Analysis Of Erickson's Psychosocial Theory

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The eight stages of Erickson’s psychosocial theory focus on the way that individual personalities adapt and develop over the lifespan. He believed that both maturational and social demands pushed humans through these stages. Each stage has a general age range in which the experiences should occur, along with a central question that the stage is attempting to answer. As we age the duration of these phases becomes longer, partially due to the increasing complexity of the questions attempted to be answered. In addition, the book also notes a virtue or strength associated with each time period in an individual's life that typically are acquired or expanded upon during the stage.
The first stage of this theory is trust vs. mistrust that occurs …show more content…

inferiority occurs from ages 6-12 years. The central issue of this phase examines on one's self, through asking if “I am competent compared with others?”. This emphasis on the strength of competence causes the individual to focus on the development of important cognitive and social tasks. Upon reflection I realize that I engaged within this stage fairly late as it wasn't until I was about 12 that I valued education and gained a desire to compete with my peers. I also experienced social growth during this time, as I saw the necessity in having friends who were truly involved in my …show more content…

isolation moves past these questions into actually experiencing the decisions the individual had made during the previous stage. This stage occurs between ages 20-40 and attempts to answer the question “am I ready for a committed relationship?”. A question that most people find extremely difficult to answer as the virtue of love can be extremely confusing in a person's life. This phase is when a person must achieve a sense of individual identity before becoming able to commit himself to a shared identity with another person. I have seen this through my older siblings as my sister was able to have a healthy adult relationship directly after she graduated high school, while my brother recognized he was not ready for such a commitment until age 25.
The seventh stage generativity vs. stagnation occurs during ages 45-60 that addresses the question “do I have something to give to future generations?”. This stage emphasizes the growth in gaining the capacity to generate or produce something that outlives you and to care about the welfare of future generations through such activities as parenting, teaching, mentoring, and leading. Through my discussions with adults this is partially the reason why they have children, in order to leave a lasting impact on society after they are

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