Erik Erikson once said, “In the social jungle of human existence, there is no feeling of being alive without a sense of identity”. This is very true, how can you feel alive without knowing what a person or entity is? The sight, smell, hearing, taste, and touch of a person or object is what living is about. Our daily interaction with nature physiques our life experiences. Day after day we experience new things and learn how to make a calculated decision in the future. We sometime forget that we didn’t’ simply become who we are today, but we were developed into that person. We were developed by our society, family, friends and our experiences. Erikson’s (1959) theory of psychosocial development has eight distinct stages that help us understand …show more content…
Many consider Erikson to be an ego psychologists. That claim comes from one of Erikson’s main elements of the psychosocial stage theory being the ego identity. As defined Ego identity is the cognizant sense of self that we develop through social interaction. Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages. Erikson 's theory defines the impact of social experience across the whole lifespan. Erikson 's alleged conflicts are arranged to ripen a psychological quality or if handled poorly obstruct develop of that quality. The opportunity for personal growth is great, but so is the potential for social disaster. If people successfully handle the conflict correctly, they surface from the stage with psychological strengths that will compliment them well for the rest of their life. If they fail to deal with the conflict at hand commendably they may not develop the vital skills needed for a strong sense of identity. In a nutshell Erik Erikson’s is about psychosocial. Psychosocial is defend by google as relating to the interrelation of social factors and individual thought and …show more content…
I believe that I have completed the first five stages of Erikson’s theory. The trust Vs. Mistrust stage, the Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt stage, the Initiative vs. Guilt stage, the Industry (competence) vs. Inferiority stage, and the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage. My development was very different from that of my eldest cousin. My cousin Miguel was the first born grandchild amongst my mother’s side and her five sisters. They gave Miguel everything he ever needed because he was the first grandchild. I was the third grandchild, the second however was a female and her name is Shaun. She was given everything because she was the first female grandchild. The constant attention and consistency with things being given to them worked great for their trust in that everything would be good in the world. The stage that I question until today is how that trust affected stage two in their lives. I clearly have embodied the will to do without and with anything I earn to make the next day brighter. My two cousins on the other hand have a hard time getting up and moving without a push. In stage one I was given a lot of attention but not as much as everyone else, I barely received gifts and I was always punished for thing that I had done by being deprived of something I wanted. My grades were better and I always did extracurricular activities in school, yet I received
Erik Erikson developed the psychosocial theory, and “he describes our social experiences during our whole life span using eight different stages” (Cherry 2015). The first four stages are “trust vs. mistrust; which describes how the child needs to be able to trust their adult figures, autonomy vs. shame and doubt; which is about person control, initiative vs. guilt; which is about children learning to lead others, industry vs. inferiority; which is about gaining a sense of pride in things” (Cherry 2015). The final four stages are “identity vs. confusion; which begins the sense of self, intimacy vs. isolation; which explores personal relationships, generativity vs. stagnation; which focuses on career and family, and the final stage being integrity vs. despair; which describes reflecting back on life” (Cherry
In Erickson’s psychosocial stage theory, one of the main components he focused on is the development of the ego identity. Ego can be defined as the conscious sense of self that is developed through interaction. According to Erickson, our ego is constantly changing due to the new and different interactions that we have on a daily basis. We can either hinder or strengthen our ego identity by the interactions we experience. Erickson believed that a hindered ego or an ego that isn’t developed can lead to a person feeling an inadequacy as well as losing the meaning of life. However, if a person’s ego is strengthened and mastered a person will feel accomplished as well as the sense of belonging. This feeling can also be referred to as the ego strength or ego quality. During the times of ego identity, the person’s potential of growth is high, however, the potential of failure is also present.
Erik Erikson, a German-born American who is a well known developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst, established the grand theory of psychosocial development. Throughout his theory, persistently stresses that one’s personality advances non-stop throughout the duration of several differential stages. Erikson’s theory also goes in depth to explain the immense impact of social experiences in one’s lifespan. The main element that is produced from his theory of psychosocial development is essentially ego identity. Ego identity can be defined as a sense of self, or better, the knowledge of one’s self that forms through a process within all social interaction. Contemporary
82). As human beings, we are constantly encountering and resolving conflict events, which Erikson called developmental crisis. The approach we take to resolve these crises depends on the influences that are around us and the actions that we take. After examining each stage and my experiences with each one, I feel as if I have a better understanding of how I became the person I am today. My parents, family members, teachers, and coaches, along with all of the other people in my life, have helped me to create an identity for myself as I have moved through the stages of psychosocial development. Analyzing Erikson’s theory in this manner has granted me a better understanding of psychosocial development, which will be invaluable for my future career as an
Erikson’s theory, developed in 1963, supports the idea that early life experiences impact an individual across their lifespan. This theory considers that the growth of an individual is a result of interaction with the environment, biological maturation and societal influences, therefore, allowing for experiences from early life, to influence an individual throughout their lifespan (White, Hayes, and Livesey, 2009). Erikson’s theory focuses on eight different developmental stages within a lifespan and in order to progress from one stage to another, an individual must overcome a potential crisis of two opposing forces at each stage. There are two types of resolution of each stage, successful and unsuccessful. If an individual is
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)).
He implemented eight psychosocial stages which includes trust versus mistrust. One example of the specified inclusions are infants. In order to come to a resolution for these feelings of insecurity, infants look towards their care givers for care and stability to fulfill their desired needs. With autonomy versus shame stage, children begin to assert their independence, utilizing their skills otherwise they will end up doubting their abilities. Initiative versus guilt is another stage where pre-scholars develop initiative by devising and carrying out bold plans. These people plan activities, developing a sense of initiative with others therefore feeling secure in their ability to lead and make decisions. The identity versus role confusion stage is noted as Erikson’s most popular. He characterized adolescence as a crucial and critical time of identity development. To achieve a sense of identity some adolescents attempt to define and explore who they are regarding their career choice, religion, political views, sexual orientation etc., figuring out a way to fit into society. According to Erikson, “the adolescent mind is essentially a mind or moratorium, a psychosocial stage between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be developed by the adult” (Erikson, 1963, p.245. As they go through the different sexual and
We then move onto the next stage bringing along the knowledge of the stage before and influencing the way that we carry ourselves. Erikson’s stages of personality development are different than Freud’s because one is social and the other is sexual. Erikson believed that the stages were connected to socialization and to move on from one stage to the next you had to pass the last stage. In Freud’s work he believed it had to do with sexualization and each stage had something to do with a sexual feeling. Both Erikson and Freud believed in the imperatives of the unconscious mind as part of the development (Education Portal,2014). I can identify more with Erikson’s stages for my life and can apply it to the lives of my children better than that of Freud’s. We thrive best on routine and that affects the outcome for each stage. We have not gotten stuck in any one stage and have continued to develop along the timeline set forth by Erikson. We all get along with others and have easy going attitudes and none of us feel that we are better than anyone else. We are all
Erik Erikson was an ego psychologists. He established one of the most widespread and dominant theories of human development. His theory was influenced by Sigmund Freud theory. Erikson 's theory centered on psychosocial development and Freud’s theory centered on psychosexual development. Erik Erikson 's theory of human psychosocial development is the best-known theory of personality. Like Sigmund Freud, Erikson thought that human personality matures in stages. Erikson 's theory outlines the effect of social experience across a person’s whole life.
Erik Erikson was a psychologist specializing in post Freudian studies. Many ideas and foundations of his theories came from the Freud way of thinking. Erickson could be considered a neo Freudian, someone who is influenced by and still practices elements of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis. Erik Erikson’s development theory expanded on Freud’s original five stages of development, consisting of a new eight psychosocial stages of development known as The Life Cycle. The ego and sexual development are a large focus for Erik Erikson’s stages. In each of his stages there are two main terms for the child to learn and they are always opposites of each other. In addition to psychologists today still using Erikson’s stages of development for assessments on patients, research is still being conducted to prove the validity of Erikson’s design. His work is important to various areas of psychology including development and personality.
Erik Erikson was influenced by Freud and his concept of the ego. Erikson observed the impact of external factors on personality from not just childhood, but throughout the entire lifetime. He developed eight stages, which are split into different age brackets. As an individual passes through these stages, they must successfully complete the crisis to move forward onto the next one.
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.
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).
Erik Erikson’s eight Stages of man; politically known as the eight stages of psychosocial development. He promotes social interactions as a motivation to personality development. Erickson studied stages from the beginning of the life cycle to the later stages of life. Erickson was trained under the famous Sigmund Freud. His belief was that it wasn’t only sex that motivated personality development. Social interaction and a growing sense of competence is the key to it all. Because his beliefs differed from the beliefs of Freud, Erikson quickly began to work on his own. Erickson has focused on many different eras of psychological development.
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.