Introduction:
Eric Erickson was a psychologist who studied under and was influenced by Sigmund Freud. Erikson developed the psychosocial theory of personality development which suggests that every individual passes through different stages in life from birth through death. One of the main aspects of his theory is ego identity, the conscious sense of self humans are given at birth and develop through life’s social interactions. Erickson submits that during these stages humans face conflict and there is a predominate issue which may or may not be successfully negotiated. It is the successful completion of each stage where humans learn skills that will assist with the effective completion of future stages. Erickson believed that current thinking
Erickson’s psychosocial theory provides significant ideas and tools that can be put into practice for the identification and modification of behavior patterns developed over the lifespan. Erickson’s theory is hardly comparable to the biological and natural sciences with their requirements of accuracy, repeatability and testable hypothesis. Therefore to adopt Erickson’s description of his own work; It should be used as a tool to think with rather than an answer to the question, “Who am I?” (Erikson, 1968).
Application of
Simply, I want to have a basis for my intervention. In Erickson’s own words, his theory is a tool for people to live by. It does have the ability to look back into the development of one’s identity and potentially identify stages in development where a crisis has not been negotiated successfully. Earlier in this essay I related Sorell & Montgomery suggesting benefits from using Erikson’s theory.
In their writing they also point out that women and men resolve conflicts differently. The authors state “women’s identity development will be organized by relational concerns, and identity for men will involve independence and agency” (Sorell & Montgomery, 2001). I have read in various places that these conclusions can apply to adults and adolescents, and black and whites. They conclude that even in light of gender bias, socioeconomic, political, or ethnocentric bias, the identity construct survives (Sorell & Montgomery,
Erikson’s psychosocial theory is an eight stage theory on human psychological development. Erikson broke this theory of eight stages into groups by age. They are labeled as crisis stages and a person cannot move on from one stage to the next stage until the crisis is
Role Confusions. The virtue of this stage is fidelity. Erikson was an ego psychologist who emphasized the role of society and culture and the conflicts that may take place within the ego itself. The ego develops as it successfully resolves crises that are social in nature. They may involve developing a sense of identity in society, and establishing a sense of trust in others. Erik Erikson believed that personality develops in a predetermined order and build on each previous stage; this is called the epigenic principle. Erik Erikson put a big emphasizes on the adolescent period because he believed it is a crucial stage for developing a person’s identity. This stage is the stage that Precious is currently at. (McLeod,
Erik Erikson was heavily influenced by Freud but while Freud was an ID psychologist, Erikson was an ego psychologist. Erikson stressed that the development of the ego depended heavily on personal and social aspects. “According to Erikson, the ego develops as it successfully resolves crises that are distinctly social in nature. These involve establishing a sense of trust in others, developing a sense of identity in society, and helping the next generation prepare for the future” (McLeod, S. 1970). His theory focused on personality development through eight distinct stages. He believed that personality progressed in a stacking or pre-determined manner, this is referred to as the epigenetic principle. One must
Erik Erikson was the man who originated the term “Identity crisis”. Erikson thought that his work was an extension of Freud’s and that if Freud had been given the time, then he would have come up with the same psychoanalysis theories that Erikson did. The major life developments of Erik Erikson that influenced his personality include things such as not having his father around from birth and thinking that his mother’s husband was his biological father and then finding out that the man was not his father, which caused confusion for Erikson. This is what prompted him to be interested in identity. When he entered school and the community, he was not sure how he fit in so he decided to study the aspects of identity. Erikson was bullied because
Erick Erickson has made a huge contribution to the field of psychology with his developmental theory. Like Sigmund Freud, Erickson also saw that humans developed within stages of their life. With this he developed his eight psychosocial stages. Born on June 2, 1902 in Frankfort, Germany to a Jewish mother, Karla Abrahamsen and his biological father Valdemar Isidor Salomonsen. There isn’t much information on Erickson’s father because before he was even born his father abandoned his mother. Instead in 1905 his mother married Dr. Theodor Homberger who was also at the time Erickson’s pediatrician. Throughout Erickson’s youth he struggled with his identity because there wasn’t a father figure around his youth, Erickson never really knew
Erik Erickson’s eight stages of psychosocial development is argumentatively one of the best theories to explain how human beings should healthily develop from infancy to late adulthood. Every stage of the theory must be successfully completed for optimal human personality growth. Stages that are not successful completed may result in reoccurring problems throughout one’s lifespan. Every stage is broken down by a psychosocial crisis, each with a conflicting matter that must be resolved. If the person fails to resolve this conflict, they will carry the negative trait into every remaining stage of life. Furthermore, if the person successfully resolves the conflict, they will carry the positive trait into every remaining
The theory of personality of Erik Erikson is among one of the most important theories used to explain how people develop their personality. Although a psychoanalyst, Erikson it not merely considered the psychosexual aspect as the mere factors that contributed to the development of individuals’ personality, but also took into account the psychosocial aspect. Erikson divided personality development in eight stages: basic trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role diffusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair, (Cervone & Pervin, 2013; Johnson & Ahmad, 2014; Maitland, 2011).
Eric Erikson was one of the most famous theorists of the twentieth century; he created many theories. One of the most talked about theories is his theory of psychosocial development. This is a theory that describes stages in which an individual should pass as they are going through life. His theory includes nine stages all together. The original theory only included eight stages but Erikson‘s wife found a ninth stage and published it after his death. The nine stages include: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. identity confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, integrity vs. despair, and hope and faith vs. despair (Crandell and Crandell, p.35-36)).
Ego identity is said to be one of the many things Erickson has focused on. He believed that through social interaction we gain mindful sense of ourselves, which can be commonly referred to as Ego identity. Although, Freud referred to the ego as the match over the necessities of the identity and superego, Erickson saw the ego as our way of our self-esteem. The way Erickson describes ego is the way we commonly use it in conversation. The main i...
Eric Erikson believed that there are eight different social stages an individual must go through as they mature. Each of these stages involves a positive characteristic and a negative one. Your future all depends on these characteristics. So to what degree can Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development truly affect us? All I know is that the moment my life changed was the day I saved a man’s life. This moment in my life falls under the 5th stage of Eriksons theories of psychological development. It is at this stage where I was able to develop a “sense of self and personal identity”. I was following Eriksons eight different social stages my whole life and I didn’t even know it; and by the end of it, I was able to find “a reintegrated sense of self, of what one wants to do or be”. (Bee, 1992)
His belief was that each human developed their own personality through a series of stages and these stages developed due to the social experiences that one experienced through life. According to Erikson, there are eight stages and each stage centers around a conflict that has to be resolved. Under Erikson’s theory, if conflict or crisis is not resolved, then the outcome will be more crisis and struggles with that issue later on in life (Domino & Affonso, 2011).
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development were complex, but simple. It is something everyone will go through and experiences will always be different. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his stages can lead to quite a disaster. Surprisingly, previous stages are highly influential to the proceeding stage. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his psychosocial stages can have a very devastating effect on a person. This is because the effects built up rather than taking the place of one another. The effects are quite horrifying, but with the right environment, experiences and beliefs, everything can go well.
Theorists have expanded our knowledge of psychology, influenced one another to broaden, and built upon each other’s theories to develop their own. One theorist who has built upon previous theorists was Erik Erikson. Erikson developed an eight-stage theory of identity and psychosocial development, which has countless strengths and weaknesses.
In this paper I will be focusing on Erikson’s Theory mainly about identity versus role confusion. Finding one’s identity is not always an easy task. Everyone at some point in his or her life has had, as Erikson puts it, an identity crisis. Everyone experiences different struggles that can have either a positive or negative impact on their identity. On my path to identity, I have reached identity achievement, which means I have explored and made commitments. I will also be focusing on two articles highlighting a fifth possible outcome regarding identity and looking at identity statuses as developmental trajectories.
Erik Erikson was a developmental psychologist known for his theory on psychosocial development. Unlike other theorists of his time Erikson’s theory focused on human development across the lifespan from birth to late adulthood. Erickson believed that development change occurs through out our lives in eight distinctive stages that emerge in a fixed pattern and are similar for all people. Erickson argued that each stage presents a crisis or conflict which results in either a positive or negative outcome (Feldman). In this essay I will identify incidents in my own life that demonstrate each stage of development according to Erickson that I have lived through. I will also interview my Aunt Tami who will share her experiences for the remainder stages of Erickson’s development that I have not gone through thus far.