Erickson's Psychosocial Theory

Generativity versus stagnation, Erikson's seventh developmental stage, occurs during middle adulthood. By generativity Erikson means primarily “a concern for helping the younger generation to develop and lead useful lives. The feeling of having done nothing to help the next generation is stagnation” (Santrock, 2013, p. 23). Both

We can interpret the film “14 Up: Japan” using Erik Erickson’s Pyschosocial Theory. This theory of development emphasizes “the influence of society on the developing personality” (Papalia, 2015, p. 27). An important part of that definition is the part about developing their personality. This entire series is how children develop their own identities throughout the years. Many children when first interviewed in this documentary at age seven exhibit Erikson’s crisis of Industry versus inferiority; in which children either learn the skills of the culture or face the feeling of incompetence. For example, the child named Kento, at age seven, is contemplating if he truly wants to follow the footsteps of his father and take over the family rice farm (learning the skills of the culture). If he did not continue the family farm, he may believe his father thinks less of him as a man (14 Up: Japan, scene 3). At age 14, many of these kids go through the crisis Identity versus identity confusion. This crisis focuses on the question “Who am I?”. You see this in the documentary when Noake claims that he wants to go to university, but he isn’t sure what he wants to do (14 Up: Japan, scene 19). Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory is prevalent in this documentary; showing examples of both crises that are applicable to the ages of seven to fourteen.

The final stage is the “family in later life”. During this stage, individuals must accept the shifting of generational roles, as they become the grandparents. They must be able to let go of some power to their offspring as they find their new place in the family system. Dealing with this change while facing potential decline in health, financial security, and loss of spouse can be stressful. Grandparenthood can be a reward substitute (Carter & McGoldrick, 1988, p. 20).

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.

Cherry, K. Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development Psychosocial Development in Young Adulthood, Middle Age, and Old Age. (2014). Retrieved on July 6, 2014 from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial_3.htm

Byl what her favorite part about being her age was and she said “my favorite part is that I am still young enough to do a lot of things, but I am old enough to have grandbabies.” For some older adults, being a grandparent is a source of emotional self-fulfillment, generating feelings of companionship and satisfaction that may have been missing in earlier adult-child relationships,” (Santrock, 366) The last question I asked was if she had any advice to someone 10-20 years younger than her, what she would tell them. She replied, “I would tell them, “don’t major in the minors. Sometimes little things that we get wrapped up in don’t matter. Let the main things be the main thing and the little thing be the little things! “She would also tell them, “If you have children you have to enjoy every stage that they are in because time just passes so

Adulthood is a generation when modifications appear in social connections and situations. These transformations do not appear in efficient, foreseeable stages but as an alternative resulting in different courses, depending on personality

For this project, we both interviewed two of our relatives who all share the same ethnicity, but experienced life in different ways. Isabel’s mother and grandmother were born and raised in Mexico, while Jennifer’s mother and grandmother were born in the Midwest, but lived most of their lives in California. During the interviews, we found differences as well as similar points in their transitions and ideas of adulthood.

In his essay from The Journal of Youth and Adolescence, Arnett discusses various myths attributed to young adulthood while providing evidence to refute them. Three primary myths appearing throughout literature on emerging adults include a lower mental well-being, overall selfishness and a refusal to grow up. Several parallels exist between Arnett’s observations and my own experiences in emerging adulthood, providing further proof of the falsehood of such myths. Common myths claim emerging adults experience detriment in their overall well-being.

During the interview, my grandmother commented on not feeling as old as she is. While some of her friends have passed away or gone on to nursing homes, she continues to maintain an independent, high functioning lifestyle. However, she knows a time will come when she is not going to be able to continue to live the way she has been living. She described those in her age cohort as varying tremendously in function as they all proceeded into late adulthood. As the research attests, for those in late adulthood, age is not a true indicator of functioning. Research has confirmed that, the better that older people function, the younger older people they feel. Function and development are directly

Human development is a process that starts right from childhood to adulthood. Individuals’ success and life satisfaction depends on what they develop in the society from their childhood period. This is a topic that has always drawn the attention of many scholars and theorists who try to explain what development entails through various stages of life. This paper provides an analysis of various relevant theories and research that focus on the developmental changes that take place in early, middle, and late adulthood. It focuses on Schaie’s stage of achieving, and Erikson’s theory on intimacy, generativity, and identity development. It also explores life satisfaction in middle adulthood, and lastly, the common illnesses of the elderly.

In Erik Erikson theory this stage is “Achieving a sense of generativity while avoiding self-absorption and stagnation (middle-age)” (Crisp and Taylor 2010, p.149). This stage is described as the focus of raising children and to sacrifice their own needs for others. (Crisp and Taylor 2010, p.149). Mrs Green may find that her relationship with her children is stronger, and may have a very active social life as she may be getting ready to retire from work (Koutoukidis, Stainton & Hughson 2013, p.224).

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory places everyone into stages, from the days where they still need diapers and bottles, to the days where they can barely remember who they are. We all go through the stages in life where we learn to walk, communicate, and trust. How easy we are influenced and how we feel internally is what helps us understand how we are placed within these stages.

Erikson’s theory of generativity is reminiscent of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory, which, defined by Berk (2014), is “how culture—the values, beliefs, customs, and skills of a social group—is transmitted to the next generation” (p. 23). Generativity is pertinent to the middle-aged individual, whose evolutionary imperative predisposes them to extend their commitments and/or contributions beyond themselves for the betterment of future generations and society as a whole. Berk (2014) explains that, at a cultural level, middle-aged adults don the responsibility of passing down their values, beliefs, skills, expertise, knowledge, and experience to help protect and advance the next generation. One can witness this in the older generation

Throughout the Human Behavior and the Social Environment course, we have encompassed the many stages of the life cycle process. Now that I am twenty two years old, I found the early adulthood stage to be the most influential, and the most sensible one to relate to given the point that I am at in my life. More importantly, I decided to research and apply this life cycle stage to a variety of milestones, experienced by my interviewee, Chelsie. Living just houses apart, being raised by single fathers, Chelsie and I found that we had many things in common. We have remained friends since we were children, and have only grown to be closer into our early adulthood years.