Erik Erikson's Theory of Middle Adulthood Development

“Though the age boundaries are not set in stone, we will consider middle adulthood as the developmental period that begins at approximately 40 to 45 years of age and extends to about 60 to 65 years of age” (Santrock, 2013, p. 485). I interviewed two individuals for this paper. Each person was asked the same fifteen questions (Appendix). I interviewed a male and a female who fell in the midrange of middle adulthood.

Erik Erikson’s stages of personality development focuses mainly on the external factors that influence an individual’s personality. The students at Charleston High School represent the fifth stage of personality develop which outlines the development of identity or role confusion (Cherry, 2016). As shown in the film, many of the students at Charleston High School seem to be going through role confusion. The environment in Charleston has taught the students that whites and blacks are meant to be separated however personally, many of them do not feel the need to because they have grown intimate with each other after being together for so long. Nonetheless, they fear if they do not follow the norm, they will be seen as outsiders in their society.

The first person I interviewed is a 19 year old Hispanic female high school student. She is very short and meets criteria to be considered a midget. In regards of the Five-Factor Model described in Craig & Dunn 2013, p. 436, this person is emotionally stable with traits associated with high end. Specifically she is relaxed and very extroverted. In terms of openness to experiences, she described herself very imaginative, creative and intellectual. On the last two factors she identified herself as a warm, friendly, organized, and persistent person clearly showing her transitioning from adolescent to the young adult stage.

Child abuse is an all too common practice in the United States with over six million children affected every year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2014). In one study, 80% of 21-year-olds who reported childhood abuse met the criteria for at least one psychological disorder (Amy B. Silverman, 2008). In 2012, 82.2% of child abuse perpetrators were found to be between the ages of 18-44, of which 39.6% were recorded to be between the ages of 25-34 (11 facts about child abuse, 2015).During this paper, I will report the effects of the abuse on young adults using Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development.

At the age of 6 years old, a child would most likely experienced the school system which would include pre-school and kindergarten. There are many physical, cognitive and social changes that are happening in middle childhood development. This paper will examine what these changes affect the child’s ability to function in society. This analysis will focus on the normal course of development in middle childhood as it applies to the theorist Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages and then give examples of what may happen if the developments are not carried out.

Discuss how Erikson’s stage of psychosocial development of generativity versus stagnation motivates the decisions made by adults during middle adulthood.

The Big Five Personality test had helped me gain a lot of knowledge about not only myself but also what type of information researchers collects about us in order to develop a reasonable idea of what type of personality we have. I learned that the Big Five Personality test is made using a large amount of things from how our personality changes over time and also how it relates to other variables such as self esteem and music preferences. From the findings of the Big Five Personality Test these researches have also been able to find patterns in our personalities. One of these being that personality is not finished being crafted at the age of 30, but instead it continues to change. Although there feedback is based mostly on generalization it still came to give me and almost accurate description about myself.

Middle adulthood is categorized from the ages of 35 to 65 years of age and begins a very new physical and mental chapter of one’s life. Recall when Erickson, referred to “middle age as a period when attention turns to creation of a legacy” (414). This is done by an adult influencing the lives of the younger generation. Erickson’s theory of generativity states that one is making a valuable contribution to society by bringing up children or mentoring younger people in some way. After four decades of research psychiatrist George Vaillant, felt it necessary to modify Erickson’s theory on generativity.

The Big Five originated in the 1970’s by two independent research teams. They surveyed thousands of people, asking hundreds of questions, and analyzed the data with a statistical factor analysis. The Big Five Personality traits are the best description of personality traits today, even though its usefulness is highly debated (Feldman, 2015). The Big Five approach contends that there are five factors that lie at the core of personality (Feldman, 2015). The Five factors are openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. These traits appear to exist consistently throughout cultures (Feldman, 2015). The Five Factor Model of personality is even linked to the way in which the brain processes information (Feldman, 2015). This model is regarded as the best test to identify personality traits, and its usage has proven successful in large populations including those with age and cultural differences.

Middle-aged adults experience change in many different areas of their life at this time, they will find that not only their health is changing, but their appearance, their family, their thinking, and their emotions are changes as well. When discussing people that fall into the middle adulthood age of life, the term “midlife crisis” is often used, but according to an article titled Middle Adulthood Developmental Psychology, “most people during middle adulthood are satisfied and pleased with their lives”, ("Physical Changes," 2008-2013, expression 1). This article also states that the age range for middle adulthood is approximately age thirty-five to sixty-four. Midlife crisis is a when an individual views themselves and are unhappy with

M is a 65-year-old female who grew up in the Waikato in a middle-classed family with eight other siblings, M was the third child and the first female born. Not know much about her early childhood, however, M remembers her mother was always in the kitchen cooking or baking, cleaning house, knitting and sewing. M’s mother often slept late most days, sometimes until noon and she was the stricter parent and a sharp temper. The children often did not know how their mother was going to react, sometimes she could be nice, but she had a sharp temper and often used to reprimand the children sharply, so they always watched their behaviour.

“Who am I?” “How do I fit into this world?” “What is life all about?” Are questions that are significant during the teenage years, as adolescents seek to find their place in the social world” (Feldman.2013). During the teenage years, from experience we do seem to try to answer those questions on the daily. Wanting to know are role in society is something that is very important to us at that age because we are getting to the age where we need to start making contributions to the society and to be able to make those contributions we need to be able to answer those questions for ourselves. In this essay I will be talking about two different theories that are found in developmental psychology and how those two theories has affected my life. The two theories that I will be discussing is Erik Erikson’s ‘Stages of Psychosocial development’ theory and Diana Baumrinds ‘Parenting Styles’.

Many contemporary psychologists believe that there are five basic dimensions of personality and refer to them as the ‘Big Five’. The five-factor model (FFM) of personality is a theory based on five core categories of human personality – openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism. While different theorists may use different terminology, the five factors or personality traits have shown a rather consistent pattern over time. This study briefly examines the history, strengths and limitations of the five-factor model.

Although the acceptance of classification cannot reach universal, in the theories about personality, Big Five Personality probably is most well-established one with the most widely accepted conceptual structure. The five dimensions of individual personality which are: Openness, Conscientious, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Emotionally stability, and based on these dimensions, Costa and McCrae (1992) constructed the Five-factor model (FFM). According to Barrick et al. (2013), these personality traits can be formulated as “Psychological mechanisms” which are significant to individuals’ ideas, feelings and mood, and behaviors. There are a considerable number of studies on the link of the Big Five traits to variety of

Developmental psychology is a study of the growth and the maturation of a person over time. How the individual grows psychically, cognitively and how they are socially over time. All of these factors shape us into the person new become. I have decided to study in and focus on Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development. He takes a closer look on the choices that we are forced to deal with and the conflicts they make during different parts of their life. His theory has eight theories, there are different types of problems and conflicts with each stage that an individual will encounter and have to resolve. It’s important to deal with these conflicts that are presented to the individual during the stages, because if they are not taking care of the individual will end up struggling with them later on in life.