Climbing the Psychosocial Ladder

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Recommended: Studies on Erikson's theory of psychosocial development

Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development relates to my life at some milestones but not all. Erikson has eight stages he feels everyone goes through in life during a certain age frame. Each stage is divided into age categories from birth through late adulthood. The eight stages are; trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs shame and doubt, initiative vs guilt, industry vs inferiority, identity vs identity confusion, intimacy vs isolation, generativity vs stagnation, and ego integrity vs despair. The first six stages seem to mostly fit to the development of who I am today. Trust vs mistrust identifies development from birth until one year. Erikson believes this is the most important step in his theory. Developing trust at a very young age will determine whether you believe you can count on others or not. From birth to one my mom was always around she catered to my needs as well as my father. They were both very attentive and altered their lifestyles to revolve around me. This attentiveness has led me to the point to where I am now where I feel strongly about the goodness in others. Autonomy vs shame and doubt revolves around beginning toddler years ages one to three. During this stage the building blocks of confidence and independence are starting to be formed. By beginning to be able to make choices on what food or toys you like or don’t like. There’s a photo of me when I was nearly three years old where I was given the choice to pick out my own clothes. My mom told me that she was trying to get me dressed and I cried and said I didn’t like the shirt she picked out for me. So she told me to pick my own. I had a life sized Barbie with a Cinderella princess gown that I could wear too! It was blue and white with big, shiny, shoulde... ... middle of paper ... ... thought that this stage would not be successful unless the individual established a sense of self and identity. I agree with this part of Erikson’s theory 100%. I am just now at a point in my life that I feel I am able to establish and commit to a relationship capable of lasting a lifetime. I am halfway through school, I have a long term career and educational plan, I know what I want, where I want to go, and what type of person I want by my side for this journey I am on. Overall I believe that Erikson was on the right path when talking about the different stages of life. I do believe that the timeline for everyone may be different though. If a person doesn’t make it through one stage with a positive outcome it may hinder them moving on to the next phase of life. Sometimes life throws curve balls that cannot be predicted by timelines and stages of development.

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