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Examples Of Amelia's Childhood Development

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Amelia’s Childhood Development Amelia, a sweet and shy little girl, is 3rd grader who is 8 years old. She lives with her birth parents and older brother of 2 years. She is from Denmark and recently moved to Shanghai. According to Erik Erikson, Amelia has already gone through three stages of identity development. In each stage, there are “specific tasks to master,” and failure to do so could result in consequences in later stages (Kalat, 2017, p. 163). As an infant, Amelia dealt with trust versus mistrust, which is when she experienced issues with attachment. Since she failed to receive comfort from her mother, she now has trouble making new friends at school. Then, as a toddler, Amelia went through autonomy versus shame. This is when she …show more content…

She will attempt to think through questions such as “Who am I?” and “Who will I be?” and experience “a time of storm and stress” (Kalat, 2017, p. 165). Finding these answers will allow her to stay true to herself, but failure to do so will result in role confusion. As a young adult who is about to enter college, Amelia will experience intimacy versus isolation. This is when she will start thinking about intimate relationships. Erikson proposes this is the time to start considering marriage, but cultural differences may influence her to postpone marriage (Kalat, 2017). If she fails to find intimacy, then she will feel lonely. Next, Amelia will go through generativity versus stagnation for the majority of her adulthood. This is when she will assess her goals in life and seek acceptance of herself. If she fails to find meaning in her life, then she will feel unproductive. The last stage Amelia will go through is ego integrity versus despair. After retirement, her satisfaction “will depend largely on how [she] lived while younger” (Kalat, 2017, p. …show more content…

When Amelia was a 1 year old baby, she went through the sensorimotor stage. At this time, she did not grasp the concept of object permanence, which is the “idea that objects continue to exist even when we do not see or hear them” (Kalat, 2017, p. 152). Furthermore, she still did not have a sense of self. When her mom put a red dot on her forehead, she thought that the girl in the mirror was a different person. Then, from 2 to 7 years old, Amelia entered the preoperational stage. She started to overcome egocentrism by learning how to adopt other people’s perspectives through pretend play with her reluctant brother (Kalat,

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