Kierkegaard's Three Life Stages

Mark Rydell’s “On Golden Pond” is a drama that emphasizes the stages people of various ages endures. Utilizing Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages as learned in Dr. Malone’s class, each of the main characters can be placed within a stage and their age-related crises analyzed. As this film is a drama, it was relatable to the audience, prompting personal reactions as well as implementing life examples of some of the theories studied in Malone’s class.

The third stage focus on the “Initiative vs Guilty” component. Erikson believe that during this stage, children love the idea to explore, to build concepts and learn from them. However, when children are denied that access, guilt is the major reform. In other words, this stage presents the responsibility of the wrongdoing that the monster did to others, especially his creator. What led this guilty characteristic was the delinquency of the murder of William. That as soon as the “monster” killed innocent William, he was in fact, content of what he did. He knew that it was unethical, but he insisted on bringing pain and suffering to his creator.

These stages result from and are connected to a series of crises that develops a persons identity as he develops and matures from infancy through childhood to adulthood (Munley, 1977). As persons grow and develop also people in his environment also change (Munley, 1977). Coming into contact with more persons and increasing the number of relationships with people is express with in the society in which a person lives (Munley, 1977). The first basic trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, identity versus identity confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation, and ego integrity versus despair (Munley, 1977). The time of onset is connected to phase of crisis that is developed in the period in which the individual experienced the crisis. For example, the sense of basic trust versus mistrust in the first crisis by a child in infancy (Munley, 1977). Preceding and corresponding is followed by either greater health and maturity or by increasing weakness (Munley, 1977). The phases in which person face life as children and adults in their life cycle is outlined in Erikson’s eight stage crises (Munley, 1977). Development of basic attitudes in Ian is demonstrated in his personality traits confidence and resilience. Stages of character are built from the outcomes of previous stages of personality development and has ramification for the solution of other crises (Munley,

Lifespan development is essential, as it is the changes that happen to us throughout a person’s lifespan. Our development occurs at ages stages where we develop from infancy till death. This essay will contain my life story to display the domains in 5 age stages in my lifespan development. The domains I will be exploring is in this essay is physical, emotional, cognitive, social, cultural and moral domain. The influence of biological and environmental play a significant role in my development. Development is influenced by nature or nurture and its affect will occur throughout lifespan. The changes that occur during development have stage. Each theorists has stages of development where they display the changes. This essay will explore my

In this paper we will break down three of them. The first one is the infancy part of life and how Erik Erikson viewed the development.

Erik Erikson has developed the psychosocial theory that proposes eight stages across the life span of human development. Each and every one of the stages has a “crisis”, a significant psychosocial topic that is important in that moment. The theories are deliberately having an impact on by social and cultural influence a process of development of the ego and self. “According to Erikson, the ego develops as it successfully resolves crisis that are distinctly social in nature. These involves establishing a sense of trust in others, developing a sense of identity in society, and helping the next generation prepare for the future. (McLeod 2008, p. 1) In this paper I will be talking about each of the main characters in the movie, “On Golden Pond” and what they all go through to a crisis of psychosocial development using Erikson’s theory.

Profound in the love shared between the father and son, their sense of unity kept them pushing through the pain for “each the other’s world entire” (6). In a society painted by shades of grey, one cannot help but at times feel the desire to fade into the world full of suffering. In the father’s perspective “there were few nights lying in the dark that he did not envy the dead ” (230). However, the man is fortunate because he has a spark in his life that motivates him to keep going- the boy. Many others before the man took their own life in an attempt to rescue themselves from the doomed life ahead. However for the father, “the boy was all that stood between him and death” (29). The father possess such love for the boy that no matter what the situation is he will never take the easy route out. He will never put his own needs over the boy’s. He will never leave him to try to fend for his own. Furthermore, if the boy were to ever depart life before him he “would want to die too” (11), thus proving that the boy is the father’s incentive to carry on. With the love for his son in mind, the father is enabled to carry on with his life. During a difficult situation, love encourages one to see it to the

For this weeks assignment I watched a 1957 Swedish movie called Wild Strawberries written and directed by Ingram Bergman. I have not previously seen this movie and found it to be not only appropriate for this weeks reading, but also helpful in better understanding the process of aging or at least this movie was viewed from a different perspective today than would have been if seen in the past, taking the aging process into consideration. In this reflective assignment the following two topics will be discussed: stage theories of personality and successful aging as related to the film.

In this play, Hamlet by Shakespeare, the protagonist, Hamlet, is told by the ghost of his father to get revenge for his death. In order to do this, Hamlet decides to act “crazy” to investigate the suspects involved in the murder, his uncle, mom, Polonius, etc, and to interpret their responses to all of his actions. With all this pressure placed upon him, he contemplates whether he should commit suicide and struggles with himself as to where he will end up, as in heaven or hell, after he has completed his duties to the ghost. In the world, fear has always kept people from doing things that they really wanted to do. Through the theme of fear, Shakespeare explores Hamlet’s internal conflict with the meaning of life in order to further explain how every decision that is made, has a sense of unfamiliarity in the outcome. In society, this type of fear keeps people from taking that leap of faith when making futuristic decisions.

In the Life Cycle Completed by Erik H. Erikson, Erikson talks about the stages in life those stages range from infancy to elderly age. The stages are basic trust vs. basic mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. identity confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generatively vs. stagnation, and finally integrity vs. despair. In Wild Strawberries the character Isak Borg goes through all the stages that Erikson talk about in his book Life Cycle Completed and you get a visual understanding of what Erikson means about the stages.

Many of our temperament traits are evident at birth. However, other characteristics such as trust, guilt and competency are learned based upon our life experiences and the support we receive as we grow and develop. Based upon his research, Erikson became aware of the influence maturation and social demands have on behavior and ultimately on our development. He believed these two forces "push[ed] humans everywhere through…[a set of] eight psychosocial crises" (Sigelman, C. & Rider, E., 2009, pg.332). He organized life into eight stages that extend from birth to death.

Kierkegaard believed that everybody had three stages they went through during his/her life. These include aesthetic(live for moment), ethical(lives by moral laws), and religious (lives by faith). It’s probably pretty obvious as to which life stage Kierkegaard would use against the bully to tell him he made a mistake. He would explain the ethical stage, of course. We all must follow the laws inside us - the laws that, if we follow them, will secure us with a good and pure society. Kierkegaard would inform the person to use his common sense and do what’s honestly right. What will result is an understanding action, not a violent one. If everybody followed these stages of life, our community would be, overall, a better place. Kierkegaard would

Phrases such as “you are turning into your mother” or “that’s so something mom would say/do,” have become increasingly more common with each passing year of my life. I have come to accept the fact that not only do my mother and I favor in appearance, but also in many behavioral way as well. My mother recently turned 46, and I chose her as my person of interest because it is the closest I will ever get to interviewing my future self. As well as I know my mother, I have never had the opportunity to analyze her development and her current stage of life. It is amazing what one can learn and take away from a few simple questions when they are based on theory, especially Erikson’s.

He suggests that Hegel resigns himself the status of a 'tragic hero' for the greater good. Kierkegaard alss tells the analogy of the Knight of Infinite Resignation which illustrates the need to resign oneself from achieving a personal good in honor of the universal good. He gives the analogy of a Knight who wishes to seduce a princess, but cannot because of the greater good. Rather, he resigns himself to worship the idea of the princess and detaches himself from her physical nature. This detachment causes him to worship an abstract ideal in order to conform to the needs of the greater good.

Kierkegaard suggests three stages of life that an individual experiences on his or her way to existence. For Kierkegaard, existence is not simply a condition of being alive; it is an active pursuit toward the type of person one “ought” to be (Stumpf, 2015, p. 374). ‘Existence’ is a qualitative statement that indicates a conscious and active will to make reflective choices (373). According to him, there is a graduated system; ‘three stages of life,’ that one navigates with a series of choices in order to fully exist.