Erik Erikson: the Life-Span Theorist and His contribution to the psychology field with his developmental theory
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) has made a contribution to the psychology field with his developmental theory. He discusses psychosocial stages, even though he does not talk about psychosexual stages, his ideas were influenced by Freud. Erikson extends on Freudian’s thoughts by focusing on the adaptive and creative characteristics of the ego, and expending the notion of the stages of personality development, which includes the whole life spam. He developed eight psychosocial stages that human encounter throughout their lives. The stages are trust vs. Mistrust, Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt, Initiative vs. Guilt, Industry vs. Inferiority,
His development thesis is centered on what we know as the epigenetic principle, which proposes that every human being go through eight stages. At each one, people face a crisis that need to be successfully resolved in order to develop the psychological quality central to each of the stages. The eight stages of his theory are something that every psychology student learns about as they explore the history of personality according to psychology. Much like psychoanalyst Freud, Erikson believed that personality develops in a series of stages. Erikson’s theory marked a shift that describes the impact of social experiences across the whole lifespan instead of simply focusing on childhood
He worked with what he knew, with what he saw, and what was ready to hand. Inevitably, as result, many doubt that any of his ideas still apply. So if Erik Erikson seems irrelevant today, it is because the world has changed, even if human nature has not. While Freud’s theories had focused on psychosexual aspect of development, Erikson’s addition of other influences helped to broaden and expend Psychoanalytic theory. He also contributed to our understanding of personality as is developed and shaped over the course of lifespan. His observations of children also helped set the stage for further research. To squeeze a lifetime into a few pages, we had to ignore countless details. Although much is missing, the result is a clear picture of an entire lifespan. Psychosocial dilemmas are major events in many lives. Knowing about them may allow you to anticipate typical trouble spots in your own
Erik Erikson’s psychoanalytic theory of development is made up of eight stages that span the lifetime. The stages correspond to a specific age and provide a blueprint for what to expect universally from someone in that stage in terms of social development. Erikson believed
Erikson believed that personality development happens over the entire course of a persons life. He believed that personality develops in a series of stages. At each stage, challenges are faced and the outcome depends on how people handles these challenges. Erikson’s theory describes the impact of social experiences across the whole lifespan.
The two important psychoanalytic theories on human development are psychosexual development theory by Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. Many researchers use these two major approaches to analyze the human development in different stages of life. Since Freud’s approach was the foundation of Erikson’s psychosocial theory, there are many similarities between them. Even though they are both focusing on phases of life, there are still some differences on the definitions and ideas of life stages. In this paper, I will concentrate on Freud and Erikson’s ideas of different stages of human development because these two approaches always come together and they are mostly overlapping. Yet, there are divergences and transformations between all the stages.
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
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
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
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)).
Erikson believed that people develop in psychosocial stages. He emphasized developmental change throughout the human life span. In Erikson's theory, eight stages of development result as we go through the life span. Each stage consists of a crisis that must be faced. According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point. The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be.
Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson are two theorists that “believed the major determinants of personality are not conscious…[and] are the result of conflict through the various stages of development” (Cloninger 2013). Both theorists described different stages a person goes through during development. Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development were greatly influenced by Freud’s psychosexual stages of development. “Erikson’s theory builds on that of Freud, presuming hat biology provides the motivation of personality through the psychosexual stages that Freud outlined. However biological sexual energy is not the only consideration.” (Cloninger 2013). Rather than focusing on a person’s libido, also known as the person’s sexual-psychic energy, as the driving force behind personality, Erikson described how social influences could have an affect on a person’s personality.
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.
Freud’s psychosexual theory and Erikson’s psychosocial theory are two very renowned developmental concepts. Erikson was persuaded by Freud’s ideas but he elaborated on the theory differently.