Erik Erikson 's Development 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,

No matter who you are I believe that everyone will go through stages in their life that will get them to where they are on today. I am a person who has a very interesting story; this is the first time it will be told in full. We were asked to use Erik Erikson’s theory of development as a guideline to telling the story of our lives. At first I was very nervous; however, I soon realized that this would be a fun task. Erik Erikson has eight stages of Development (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman). I will be walking you though my life using each one of his stages drawing out the map of my life. Within my life I have had some very interesting encounters. I have been through foster care, abuse, rape, molestation, starvation, adoption, depression, and

In Erik Erikson’s theory he explains that in every stage, a positive or a negative attitude is developed within an individual. During our developing stages we are either successful or we fail. Each stage will come to us whether or not we’re ready for them or not. You can think of the stages as learning stages where crisis occur .Only if we have learned from the previous crisis we are successful. You cannot avoid 1 stage and move to a next stage because of the developing process. The outcome of our lives depends on the way we chose to progress throughout each stage in life. Erikson had his own way in describing each stage in life that we all must go through.

Mainly is seeking independence from parental figures, acceptance of body image, integration into society through the group, and consolidation of identity.

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) provided a new perspective of psychosocial behavior and development while expanding on the works of other theorists. Erikson believed there to be eight stages of psychosocial development which a person transitions through. These stages start at birth and end with old age/death. Erikson’s work is used throughout many outlets of social work. Social workers use this information to help them figure out what is going on with clients and how best to help them. Erikson provides a clear and accurate perception of the various transitions in a person 's psychosocial development.

For Erikson (1950) adolescence is a period during which individuals seek to avoid dangers of role diffusion and identity confusion by establishing a sense of personal identity. Individuals have to find answers for two major questions “who am I?” and “what is my place in society?” Identity is a “conscious sense of individual uniqueness” and an “unconscious striving for a continuity of experience” (Erikson, 1968, p. 208).

Erik Erikson created a model of stages of development. He was influenced by Freud, but also had differing opinions. His model contains eight stages ranging from birth till late adulthood. Erikson emphasized that there is conflict and resolution in each stage, and that the person is always working through this conflict in hopes of resolution. No person will flow through the stages identically, since he provides two ends of a spectrum for each stage there is a lot of room for variation.

Unlike previous theoretical framework for human development, Erickson went a step further to include the lifespan following adolescence. These three additional stages include the ages of early adulthood through old age (Robbins, Chatterjee, Canada, 2012).These additional stages follow his ideaology that focuses on the Ego rather than the Id and libidinal drives that Freud emphasized. Each stage continues to require a conflict resolution in order to successfully complete it. The final stage in Erikson 's theory culminates with the acceptance of end life limitations and eventual end of life (Sougstad, 2017).

According to Erikson’s human development theory, there were eight distinct stages in human growth, each stage was unique and special (Rosenthal, Gurney & Moore, 1981). The first critical period was infancy, which could be influenced by the attachment they received from their caregivers. Attachment was a continuing emotional bond that formed between infants and their caregivers (Weems, Berman, Silverman & Rodriguez, 2002). Caretaker built up the connection with infant by using different attachment styles. In order to measure attachment style, a laboratory measure called strange situation would be used to evaluated

In the next stage of Freud’s Phallic stage (3-6 years), the libido’s energy focuses on the genitals, and they begin to identify with their same-sex parent. To Erikson, however, it is a period of Initiative vs. Guilt where a child begins to take more control over their

The psychodynamic approach is predicated on a struggle between conscious and unconscious forces. As with anything in life forces are always at battle affecting our psyche, development, and mental health. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Development theory outlines how environmental forces can either foster a healthy development or cause maladaptive behaviors and development. Everyone has either seen or heard the awful stories of children being mistreated to the point it hinders proper development, and his theory helps to explain how to properly ensure a child, adolescent, or even adult has a healthy chance at life.

From leaning objective 8.9, explains the development of the personality along with social interpersonal skills, and the concept of the self from infancy to adulthood, I wanted to compare the first five stages of Erikson’s theory on development to Ken Wilber’s first five stages of his nine stages, that he calls spaces. The first five stages of Erikson 's theory, which he notes as crisis, are trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, and identity versus role confusion. The first four “personal spaces,” of Wilber 's theory are the archaic, the magical, or egocentric, the mythical, and the rational. Erikson 's theory states that an emotional crisis must be successfully met for normal development. Wilber 's theory is similar in that he uses an example of a multiple story building. If one stage isn 't completely understood, but not mastered, then that floor will end up leaning, and a building like that cannot be sustained for long before its structural integrity is compromised.

Adolescence refers to the transition period experienced by children that occur between childhood and adulthood (Shefer, 2011). Identity is first confronted in adolescence between the ages 12 – 19 years old, because of physical and hormonal changes in the body. It is also due to the introduction of formal operations in cognitive development and societal expectation that this contributes to an individual’s identity to be explored and established (McAdams, 2009). The forces within and outside (family, community) the individual that promote identity development usually create a sense of tension. The basic task is, in Erikson’s terms, “fidelity or truthfulness and consistency to one’s core self or faith in one’s ideology” (Fleming, 2004: 9), in a nutshell: "Who am I and where am I

This paper will discuss one of the most popular and influential theories in developmental psychology, which is Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. It is a very interesting theory, and although it was influenced by Sigmund Freud, it centers more on the social component rather than the psychosexual stand of Freud.

Erik Erikson has been classified as one of the greatest and most influential psychoanalysts of all time. His theory is one of the best known theories of psychological development. Erikson’s theory talks about how personalities develop over different stages of life, compared to Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual stages of life (Sharkey, 1997). One of the greatest reasons why Erikson was interested in psychology was because of things that happened in his early life. Erikson learned a lot from just looking back on his life and I think that if everyone was to look back on their life, they would be able to see all of the 8 stages that Erikson developed in their lives as well.