Erickson's Theory: Theories Of Identity Development

In the early 20th-century, interest in the field of child development emerged. Researchers and theorists studied the ways in which children grew, learned, and, in some instances, were shaped by societal influences (Weiland, 1993). The study of child development enables us to appreciate and understand the social, emotional, physical, educational, and cognitive growth that children go through from birth to early adulthood. Grand theories attempt to organize and arrange concepts and aspects of development using a step approach. Such as that of Erik Erikson’s theory, the Psychosocial Identity Development theory, in which he addresses the development of personal, emotional, and social progression in an individual through stages (Pretorius et al., 2015). Erikson’s model for the approach of development involves the focus of overcoming conflicts that individuals encounter over the span of their childhood that influence their ego identity, or the conscious sense of self that develops and constantly changes due to new experiences and information that is acquired through daily interactions with others and events. In Erikson’s theory, he believed that each person experienced a conflict that served as a defining moment in their development that essentially shaped who they would become later on in life; he believed that unresolved problems of adult life echoed unresolved conflicts of one’s childhood (Berger, 2011).

Identity is a group of characteristics, data or information that belongs exactly to one person or a group of people and that make it possible to establish differences between them. The consciousness that people have about themselves is part of their identity as well as what makes them unique. According to psychologists, identity is a consistent definition of one’s self as a unique individual, in terms of role, attitudes, beliefs and aspirations. Identity tries to define who people are, what they are, where they go or what they want to be or to do. Identity could depend on self-knowledge, self-esteem, or the ability of individuals to achieve their goals. Through self-analysis people can define who they are and who the people around them

The personality theory that I have chosen to focus on will be Identity Theory. It was developed by Erik Erikson in the nineteen hundreds. Erik Erikson believed that every individual goes through a certain number of stages to reach his or her full development or potential (Erikson, 1994). He theorized that a human being goes through eight different stages ranging from birth to death (Erikson, 1994). Identity Theory focuses on eight psychosocial stages of development, and an epigenetic principle of maturation (Schultz, 2008). The stages of development are

Erikson (1968) believed that the primary psychosocial task of adolescence is the formation of identity. Therefore, he called developmental conflict identity versus confusion. There are various contributing factors to the formation of identity such as cognitive development, personality as well as schools and communities etc. The onset of puberty during adolescents leads to newfound cognitive skills and physical abilities (Kroger,2004) . In addition, increased independence and autonomy leads to greater interactions with communities and schools etc. according to Erikson (1968), this allows the individual to explore relationships and ideologies. He gave particular attention to the career domain, starting “In general, it is the ability to settle

A person’s identity is shaped by many different aspects. Family, culture, friends, personal interests and surrounding environments are all factors that tend to help shape a person’s identity. Some factors may have more of an influence than others and some may not have any influence at all. As a person grows up in a family, they are influenced by many aspects of their life. Family and culture may influence a person’s sense of responsibilities, ethics and morals, tastes in music, humor and sports, and many other aspects of life. Friends and surrounding environments may influence a person’s taste in clothing, music, speech, and social activities. Personal interests are what truly set individuals apart. An individual is not a puppet

The idea behind self-identity is one’s concept of the perceptions and recognitions of individuals one has about abilities, flaws, status and worth in relation to social context. Elements that can influence the difficulties and hardships that young adults face during their self-identity is family, pressure to conform and gender expectations. Usually the family environment plays a large role in shaping the identity of young people as they grow into adolescence and become adults through socialisation, cultural identity and the parental influence. The pressure to conform shapes actions, beliefs to align with opinions and behaviours of other people. Young people mainly feel the pressure to conform during the middle-adolescent years of theirs lives.

Society plays an important role in the development and formation of individual’s identity, the social idea of the perfect man or woman tends to create different traumas in people who are trying to be accepted or recognized in their environment. Seeking perfection or social acceptance often tend people fall into depression, loneliness, low self-esteem, insecurity, frustration, isolation, and many other problems that will not allow individuals to express themselves freely and create their true identity. When we think about identity we referred to the individual unique characteristic that a person have in order to be recognized as human being. Identity is also the awareness that a person has with respect to itself and makes one different from

According to Erikson, the development of the lifespan is a lifelong process from birth to death and includes the formation of identity (Broderick & Blewitt, 2010). I will cover in the paper six life events that influence my identity development from childhood to middle adulthood. Each life event will be explained based on the significance of the event as well as the impact the event had on my development. Also, theories will be discussed as they relate to my development.

Our identity can sometimes be shaped by the way others see us. As we have seen, the way in which others view us can have some sort of impact on how we see ourselves. There are also other contributing factors such as our years of adolescence, the basic human need of wanting to belong and maturing; all play an equally important part in the forming of our character and who we are. On balance it appears that there is not only one influence in the shaping of our identity, but there are many.

All throughout our lives, we wrestle with the question of who am I and what do I want in life? However, it is usually during the adolescent years that this issue really comes to a head and we begin a more earnest search into finding ourselves and deciding the direction we want to take with our lives. One of the theorists who studied this idea of identity formation was James Marcia. Marcia proposed that there were four different stages or statuses in the development of identity which he labeled Identity Diffusion, Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, and Identity Achievement. In this essay, we will briefly summarize his four different stages and then apply his theory to my own identity development during the adolescent years.

The chart above denotes the major theories of adolescence development; however in this study we limit ourselves to Erik Erikson’s identity development theory.

Erik Erickson developed the eight stages to the psychosocial development. The eight stages in Erikson's theory were; Trust vs. mistrust (Infant), Autonomy vs. Shame and doubt (Toddler), Initiative vs. Guilt (Pre-School), industry vs. inferiority (School Age), identity vs. role confusion (Adolescent), intimacy vs. isolation (Young Adulthood), generativity vs. stagnation (Adulthood), and integrity vs. despair (Mature Adulthood) (Wong et al., 2015, p. 27). With each stage there is progression to matures development.

Personal identity formation is one of the main foundations of youth development, which is crucial to understand youth while working with them in the MODEL program. Adolescents generally depend on various social-psychological styles to figure out their own identity style (Crocetti, Erentaite, & Zukauskiene, 2014). Youth rely on these different styles to pursue growth and refine themselves, encrypting their own relevant data (Crocetti, Erentaite, & Zukauskiene, 2014). The identity styles can be “information-oriented, normative, and diffuse-avoidant” (Crocetti, Erentaite, & Zukauskiene, 2014, p. 1818). It will depend on how youth adjust to the various identity styles to impact the active contribution to their societies (Crocetti, Erentaite, & Zukauskiene, 2014). These identity styles reflect on positive youth development based on the “Five C’s Model, which include Competence, Confidence, Character, Connection, and Caring” (Crocetti, Erentaite, & Zukauskiene, 2014). Information-oriented identity style individuals are personally thoughtful and efficiently discover and assess self-significant data (Berzonsky, 2011). Individuals with a normative identity style naturally embrace regulations and beliefs from significant others and automatically adapt to their desires (Berzonsky, 2011). Last but not least, adolescents with a diffuse-avoidant identity style dawdle and defer managing personality issues for as long as they can (Berzonsky, 2011). The

When psychologists talk about identity, they are referring to all of the beliefs, ideals, and values that help shape and guide a person 's behavior. The formation of identity is something that begins in childhood and becomes particularly important during adolescence, but Erikson believed that it is a process that CONTINUES throughout life. Our personal identity gives each of us an integrated

Erick Erickson (1950,1963) proposed to a psychoanalytic theory of psychosocial development comprising eight stages from infancy to adult with each stage a person will experience some sort of psychosocial experience that may have a negative or positive outcome for their personal development. The psychosocial have eight stages each stage are depending the age of the child. The stages are; trust vs mistrust this is the infancy stage at this stage the infant is uncertain about the world they live in to end the feeling of uncertainty the infant looks upon their primary care giver for stability, autonomy vs shame this is the early child hood stage children who complete this stage successfully leave feeling secure and confident in themselves while for those who do not are left with a sense of shame and doubt of self, initiative vs guilt play age children display curiosity about the world, and begin to assert their power and contract of the world through direct play and social interaction they also feel a sense of guilt when they take a negative initiative and are punished, industry vs inferiority the school age if a child is praised for doing their best and encouraged to finish task then industry may result, while the child who ant master their school work may think of themselves as a failure and feeling inferiority may arise, identity vs role confusion the adolescence stage this is the main stage and most important development task for adolescents are to constructer their own unique sense of identity and find the social environment where they can belong to and have meaningful relationship( Chen, Lay Wu, & Yao, 2007), intimacy vs isolation young adult, adults who successful in resolving the conflict of this stage are able to develop deep meaningful relationship with others while adults who struggles with this stage experience poor relationship ( Cherry, Gans), generative vs stagnation adulthood stage failing to achieve this stage they become stagnant and feel unproductive while success in it will lead to the feeling of virtue and care(McLeod), and lastly ego integrity vs despair maturity stage to be successful in this stage the person is