Reflection Of Erikson's Seven Stages Of Life

The psychological development of human beings consists of their personality, cognition, emotion, and self-concept (Zastrow 2007, p. 113). According to Freud, who was well known as a personality theorist, concluded that the mind was two dimensional and one side consisted of the conscious, the preconscious, and the unconscious and the second dimension consisted of the id, ego, and superego. Freud theorized that there were 5 stages of psychosexual and personality development which entailed the oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital stages. Freud believed that each phase of personality development progressed consecutively and if conflict arose within the earlier phases of growth it could result in internal disturbances which if not resolved

Now, proceeding two Erikson’s final three stages of life which I have yet to complete will help me be the professional person I hope to be. For Erikson these final three stages which are intimacy, generativity, and integrity are as important as the first five because they assist us in fulfilling a healthy life style. I have currently fulfilled the sixth stage of intimacy since I have been intimate with my partner for about eight years now. In this stage I learned to not put myself first only but to also give and share things with my partner. Erikson’s seventh stage of psychosocial development is generativity which means “giving back to our communities either locally or globally, and giving nurturance and guidance to those who will follow and inherit our world” (Mitchell, 2014, p. 137). The last stage in Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development is the eighth stage which is integrity. In this stage which I have yet to accomplish is when a person has reached a life well lived which includes when someone has gained wisdom and has lived through life histories and has accepted the transience what is left of one’s own

Daniel Levinson’s theory on the evolution of the life structure focuses on the structure a person creates or environment in which to live during each era of one’s life (Mitchell, 2014, p. 138). He believed that each era of life consisted every twenty years and that at the mid-point of each stage a transition occurs where each individual reevaluates and reflects there life thus far to then “fine-tune” it for the goals and tasks that will satisfy the stage during that time (Mitchell, 2014, p. 138). Putting these theories into perspective as a social worker will help me in understanding my clients and in finding ways to assist them in coping with the challenges they have endured during their stages in