Analyzing Erikson's Psychosocial Theories

At 17 years old, I had the grueling task of deciding how I wanted to spend 40 plus years of my life. I always aspired to land a career in the medical field, so I majored in biology like most pre-med hopefuls, but during my junior year, I no longer desired to become a physician. The medical field was calling out to me, but the specialty of focus was incorrect. After graduation, I went back to the basics and put my nursing assistant certification to use.

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,

My father has always told me, “Education is a process, not a destination.” During the summer before my freshmen year at college, if somebody had asked me to pick to a career trajectory from choices such as medicine, business, or engineering, I would have been fairly clueless. I had attended several career fairs and spoken to college counselors, yet I had no idea what I wanted to pursue. After several long hours of research and discussion with trusted friends and family, I decided to major in medical lab technology.Though I had made the choice, I was still worried, and could not picture myself living out this career in the future.

One of the theorists to investigate the development of identity would be Erik Erikson. According to Erikson (1968), throughout an individual’s life-span, they experience conflicts. These conflicts arise at certain points in life and need to be successfully resolved for the progression in to the next of Erikson’s eight stages (Sigelman & Rider, 2015). The specific stage relevant to the development of identity formation in adolescence would be the ‘identity versus role confusion’ stage. Identity development involves exploring options and making commitments to obtain a relatively stable self-perception (DeHaan & MacDermid, 1996). In contrast, role confusion occurs when individuals are not able to commit specific life choices (DeHaan & MacDermid,

I admit that I haven't always been interested in entering the medical field. It seemed like a “blood and guts” job to me, and thats not exactly something that Ive always felt comfortable with. I must have changed my mind what seemed like a million times about my future. I went from wanting to be a marine biologist, to wanting to be an art teacher and then later not having even the slightest idea what I wanted to be at all. It wasn’t until my senior year in high school, that an unexpected accident led to my final decision to pursue a health related career.

The second theory examined is Erik Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development. Each stage in Erikson’s theory involves a conflict/crisis that a person must work through to evolve their personality. Rosenthal (1981) explains that, “Each stage arises because a new dimension of social interaction

Psychoanalyst Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory is also part of the psychodynamic perspective. According to Erikson (Berk, 2007) society and culture have an influence on human development. In contrast to Freud whose theory that proposed development was complete by adolescence (Berk, 2007), Erikson’s theory argues that development is continuous throughout the lifespan and occurs in eight stages. The first stage of development, trust versus mistrust, occurs during infancy (birth to 1-year-old). During this stage if an infant’s basic needs are met by a responsive and attentive caregiver, the infant will begin to trust the caregiver, thus establishing the foundation for future trust relationships. In contrast if an infant does not receive enough or irregular care, or if caregivers are unresponsive, the infant can develop mistrust. The autonomy versus shame and doubt is the next stage, which occurs between the first and third years

Erik Erikson is known for his psychoanalytic theory of psychosocial development comprising eight stages from infancy to adulthood. Psychologist Erik Erikson, is a major contributor to developmental psychology, who proposed a comprehensive theory of the ways that individuals develop their identity, a sense of who they are, and society's influence on that development. Erikson stated that people go through crisis at each stage of their lives. The stages each had a developmental task to be mastered. As an individual resolved these various crises an individual would have a better harmony with their social environment that they live in. If an individual could not successfully resolve a crisis, they would be” out of step”, and the individual would have a greater difficulty in their dealing with a crisis in the future. Erikson did however recognize that an individual can develop through a stage negatively and still go on with their life. Erikson stated that each of the psychological stages have a basic conflict and important event leading to growth. The theory was developed from his hundreds of clinical observations in children.

20 is a strange age, you don’t have the excuse of being a teenager to fall back on but people still treat you like a child. Since high school, I’ve been interested in psychology, a topic many people engage in because as humans, we all naturally try to learn more about ourselves as a whole, but also as individuals. Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development mark the eight points people go through from infancy to elder hood. Based on Erikson’s theory, twenty year olds are at the end of adolescence where we wonder who we are and what we can be, as well as being at the beginning of early adulthood where we have formed most of our identity but are also now trying to find love and where we fit into the world.

During my first two years of life, we still resided in Texas and my mom had my brother Ira by August of the following year. I don’t remember much about this time in my life, but according to Erikson’s developmental theory, birth to one year marks a time of the developing trust or mistrust (Berger, 2014). This is a time that I would have figured out who I could trust to satisfy my basic needs and comfort or develop mistrust about my care giver. I believe I trusted my mom and immediate family because that is what I was told. Erikson believes that when a child reaches approximately between the ages of 1 to 3 years of age, they are challenged with autonomy versus shame and doubt (Berger, 2014). These children either become self-sufficient or doubt that they can accomplish a particular task. According to my parents I accomplished all the milestones (walked, talked and feed

Erik Erikson was a researcher of the Psychodynamic perspective who lived through the years 1902 to 1994. He developed a theory that dealt with the stages of human development and was referred to as a Neo-Freudian. A Neo-Freudian are those “who have revised Sigmund Freud’s theory” (Massey, 1986). His theory argued that “both society and culture challenge and shape us” (Feldman, 2011). Erik Erikson’s theory of psychological development does not specify specific ages, so the age categories can only be guessed upon. It is my personal thought that this was a smart move due to different age milestones for different cultures. The essay titled Erik Erikson: Ages, stages, and stories argues that the stages “are organized into a system of

All of Erik H. Eriksons’ stages of development are significant, but the Identity vs. Role Confusion in the adolescent years was the one that impacted me the most prominently. The Identity vs. Role Confusion stage typically happens between the ages of twelve to eighteen, though it can potentially extend into other periods in a persons lifetime. This stage is concerned with developing a concrete personal identity and developing fidelity to a role. If the individual fails at this stage, they are often left with a weak sense of self and who they want to be in the future, often being unsure about subjects such as desired career, likes and dislikes, goals, and sexual orientation. This stage greatly pertains to peers and role models. In fact, Identity vs. Role Confusion is one of the most vital stages in a persons life and plays a substantial role in how a person feels regarding their existence once they are in their senior years. A study performed on elderly people which evaluated their overall sense of coherence later in life showed that, “[f]our of the Eriksonian developmental stages were found to be significantly correlated with sense of coherence: the conflicts about trust/mistrust, autonomy/shame, identity/identity diffusion, and intimacy/isolation” (Rennemark and Hagberg). This study proves how important being successful in finding a sense of identity is to the rest of a persons life. Often, the adolescent years led to a vigorous exploration, and is recognized as the

For my life journey I have chose to use Eric Erikson’s theory I have decided to use his theory because to me his theory suited my life appropriately. Eric Erikson is a well known theorist from the twentieth century, he has produced many theories. One of his most known and recognized theory is the psychosocial development. This theory describes the steps a person goes through in life. There are nine stages in his theory. Originally his theory only eight steps, but his wife found the last step after his death and published it. The nine stages are: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy and soliditary vs. isolation, generativity vs. self absorption and stagnation, and integrity vs. despair. Although, I have not gone through all of these steps yet due to my age I am only twenty two. I will speak about the steps I have gone through so far.

Intro : When growing up we as people continue to go through stages. When growing up I hit the stage Identity vs. role confusion by Eric Erickson. This stages hits at age 12-18 years. During those years teens don’t know who they are and what their personal identity is. A person does this by exploring their personal values, beliefs and goals. The teen also wants to fit in with everyone else.

Erikson once proposed a theory that at different parts of our lives, we’re in different stages as well. It stated that at a certain age, people will be in a psychosocial dilemma, and after interviewing six different people, his theory is one that turned out to be true. The six people I choose to interview were between the ages of 6 to 67, which is a very broad spectrum, and their stages ranged from early childhood to late adulthood. They were also a few people that are very close to me in relation, and some that were not so close to me. In a way, this helped me tremendously when it came to gauging their answers, and their reactions to the questions I gave to them. Because it gave me a chance to see how these people felt about certain