Developmental Difficulties

The beginning stages of Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) model focus almost entirely on the individual and the self, developing those personal characteristics and developing the idea of the self. It is not until middle adulthood that the psychosocial conflict changes perspective to reflect outside of the self. The seventh psychosocial stage is generativity versus stagnation, which takes place during the ages of 40 to 60. In this stage, the individual turns the focus outside of themselves and starts to focus on society, community, and the family. While a person can feel generative by having their own family and children, this is only a small part of being successfully generative.

3-7 years--- As children become interest in cooperative play and interest in other children with the odd squabble and argument, they choose friends and responding to adult praise and recognition. Most children starts school at the age of 4, so this is a difficult transition.

Secure attachment is commonly considered the healthiest style of attachment. This bond results when a caregiver responds to the child’s needs in an appropriate manner. The child will learn that the caregiver will be responsive and available (Romero). When parents provide a safe and secure environment, a child can build a nurturing relationship. Most of all, a child will simply feel valued and loved (Greenberg; Romero).

Infants with secure attachment feel comfortable and confident separating from their caregiver. In the toddler 's eyes, their caregiver is a base for exploration that provides assurance and enables experiences of discovery. Infants with secure

The final psychological conflict in Erikson’s theory, ego integrity versus despair, involves coming to terms with one’s life. Adults who arrive at a sense of integrity

1. Chapter 15 “Late Adulthood: The Social Word” section “Theories of Late Adulthood,” emphasizes the importance of social interaction during late adulthood and everything prior to reaching this age group. The character and self awareness of an individual begins in the first two years, and continues to build throughout childhood and adolescence, in which during the early decades of one’s life, “self-image is greatly affected by physical appearance and by other people’s perceptions,” (Berger, 540). This chapter focuses on self theories, in which “they focus on individuals, especially the self-concept and challenges to identity and the search to maintain one’s integrity,” (Berger, 540). The self theories are

The child whom welcomed their mother’s closeness and who welcomed the mothers return was named secure attachment. The children whom ignored the mothers arrival was deemed as avoidant attachment and the children whom were perceived as showing signs of anger yet still actively seeked the mothers attention and contact was called ambivalent attachment.

Erikson describes that every individual goes a through a developmental stage of life as we go through it. Erikson describes the final developmental stage as Ego Integrity versus Despair. This stage relates to the older adult, sixty years and older. The integrity of the individual is the great focus on this stage of life (Hearn et al., 2011). Therefore, this stage is described as the process where older adults attempt to identify the meaning of their life (Weismann & Hannich, 2011). The life review process of looking back, helps an older adult to find a balance of their life experiences (Hearn et al., 2011).

Secure attachment is when a child uses the mother as a secure base to explore. When children are securely attached, they get upset when their caregivers leave and get happy when they return to them. They accept contact from the parent and prefer parents to strangers. Parents with securely attached children usually play more with their children and act more quickly to their children’s needs with a more positive response. A child with insecure avoidant attachment will avoid or ignore the parent when they are present and show no emotions when they leave or return.

It is well established the children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) fail the false belief task in Theory of Mind (ToM), which could be due to the nature of the task (Chang & Cheung, 2016;Peterson et al., 2013). A potential reason could be due to children having a lack of competition to motivate them to pass the ToM tasks (Peterson et al., 2013).

Generativity Versus Stagnation takes place during midlife when adult begin giving back to their social system and focus more on generativity and their professional life, neglecting this stage can lead to an end of productivity and withdrawal of life activities. The last of Erikson’s stages, Ego Integrity Versus Despair, occurs during late adulthood when individuals modify their way of thinking and when the thought of unavoidable death rises; this aspect inspires the elderly to rethink about their lives and achievements, if the individual feels they failed to take advantage of opportunities in life they may enter into a state of unhappiness and surrender to defeat, yet if they are satisfied with life they will experience honor and dignity. As a final point, the commitment to a well-established identity becomes stronger when conflicts in Erikson’s life stages are resolved (p.

Infants with attachment disorder can be described as being either securely attached or insecurely attached. Securely attached children rarely reach the anxiety overload threshold. There are three types of insecure attachment: resistant, avoidant and

Generativity vs. Stagnation - (middle adulthood) find someway of contributing to the developement of the next generation

The seventh stage of Erikson's theory of psychosocial development takes place during adulthood; we continue to build our lives, focusing on our career and family. The next stage of development that I will discuss is Generativity vs. Stagnation. I feel that my wife and I are just reaching this stage of our lives and we are beginning our family and getting our career’s in order. I am looking back on my life and realizing that most things that were important to me ten years ago are not relevant in my life today. My primary focus is on my

In Erikson’s ego integrity versus despair stage, one gains the virtue of wisdom if he/she successfully achieves ego integrity. In other words, an older adult must acknowledge everything he/she has accomplished in life and admit the things his/she missed out on. The challenge is to accept one’s life the way it is and consider the inevitable death. If one is not able to attain that level of awareness and continue his/her legacy by giving back to his/her community, the individual may live the rest of his/her life in despair (Papalia & Martorell, 2014).