Erikson's Industry Vs Inferiority

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Erik Erikson’s Industry vs Inferiority “The inner stage seems all set for ‘entrance into life,’ except that life must first be school life, whether school is field or jungle or classroom” (Erikson, 1985). Erik Erikson’s research focused on psychosocial stages, and in this paper, I will focus on the fourth stage called Industry vs. Inferiority; also known as the competence or school age stage. This essay will outline Erik Erikson’s fourth stage as well as give a fieldwork example of this theory in use. Through Erik Erikson’s research he greatly believed that people develop through establishing trust and an identity within society. During the Industry vs. Inferiority stage, a child begins to readily learn in school and their teacher becomes …show more content…

It was fascinating to use Erikson’s fourth stage while I was observing Oak and other kindergartener’s because it pertained to everything within the classroom, parent to child interactions, and the importance of trust and confidence gains. I truly wish the school year was not finished, as I would have loved to put Erikson’s stages to use for an entire school year to see exactly how children transition from one stage to another. Often times, our society thinks children need to develop according to grade levels but in all reality they have to master one skill before they can progress to the next and it takes everyone a different amount of time to do so. Erikson’s fourth stage really pertained to me since I am a kindergarten teacher, and my biggest lesson learned from this observation was how important trust is for a child and how a child needs to have a strong base of trust in order to learn and grow. “Life doesn’t make any sense without interdependence. We need each other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for all of us” (Erikson, 1980). I firmly believe in this quote by Erikson because as a teacher I see how important it is for peer interactions to learn and grow, and the same goes for parents. We all have to work together to create a positive learning environment; but we cannot do that if one link in the environment lacks

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