Life Trials and a Police Officer’s Generative Accomplishments

Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development throughout the life span, much like Sigmund Freud, organizes human personality development in a series of stages (Cherry, 2011). Erikson’s psychosocial theory covers personality development from birth to death; other developmental theories explicitly focus on childhood (Harder, 2009). The eight stages of Erikson’s psychosocial theory distinguish a human’s successful transition into the following developmental stage by successfully overcoming crises and struggle a particular developmental stage presents (Hutchison, 2011, p. 315). Each stage of psychosocial development presents a crisis; the successful resolution of the crisis determines the positive or negative outcome of a particular stage (Erikson’s Eight Stages, 2010). According to Erikson, a crisis presented by a developmental stage indicates a turning point in a human’s development (Cherry, 2011). The failure to overcome a crisis in a psychosocial stage means an individual failed to master competency; a positive developmental outcome is measured by an individual’s competence in a specific stage of development (Cherry, 2011). The ability to manage the crisis suggests mastery through competence; failure to adapt or overcome the developmental conflict leaves an individual feeling inadequate (Cherry, 2011). According to Erikson, the accumulation of unresolved conflicts/crises only makes the successful accomplishment of future developmental crises much more difficult because each stage builds from the previous stage (Cherry, 2011). Erikson’s theory explicitly emphasizes the panoramic influences a human’s environment plays in a person’s behavior in the ongoing development from birth to death (Harder, 2009). Developmental failure as e...

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...bodyguards. He explained that obtaining this job was the opportunity to work less for more pay. He feels that even though he was proven innocent it tarnished a hard earned honorable reputation in the police department. Mayor Booker accepted him for the job. He explained that this job proved he was qualified based on his skill and honorable reputation he has amassed in his fifteen years of service to the police force. His

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new career provided the foundation to become mentally stable and happy again. A new job meant new opportunities to serve his community and spend more time with his growing family. I concluded the interview by asking what his main concerns in both experiences were. My interviewee looked up to the sky raising his eyebrows deep in thought. He replied, “My kids and my job mean the most two me, without them I am nothing.”