to do to make up
for that.
. MARIAN ROBINSON SPEAKING OF MICHELLE OBAMA (MUNDY, 2008, P. 64)
Stage 4: Industry Versus Inferiority
In this stage children are discovering their identities through their environments. The skills they excel in bring
confidence and their weaknesses bring inferiority. With Michelle Obama this was the case. She pushed herself to
study hard in areas that wasn’t her strongest to bring mastery.

17. “
”
Both my kids were reading at much higher levels when they were young
because they liked reading. I taught my son to read but when I went to
show Michelle how to read she wasn’t ready so she just ignored me. I
guess she figured she could figure out how to read on her own, but she
was too young to say that. Marian Robinson on Michelle Obama (Mundy,
2008, p. 34)
Here Mrs. Robinson says that both Michelle and her brother were advanced in reading at an early age but did not teach
Michelle like she taught Craig and assumed she knew hoe to do it herself. Here we possibly see observational learning from
Social Learning Theory, where children learn through observing and the actions don’t always have to be overt. The act of
seeing Mrs. Robinson teaching Craig to reach may have been influential on Michelle.

18. Vygotsky
Sociocultural Origins of Individual
Mental Functioning:
 Child-adult interactions are ingrained into
the child’s mind.
 Culture is passed from adult to child
 External becomes internal
 Intermental constructs the Intramental
 (Miller, 2011, p. 178)
Michelle’s Culture
 Hard work and persistence is part of Michelle
Obama’s culture as she witnessed her father
display these characteristics on daily basis.
 Seeing her father do this, which is the
interaction allowed this to mentally
internalized, in which the outcome is her
developing into a focused, determined and
hard-working individual.
 Her father passed down a culture of
diligence to her.

19. References Cited
Miller, P. H. (2011). Theories of developmental psychology. New York: Worth
Publishers
Mundy, L. (2009). Michelle: A biography. Simon and Schuster.

20. Picture Citations
Enwikipedia.org
Parade.com
Nytlive.nytimes.com
Ohlovelylolo.wordpress.com
Snakkle.com
Businessinsider.com