Integrity Vs. Despair In Developmental Stages

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The Developmental stage I chose is Integrity vs. Despair. This stage starts at 65 years of age and older and is the last stage of development. Erickson’s developmental stages build upon each other and the successful or unsuccessful accomplishment of tasks defines the way an older adult looks at their life. As the name of the stage states at this point the older adult evaluates life accomplishments and failures in life. The successful accomplishment of this stage is based on the other developmental stages being successfully achieved as well. If the patient successfully accomplishes this development, they will feel they tend to feel happy about how they have lived their life and they accept that any disappointment in they suffered was out of their control. Integrity allows the older adult a sense of accomplishment in life. If they have a sense of despair they feel that they focus on negative events of their life that affect their current situation. According to (Hamachi, 1990) “They tend to blame others for whatever troubles or failure they have experience.” If they present a sense of …show more content…

While it is common for most to feel regrets of certain events or things they did on their past those who successfully accomplished the task of this stage feel an overall feeling of accomplishment. There reason this stage is important is because the way the look at a crisis such as death or illness is affected by how they attained this last stage of development. Those in who attain an ego of integrity will feel proud of what they have done in their life and most likely face illness or death as a part of the cycle of life. If they present despair they may regret the way they have lived and wish they could have more time to accomplish what they didn’t accomplish in the past. On the other hand, those in despair may also feel they don’t have a reason to live because they have nothing positive to look

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