Erikson 's Psychological Identity Development Theory

    According to Erikson’s first stage of development, “Trust vs. Mistrust” begins as soon as the infant is born. Erikson believe that when an infant is first born, they must learn how to trust others. In other words, their parents are the ones who are suppose to

According to Erik Erikson, adolescence is marked by the child’s questioning his or her identity during what he refers to as the identity versus identity confusion developmental stage. During this phase, the adolescent becomes mindful of his or her identity and seeks his or her purpose in life, as well as the answer to the eternal question, “who

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

One of the theorists to investigate the development of identity would be Erik Erikson. According to Erikson (1968), throughout an individual’s life-span, they experience conflicts. These conflicts arise at certain points in life and need to be successfully resolved for the progression in to the next of Erikson’s eight stages (Sigelman & Rider, 2015). The specific stage relevant to the development of identity formation in adolescence would be the ‘identity versus role confusion’ stage. Identity development involves exploring options and making commitments to obtain a relatively stable self-perception (DeHaan & MacDermid, 1996). In contrast, role confusion occurs when individuals are not able to commit specific life choices (DeHaan & MacDermid,

The first stage of Erikson’s eight stages of development is called Trust vs Mistrust, and these two coexists on how the infant will later be affected in the world. Trust revolves around how often the parent attends to their children. Mistrust of course is the complete opposite from Trust. According to Erikson, my mother informed me that I developed a sense of Mistrust/Trust. She explained to me that at first she used to attend to my needs, and pick me up every time I cried, therefore, I developed trust. That all went downhill when my great grandmother told my mother to not pick me up because, crying will help my lungs. Ending with mistrust, is part of the reason why I don’t try to get close to others as much. Nowadays, I tend to keep my distance from other people.

Trust versus mistrust. This is the first stage which comes in the first year after a child’s birth. In this stage, children depend entirely on adults for basic needs such as warmth, comfort and food. If the caretakers provide these needs in a reliable manner, the children become attached to them and develop a sense of security (Scheck, 2014). Otherwise, the babies may develop insecure attitude or mistrust. This theory affirms the response received from the interviewee regarding her childhood years. She explained that she used to feel more secure and trusted her father more than her mother. This can be associated with the fact that

Erikson's description of the eight stages of life has a lot of appeal, and Erikson himself was described in the early 1980s as the fifth most influential psychologist of the century (Gilgen, 1982). Much research has been done on predictions made by Erikson's theory, especially the adolescent crisis of identify vs. role confusion. Erikson is one of the few famous personality theorists who said anything interesting about adolescence.")

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.

Developing stable identity is a major developmental task for adolescents (Erikson, 1968). Erikson (1950, 1968) described identity as the interaction of two dynamics, i.e. achievement of identity and identity confusion. Based on Erikson’s concept (1950, 1968), Marcia (1966) developed identity status model. Identity status model is established based on two dimensions of identity formation, i.e. exploration and commitment; which is used to classify identity status that consisted of diffusion foreclosure, moratorium, and achievement (Kroger & Marcia, 2011; Marcia, 1993). The one who has reached commitment through exploration process are in achievement status. If adolescent still try to achieve their commitment and are still in exploration process,

In the first stage, ‘Trust versus Mistrust’, constant patterns for the solution of crisis of trust versus mistrust are looked at. This is the first job the ego must do (Erikson, 1964). Infants face a tough task of whether to trust the environments they find themselves in, and this trust is dependent on the strength of the mother-child relationship (Meyer, Moore & Viljoen, 2003). If the child does not have their basic needs met, then they begin to develop an attitude of mistrust toward the interpersonal relationships they face in the world (Schultz & Schultz, 2009). This first stage among the many stages of psychosocial personality theory highlights that the relationship between infants and the world is both social and biological (Schultz &

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.

As life goes on, people restructure their lives based on gains and losses in what they are capable of doing and capabilities, also by changing values and goals. Erikson’s stages of development, is an eight-stage theory of identity and psychosocial. According to Erikson’s theory, every one must pass through the stages over a lifetime (Erikson, 1998). Young adulthood ranges between the ages of 19 to 40, it is usually the age when the individual is at the peak in life. Young adulthood is the age where the adult has found their identity. Now they have moved into the adult world, they are seeking a partner to share, friendship, sex, and intimate feelings with (if they are not in an intimate relationship already) failing this, the young adult feels a sense of isolation, exclusivity or

Erik Erikson is a figure in psychology who examined many factors about the personality. One of his theories revolves around identity crises, which he believed countless people have gone through during their lives in order to solidify their identity. Since his findings on this topic in the 1970s, others have done studies on identity crises and how they affect development as well. The concept of an identity crisis is quite important in discovering how the ego grows and identity develops, and it has been referenced many times in popular culture. Being that it is so relevant to everyone’s lives as Erikson believes, I picked this as a topic for this paper in order to understand the concept more. In this paper, I define Erikson’s idea of identity crisis and then compare it to three other works which revolve around the subject. Then I compare each article to Erikson, my personal experience, and occasionally to each other in order to demonstrate how Erikson’s ideas on identity crisis are valid in a modern setting.

I believe that identity development and the impact of childhood in adolescence and adulthood is a specialized topic that can be studied by looking at the history of psychosocial development, through the eyes of Erik Erikson. I will begin this paper with a brief look at his theory of psychosocial development. Then I will analyze, through my own personal experiences, how Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development during childhood impacted my adolescence and adulthood.

1 Describe the growth and developmental tasks that were displayed by the child you interacted with in this setting (Erikson, Piaget, and Freud). Were these tasks age appropriate? Did you assess any developmental challenges in the client that you interacted with? How were they dealt with (by you and by the health care team)?