Introduction Erik Erickson’s interest in how one’s environment and social interaction drives human behavior and the development of personality, led him to create the psychosocial theory, “Eight Stages of Man.” Erikson’s final four stages of psychosocial development describes a person’s development from adolescence to late adulthood. This paper will analyze the final four stages of development, which includes: Adolescence, Young Adulthood, Middle Adulthood, and Late Adulthood. However, one of the major criticisms of the stage theories is that they do not equally apply to all individuals. Each stage of development looks different depending on a person’s culture, gender, environment, etc. This paper will analyze how each stage is impacted …show more content…
22).” This stage may also be impacted by a person’s sexual identity. According to Levy (2009),
“sexual identity is not simple or clean-cut and does not stand alone. It intersects with other aspects of identity such as race, ethnicity, class, gender, religion, education, and so forth (p. 982).” What is considered normal sexual behavior does not constitute homosexuality. Therefore, adolescents who are struggling with their sexuality, may run into an identity crisis by trying to find themselves while trying to appeal to societal norms. “While the pressure to conform to the heterosexual norm, gays and lesbians may struggle with their same sex desires. Further, with this schism between their desires, behaviors, and identities, individuals may experience isolation, low self-esteem, depression, and anger (Levy, 2009, p. 983).” Unsuccessful resolution of this crisis may lead to role confusion or identity diffusion (Robins et. all, 2012, p. 215).” According to Robins et. Al (2012), youths who emerge with a strong sense of identity and individuality gain a lasting ego quality of fidelity, or freely pledged loyalties (p. 215).”
Intimacy Vs. Isolation Erik Erikson’s sixth stag of psychosocial development is Young Adulthood (early to late 20s). Erikson describes this stage as the young adult “develops ability to give and receive love;
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.
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
Erikson’s (1968, 1980, 1982) psychosocial stages of development provide a framework for the different stages of development throughout the human lifespan. These stages of development begin at birth and continue until death, and separate the lifespan into eight stages based on chronological age. Within these eight different aging stages are corresponding psychosocial stages. Each of these psychosocial stages represent a conflict between two characteristics of development for that particular time period in a person’s life.
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,
Cherry, K. Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development Psychosocial Development in Young Adulthood, Middle Age, and Old Age. (2014). Retrieved on July 6, 2014 from http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosocialtheories/a/psychosocial_3.htm
New needs and tensions will arise in each area of life initiating one to seek new ways of adapting to these new found stressors. In return this forces them to form different kinds of intimate relationships. This maturation helps forms one’s personality (Kowalski, & Westen, 2002). “Relationships formed during each stage of life serve as a prototype for interactions in later stages. For this reason, there exists a continuum of relationships formed throughout a lifetime that shape and mold specific personality traits. Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson, Jean Piaget, and Lawrence Kohlberg, describe development as a series of stages. A stage is a period in development in which people exhibit typical behavior patterns and establish particular capacities” (Kowalski, & Westen, 2002). “The various stage theories share three assumptions: First people pass through stages in a specific order, with each stage building on capacities developed in the previous stage, second stages most related to one’s age, third development is discontinuous, with qualitatively different capacities emerging in each stage” (Kowalski, & Westen, 2002).
Fassinger’s Model is influenced by racial and ethnic identity development models as well as gender identity development models. The theory offers a more inclusive perspective of various individuals in their sexual orientation identity formation (McCarn & Fassinger, 1996). Fassinger’s Model was developed in an attempt to address the critiques of previously existing models. Fassinger’s model differs from other preexisting models in that the authors clearly distinguish between the two processes of personal development and group membership of same-sex sexual orientation (Evans et. al, 2010). In contrast to other models, this model uses phases versus stages, in order to provide flexibility and to demonstrate that
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.
According to Erik Erickson, people go through eight stages of psychosocial development from the time they are infants to their adulthood (Sokol, 2009). During each of these stages, the person may experience different psychosocial crises that affect their personality development positively or negatively (Sokol, 2009). Mr. Herbs is currently at the generativity vs. stagnation stage of
The Cass Identity Model, developed by Vivienne Cass in 1979, is one of the first major theories to recognize the identity development of homosexual men and women without portraying it as a problem or an illness. The model speaks to gay and lesbian identity development and does not necessarily reflect individuals who identify as bisexual, transgender, or queer and cannot be applied to everyone. The model proposes that there are six stages of development that occur sequentially but may regress at any stage. It has also been theorized that some individuals never actually advance to the sixth developmental stage but instead may remain in any of the six stages indefinitely due to internal conflicts or social influence. (Cass, 1979)
Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development underscores the important effect that external conditions, society and parents have on an individual’s personality development. The eight interrelated stages that every individual undergoes include infant, toddler, preschooler, school - child, adolescent, young adult, middle aged adult and older adult. The most important values for these successive groups are hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom respectively. For the school aged child, their psychology is wired to value and pursue competence. They struggle with the crisis of industry vs.
“The exiting heterosexual identity process requires a realization that one’s feelings and attractions are not heterosexual as well as informing others that one is lesbian, gay or bisexual. Developing a personal LGB identity status involves determining for oneself the unique meaning being gay lesbian or bisexual will have in one’s life. Developing an LGB social identity consists of creating a support network of people who know and accept one’s sexual orientation. Becoming an LGB offspring involves disclosing one’s identity to parents and redefining one’s relationship after such disclosure. Developing an LGB intimacy status is the process of establishing an intimate relationship. When individuals enter an LGB community they make varying degrees of commitment to social and political action” (Evans et al, 2010). It’s important to note that individuals can experience any of these phases at any given time during one’s life.
The acronym LGBT is often used to describe the collective group of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. Previous studies, however, documented that the development of sexual orientation for males and females is quite different (Saewyc, 2011). Therefore, this paper will focus primarily on the experience of males even though female and transgender adolescents may have similar experiences. Today, research shows adolescents question their sexuality at an earlier age than previously thought (Saewyc, 2011). Regardless of when a young male begins to explore his sexuality, a lack of friend and family support, bullying, and homelessness are some factors, which could negatively affect the health trajectory of gay teens (Collier, Bos, & Sandfort, 2013; Hatzenbuehler, 2011; Mitchell, Ybarra, & Korchmaros, 2013; Rosario, Schrimshaw, & Hunter, 2012).
This is a national longitudinal study examining the stability and change of sexual orientation identity over time data was drawn from
The idea of life-phases socialization was exemplified by Erik Erikson’s stage theory of human psychosocial development. There are eight social crisis in total, but the focus will be on the age range been thirteen to twenty-one years and twenty-one to thirty three years old (“Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development,” 2017). The first age range is where an individual is in the state of understanding their own identity and the role(s) that they have in the society. The next age range involves making lifelong commitments and settling down with a family of their own to care of. Between adolescence to adulthood, socialization switches from the concerns with the development of overarching values and the self-image to getting more engage with the norms and behaviors in the role(s) that a person takes in (“Stages of Socialization Throughout the Life Span”) while learning to be responsible for the actions that are expected from