Critical Evaluation of Whether Certain Assumptions are Present in Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory

Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated by Erik Erikson, in collaboration with Joan Erikson,[1] is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages, in which a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood. All stages are present at birth but only begin to unfold according to both a natural scheme and one's ecological and cultural upbringing. In each stage, the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds upon the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future.

Erik Erikson, a well known developmental theorist, developed his theory about stages of human development from birth to death by using Freud 's work as a starting point. According to Erikson, personality develops in a series of stages. Erikson found out that children experience conflicts which affect their development. He described the internal conflict which children go through in developmental stages using the term ‘crisis’ and are based on either developing a psychological quality, or failing to develop that quality (Bee & Boyd 2003). During this period of development, chances of developing a psychological quality or failing to develop that quality are equal. He believes that the personal identity and future development of a person are determined by the way he or she resolves the series of conflicts they go through.

Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development was the first theory that demonstrated the development from “womb-to-tomb.” His theory posited three tenets, the first that each era in life had a developmental crisis, and that at each period there was the opportunity for growth and development. Each developmental stage poses a developmental crisis that is central to that age, and as stated in Erikson’s second tenet, if there is an interruption in the development of one of the stages, the stages following will be effected. Though each developmental stage has one fundamental stage that is being worked on, Erikson’s third tenet states that the challenges of all of the other stages are still present; although there is one crisis that is

In this essay, I will be discussing the nature-nurture issue as well as the continuity-discontinuity issue. I will also briefly explain this concept towards fives specific theories of development. The fives theories are, Psychoanalytic Theories, Cognitive Theories, Behavioral and Social Cognitive Theories, Ethological Theory, and Ecological Theory.

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,

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 our lives, everyone goes through a change and evolves in different ways. However, in the field of psychology as far as development, the process of growing and maturing has been previously linked only with childhood. One of the first theorists Erik Erickson felt that development continues throughout life. Erickson believes that each stage in life resembles to specific opportunities that the society might have. Erickson’s theory defines the impact of social involvement across the entire lifespan. Each stage of Erikson’s stages is unique in their own way. Erikson decided to present eight different stages of the psychosocial crisis for almost each age group.

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’s lifespan development theory has proven to be popular and applicable to many people. However, Erikson’s theory was a bit bias and generalized groups of people whose cultures, genders and environments did not apply to his theory. This paper will focus on Erikson’s last four stages of development, and discuss how each stage may be impacted by these various factors.

This paper is an assessment of Mr. Holland, as represented in the movie Mr. Holland’s Opus (19) using Erik Erikson’s Theory of development. The underlying theme that stretches throughout Erikson’s theory is that of balance (Hergenhahn & Olson, 2003). Erikson (1963) divided the life cycle of an individual into developmental stages (Meyer et al., 1997). Each stage of development is characterized by what Erikson called a crisis; he used the word crisis as it results in an important turning point in one’s life cycle. The crisis has the possibility of a positive or a negative

Since the development of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial model of development in the 1960s, it has become one of the most widely used measurements for studying emotional and personality development across the human lifespan (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017). Erikson’s model contains eight developmental stages, beginning in infancy and progressing until old age, and as a person ages they begin to pass through the stages, with a new psychological crisis arising at each stage (Svetina, 2014). Whitbourne, Sneed and Sayer (2009) describe how the outcome of each crisis is met with identity attainment and new personal adaptations (positive outcome), or with an incoherent identity (negative outcome). Additionally, each new stage allows for the reassessment of previous achievements, and in some cases, failures (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017). Erikson’s model is commonly recognised as a developmental ladder – each previous stage lays a foundation before an individual can progress toward the next stage (Malone, Liu, Valliant, Rentz & Waldinger, 2016). It is important to note that whilst they are referred to as “stages”, they should be viewed as being on a continuum rather than fixed categories (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017).

The early days of the AIDS epidemic drastically contrast AIDS in the present day. In order to get deep insights into the early days of the epidemic, two interviews were conducted. The two individuals interviewed were Scott and Susan. Both were in their 20’s when AIDS first emerged in 1981. Scott’s connection with HIV is extremely personal, as he was infected with the virus in 1987 and continues to remain HIV positive. On the other hand, Susan, is more removed from the situation having not personally experienced it. Scott currently works as a health educator for youth and speaks all around the country about both his story and about sexual education. Susan works in a preschool in Florida and is enjoying her life with both of her children at college. The 1980’s were a period of hiding and fear of HIV, it was not talked about during this time. Both public opinions and public health center’s (hospitals) decisions during this time did not help the growing stigmatization that HIV and AIDS patients already faced. Public education about HIV around the world through speakers like Scott and Florence from Uganda helped alleviate the fear and stigma behind HIV and AIDS to its current state of cultural acceptance and normality.

This psychological interview analysis will compare and summarize the theoretical applications of Erikson’s Theory of Human Development and Levinson’s Life Structure Approach. The subject of the interview, Charlotte McBeth, will express the challenges that arise in the stable and transitional periods of life in a Scottish family, which she expresses in the various aspects of instability and transitional periods that Levinson defines. The death of an infant brother defines one such instability, which reflects the high infant mortality rate and a sense of guilt that Erikson would analyze through the “Initiative v Guilt” stage of childhood. However, Charlotte had a large and supportive family unit, which allowed her to find intimacy in adolescent with her close friend, Rena. In adulthood, Charlotte was able to transition to America by having a family support when leaving Scotland to find better job opportunities abroad. In essence, a summary of Charlotte’s interview will be accompanied by a psychological comparison of Erikson and Levinson’s life development theories.

When figuring out how to frame my childhood through a theoretical lens I realized that I had a lot of internal frustrations in response to my social environment. Erikson’s stages of development (McLeod, 2008) focuses on internal conflict of the child within a psychosocial framework. Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development were derived from Freud’s psychosexual stages yet instead of focusing sexual desires Erikson’s theory sees the child’s conflict between self and environment. Within each stage there is a crisis involving psychological needs and society. It is important that the crisis is solved in order to develop certain traits and to successfully move on to the next stage of development.

The conflict perspective can be used to describe and analyze the HIV/AIDS social problem. The conflict theory is simply a theoretical approach that views social problems based on conflicts between two or more groups. In addition, society is divided by social classes which are confrontational, competitive and attempt to exploit one another to gain social status and power. This division can be related to racial and ethnic inequalities, which is often created by prejudice and bias. When we directly evaluate this theory as it relates to HIV and AIDS, it aids in explaining the negative attributes affiliated within certain subordinate groups. These groups often consist of racial and ethnical minorities and live in poverty and is directly linked to high-crime and low-income neighborhoods. Furthermore, this affiliation can be considered a direct result of these groups unfortunate set of circumstances, which are precisely related to consequences administered by our broken system. In addition, we could utilize the conflict theory to search for viable solutions to the ongoing social problem. Some proposed solutions could be modifying social injustice, economic racism, and erroneous laws which unintentionally have a negative impact on racial and ethnic sub-groups.