Analysis Of Erickson's Psychosocial Stages Of Development

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Nick is at a critical point in his development, and he appeared to be well accepted by the students. That being said, I could sense frustration with Nick is beginning to set in for some of his classmates. To further understand possible reasons Nick’s current developmental state, his information can be applied to developmental theories to see if they will better explain his development. One such theory is Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development theory. Erickson’s theory is characterized by resolution of conflicts at each stage (Crain, 2011). With the information obtained about Nick, Erickson’s first stage is applicable to his development. The conflict in the first stage is trust verses mistrust, where the child is looking to the …show more content…

He predicted children are in the process of mastering important social and cognitive skills, and therefore have to resolve the conflict of industry versus inferiority (Crain, 2011). Since Nick has an IEP he experiences difficulty in various aspects of school and will learn at a much slower rate than the rest of the students. This will prove extremely difficult as he continues to watch his classmates develop much quicker than he will, thus leaving him with feelings of inadequacy. Erickson would also predict that because Nick has not developed these skills at a normal rate, he will lack competence for the exercise of intelligence and skill when working on tasks (Crain, 2011). This prediction can be directly related to the amount of help Nick requires with each of his assignments. Moving forward with Erickson’s stages, I would predict Nick will struggle to resolve most conflicts in Erickson’s developmental …show more content…

Watching Nick in the classroom allowed me to observe his social interactions, how he handles himself when he is working alone, how he handles working while interacting and how he contributes in class. The class’s first assignment was to find a quiet place and read silently for fifteen minutes. Nick sat alone and couldn’t sit still. This was a warning sign for me because he was the only student that could not sit still. Another red flag came up when I started watching Nick closer while he wandered. He was constantly asking classmates and the teacher questions during a task that should not have required questions. An additional issue came up when he attempted to put his book away. He was trying to push it into an area that was too small. He was not able to understand that in order to put his books back he was going to have to move some other things around. Instead he proceeded to make a small mess and a frustrated classmate helped him fix

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