Essay on Erikson's Psychosocial Stages and Adopted Children

Erik Erikson describes in his research eight psychosocial developmental stages. Although the first five are based on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, he also added three adult stages. Erikson’s theories vary from Freud’s in that he believes genes and biological impulses, along with family and culture have the strongest consequence on human development.

Erikson developed eight psychosocial stages in which humans grow through in a life span. His theory of pysychosocial development caused others to show an interest and desire to do research on the the development of humans throughout their lifetime.

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,

The second theory examined is Erik Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development. Each stage in Erikson’s theory involves a conflict/crisis that a person must work through to evolve their personality. Rosenthal (1981) explains that, “Each stage arises because a new dimension of social interaction

The eight psychosocial stages of development are all vital in some way to our advancement as humans but the stage that is the most important to us is the first stage of Trust vs. Mistrust. This stage takes place from the moment the baby is birthed into this world all the way until they are almost two years old. It can also occur near the end of people’s lives as they have to trust they will be taken care of when they are too old to do so themselves. In this psychosocial stage, this is when infants learn to either trust or mistrust the world around them and Erikson believed that it helps to regulate and employ a prevailing impact over a person’s relations with others for the rest of their lifetime. Infants need care and attention because they fully rely on others for their numerous needs to be met. These particular needs

Just like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed in the significance of early childhood. However, he believed that an individual’s personality development occurs over the individual’s entire course of life. In the early 1960s, Erik Erikson proposed a theory that provided a description of eight different stages of human development (Scheck, 2014). According to him, in each phase, individuals face new challenges and the outcome of the stage depends on how individuals handle the encountered challenges (Scheck, 2014). The stages are named based on the possible outcomes.

Erik Erikson psychosocial developmental stages plays a major role in the preschooler period. Children have completed the stage of trust versus mistrust where they start to build long lasting attachment with their caregivers. The next stage is autonomy versus shame and doubt which Feldman(2012) explains that children develop independence and autonomy if the parents encourage exploration and freedom within safe boundaries( p.185). However if the child is restricted and overly protected , they will feel shame, self doubt and unhappiness( Feldman 2012,P.185). Mahki home setting allows him to explore and have his own independence. Though Mahki , is hesitate when it comes to new things and experiences once he finds security and confirmation in his mother ,he is ready to take the challenge.

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.

Erikson’s has eight stage, basic trust vs mistrusts a development of a sense that the world is safe, autonomy vs shame and doubt is realizing that an independent can make decision and doubt, initiative vs guilt the ability to try new things and control failure, industry vs inferiority the basic skill and work with others, identity vs identity confusion to develop sense of self, intimacy vs isolation commit in a relationship, generativity vs stagnation contribute to younger people through the process of child care, and lastly integrity vs despair view life as satisfactory and worth living. Theory is a set of ideas intended to explain development, which is why theories are important because they provide “whys” in development. There are also five

GoodTherapy.org provides a good information about Erikson and gives a list of the 8 stages of psychological development. The stages focus on a central conflict and in Erikson theory of development, children don't automatically complete each stage on a predetermined schedule. Instead, people face generalized challenges throughout life, and the ways in which they answer these challenges determine whether they develop further or stagnate at a particular stage of development. Erikson’s eight stages and associated challenges include:

Once a sense of autonomy has been developed, the next stage in the psychosocial theory is initiative versus guilt. This stage is from about age three to age six and

Erikson developed eight stages of human development. Briefly I would describe all eight my I will concentrate on stages five and six which are adolescence and young adulthood. Myer describes the stages in the following manner. Stage one occurs during the first year This stage is called infancy (trust vs. mistrust) during this stage if needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust. The second stage is called the toddler stage (autonomy vs. shame and doubt). This stage occurs while the baby is two years old, in this stage toddlers learn to exercise will do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities. The third stage is called the preschooler between the ages of three and five (initiative vs. guilt). During this stage preschoolers learn to initiate

The first year of an infant’s life can be a time of great joy and learning, developmental growth physically, mentally and emotionally while providing an opportunity for parents to ensure their infant’s needs are being met. In 1965 Erik Erikson developed eight psychosocial growth stages beginning with Stage 1, ‘trust vs. mistrust’, which occurs from birth and throughout the first year of an infant’s life (Candlin 2008, p.76).

Erik Erikson is known for his psychoanalytic theory of psychosocial development comprising eight stages from infancy to adulthood. Psychologist Erik Erikson, is a major contributor to developmental psychology, who proposed a comprehensive theory of the ways that individuals develop their identity, a sense of who they are, and society's influence on that development. Erikson stated that people go through crisis at each stage of their lives. The stages each had a developmental task to be mastered. As an individual resolved these various crises an individual would have a better harmony with their social environment that they live in. If an individual could not successfully resolve a crisis, they would be” out of step”, and the individual would have a greater difficulty in their dealing with a crisis in the future. Erikson did however recognize that an individual can develop through a stage negatively and still go on with their life. Erikson stated that each of the psychological stages have a basic conflict and important event leading to growth. The theory was developed from his hundreds of clinical observations in children.