Brief Summary of Article:
Eagle (1997) argues that Erik Erikson’s main contributions include having stages beyond the oedipal stage and the incorporation of culture into development. Erikson extended his stages beyond childhood, which implies that developmental changes occur throughout the lifespan (Eagle, 1997). From this idea, Eagle (1997) discusses the meaning and implications of the generativity versus stagnation stage of development. Eagle (1997) concludes that stagnation is a form of adaptation when there is an absence of generativity. In regards to culture, Erikson argues that ego identity is both individually-based as well as society-based (Eagle, 1997). This concept leads to a greater cultural inclusivity than what had been focused
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This includes the idea that a person can change and develop beyond childhood. If it weren’t for the idea that adults could change and develop later in life, counseling would be ineffective beyond childhood. The inclusion of societal and cultural influences allows psychoanalytic theory to include cultures outside of Western cultures. This also provides a means for understanding why development can be significantly different between various cultures.
Student Reflection (changes to your understanding; implications for your practice): From reading this article, I gained a greater appreciation for psychoanalytic theory. Initially I thought it wouldn’t be able to apply to a broad range of clients given that it was primarily formulated for White middle class men. The incorporation of Erikson’s ideology surrounding the role that culture plays as well as the importance of later stages of development led me to see how I could incorporate psychoanalytic stages of development into my client conceptualization. I also greatly appreciated that Erikson was able to have stages beyond childhood given that I understand change to occur throughout a person’s entire
I believe that psychotherapy is a reciprocal process of engagement, learning and changing that happens in both the client and the therapist, Therefore, when the client comes from a radically different cultural background from our own, as clinicians we must familiarize ourselves and adjust to the nature and conditions of that culture. For a while, the most prominent focal point of psychoanalytic studies, literature and practices in the United States has been the “issues concerning the development of the sense of self and personal identity” and “the importance of the child’s early attachment to the mother and the emergence of the self as an independent identity” (Corsini, 2011, p. 26). Through my experience as a client, student and
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, as articulated by Erik Erikson, in collaboration with Joan Erikson,[1] is a comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages, in which a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood. All stages are present at birth but only begin to unfold according to both a natural scheme and one's ecological and cultural upbringing. In each stage, the person confronts, and hopefully masters, new challenges. Each stage builds upon the successful completion of earlier stages. The challenges of stages not successfully completed may be expected to reappear as problems in the future.
Psychodynamic theory, although it is outdated, is the foundation for what we know as counseling today. It was first created by Freud and later expanded by Erikson and Jung. The focus of this therapy is mainly bringing the feelings and desires of the unconscious into consciousness and the unconsciousness’ role in behavior. It also postulates that there are different stages of personality development across the life span. Freud’s focus was on psychosexual development while Erikson used psychosocial stages as well. It concentrates mostly on childhood experiences, arguing that examination of the past leads to character development. This examination of the past and the unconscious can be accomplished through a number of techniques including
Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development was the first theory that demonstrated the development from “womb-to-tomb.” His theory posited three tenets, the first that each era in life had a developmental crisis, and that at each period there was the opportunity for growth and development. Each developmental stage poses a developmental crisis that is central to that age, and as stated in Erikson’s second tenet, if there is an interruption in the development of one of the stages, the stages following will be effected. Though each developmental stage has one fundamental stage that is being worked on, Erikson’s third tenet states that the challenges of all of the other stages are still present; although there is one crisis that is
Human development is the process of how people grow and change psychologically over the complete span of the human life; from birth to old age/death. In the past years many theorists have studied human development in five different areas such as physical, cognitive, emotional and social spiritual development. Erik Erikson is one of the most prominent theorists who identified eight stages of human development. One of the stages are identity versus role confusion; which is highlighted in the year of adolescence. Erikson also believed that every human being goes through a certain number of stages to reach his/her full development. Therefore, this essay will examine the five domains in human development namely physical, cognitive,
During our lives, everyone goes through a change and evolves in different ways. However, in the field of psychology as far as development, the process of growing and maturing has been previously linked only with childhood. One of the first theorists Erik Erickson felt that development continues throughout life. Erickson believes that each stage in life resembles to specific opportunities that the society might have. Erickson’s theory defines the impact of social involvement across the entire lifespan. Each stage of Erikson’s stages is unique in their own way. Erikson decided to present eight different stages of the psychosocial crisis for almost each age group.
Erikson’s views on development made an addition to some aspects of Freud and deviated from some of his other emphases. Erikson proposed that we develop more “Psychosocially” than “Pyschosexually” (Freud’s framework), which crosses the entire life span. His view is deterministic in the sense that adults are effected by their childhood, but he is not reductionistic in suggesting that the entire mold of adult personality is formed only in the early years; rather there is ongoing development throughout life.
Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud are different and similar in many ways. Erikson had the perspective of psychodynamic. Erikson believed that society and culture both challenge and shape up and that development proceeds throughout our lives in eight different stages and they emerge to a fixed pattern and are similar for all people. These different eight stages from Erikson presents a crisis or a conflict that the individual must resolve and must identify each crises of each stage in order to deal with the next stage. The eight stages that Erikson presented us with is; trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs inferiority, identity vs, role diffusion, intimacy vs isolation, generativity vs stagnation, and finally ego-integrity vs despair. These stages are of Erikson’s psychosocial
Psychologist Erik Erikson developed his eight stages of development to clarify the developmental challenges faced at various times in people’s lives. Stage-based theories of development were extremely popular during Erikson’s era. However, Erikson’s theory differs from other popular theories in that a person does not have to successfully complete one stage of development to move on to the next stage of development. Erikson’s stages of development are widely taught in psychology courses in the United States.
Erik Erikson, in seeking to understand and describe human development, developed a theory in the early 1900s. His theory progressed to assume that humans must deal with or cope with the conflicts of a certain stage of life before they can move on to a higher level of development (Ashford et al, 2013). He organized eight different stages of psychosocial development from infancy to old age. Each of the eight stages represents an internal conflict that will greatly define who and individual becomes and the choices they will make later in life based on their experiences within each stage.
Since the development of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial model of development in the 1960s, it has become one of the most widely used measurements for studying emotional and personality development across the human lifespan (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017). Erikson’s model contains eight developmental stages, beginning in infancy and progressing until old age, and as a person ages they begin to pass through the stages, with a new psychological crisis arising at each stage (Svetina, 2014). Whitbourne, Sneed and Sayer (2009) describe how the outcome of each crisis is met with identity attainment and new personal adaptations (positive outcome), or with an incoherent identity (negative outcome). Additionally, each new stage allows for the reassessment of previous achievements, and in some cases, failures (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017). Erikson’s model is commonly recognised as a developmental ladder – each previous stage lays a foundation before an individual can progress toward the next stage (Malone, Liu, Valliant, Rentz & Waldinger, 2016). It is important to note that whilst they are referred to as “stages”, they should be viewed as being on a continuum rather than fixed categories (Dunkel & Harbke, 2017).
According to the psychoanalytic perspective, people move through a series of stages in which they confront conflicts between biological drives and social expectations. How these conflicts are resolved determines the person’s ability to learn, to get along with others, and cope with anxiety. Erik Erikson has been a very influential contributor to the psychoanalytic perspective (Berk, 2010). Erikson proposed that an individual moves through a series of stages which resolve in either positive or negative outcomes and determine healthy or maladaptive behavior. (Berk, 2010).
It is a well-known fact that an individual’s childhood has a significant impact on one’s life. This upbringing may consist of abuse, violence, or love as the type of treatment one receives, is out of their control. However one thing will always remain constant, the individual will continue to grow and develop regardless of whether or not specific childhood stages are successfully fulfilled and completed. These stages were established by psychologist Erik Erikson in his theory named, stages of development that consist of eight phases (five being between the ages of 1-18) that he believed were crucial in the development of a healthy human.
Erik Erikson “proposed a comprehensive developmental theory that included the entire life span” (38). His theory is composed of eight developmental stages that each has their own challenge. Starting from the day we were born all the way up to the day we die, we will have “traveled” through all eight developmental stages or challenges. Erikson’s theory was unlike others in the time period: Erikson believed that development occurs throughout the whole lifespan, not just until age 20 (notes). Similarly, Erikson, like Sigmund Freud “believed that problems of adult life echo unresolved childhood conflicts” (39). For example, if a person does not develop autonomy in early childhood, as an adult, they are likely to be dependent on others. Erikson
“Early life experiences impact the person across their lifespan” is conveyed in the Jane Piaget theory ‘Stages of cognitive development’ (1936) and Erik Erikson theory ‘Psychosocial stages’ (1950). Piaget argued that children develop knowledge by constructing their experience and observe with their own ideas about how the thing works.(Burton, L.J., Westen, d. & Kowalski, R.M. 2015) He developed 4 stages of his theory: Sensorimotor Stage, Preoperational Stage, Concrete Operational Stage and Formal Operational Stage. At the same time, Erik Erikson proposed a psychoanalytic theory of psychosocial development comprising eight stages from infancy to adulthood. At every stage, a person will encounter a psychological crisis, the development of