Review of Evidence for Erik Erikson's Identity Theory of Personality

Personality is one of the concepts that often be used by social scientists.According to Schultz (2009), “Personality can be defined as the unique, relatively enduring internal and external aspects of a person’s character that influence behaviour in different situations”. In general, personality theories can be classified based on four major approaches which are psychoanalytic theory, trait theory, social learning theory, and humanistic theory (Refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).

Personality and how we behave have been of much interest to psychologists for a long time now and because of this there have been many theories and theorists that have been developed. Personality is defined as consistent behavior patterns and intrapersonal processes originating within and individual (Fritzley, 2012, p. 10). There are six main approaches to personality psychology they include: biological approach, humanistic approach, behaviorist approach, trait approach, psychoanalytic approach and cognitive approach. Each approach shines a little light onto why we behave the way we do and how our personalities are formed, the approaches contain many different theories from

One final theory relating to personality is the interactionist theory; this theory states that personality has three levels that interact to form an individual’s personality and is based on the work of Hollander (1967).

The first stage is trust vs mistrust (0-1). In this stage, the infant emphasizes the affection and nourishment. If the needs are met, it will develop trust. The second stage is autonomy vs shame and doubt (1-3). In the stage, the children begin to do something independently, such as dressing. The third stage is initiative vs guilt (3-6). In the stage, children take initiative on some activities (OpenStax College, 2015). The fourth stage is industry vs inferiority (7-11). In this stage, children become confident if they are competent and may feel inferior if not. The fifth stage is identity vs confusion (12-18). During the stage, teenagers begin to develop their identity and roles and their opinion about themselves and the world changes a lot. The sixth stage is intimacy vs isolation (19-29). In this stage, people fall in love with others and engage in marriage. The seventh stage is generativity vs stagnation (30-64). In this stage, people have their own families and children and make contributions to the society. The last stage is integrity vs despair (65-). In this stage, people retire from work and reflect on their life and

Generativity and stagnation are the main conflicts in this age because some people tend to nurture things that may outlast them by reproducing or creating positive changes that will benefit people in the long run. Other people in their middle ages may tend to be stagnant meaning that they may feel less involved and shallow in the world. The last stage is maturity. Maturity can begin from the age of 65 to death. In this stage of life, people look back on their lives. Some people feel a sense of fulfillment and success while others may feel regret, bitterness, and even despair (Feldman,

Over time psychologist have found more ways to further the study if humans’ behavior and metal processes. Erikson, a psychologist of the twentieth century came up with a theory of how humans’ developmental stages throughout a life span. His theory consisted of eight stages. The first stage is trust vs. mistrust and this occurs from birth to 1 year of age. The next stage is autonomy vs. shame and doubt and occurs from the age 1 to 3. Then there is initiative vs. guilt this will last from age 3 to 6. The fourth stage is industry vs. inferiority and this occurs from age 6 to puberty. Next is the stage of identity vs. role confusion this

Generativity vs. Stagnation (Adulthood 26-41)- Individuals during this stage continue to build their lives, while focusing on a long-term career and building a family. I would refer to this as the setting down stage for most. People who aren’t married by this time tend to reevaluate things and wonder what they could do to change

There are many different modern perspectives of psychology. These modern perspectives are cognitive,psycoanalysis,humanistic.socio-cultural,behavioral and evolutionary. When thinking about a key event in regard to different personality theories, I felt that I could most relate that key event of my life to the humanistic and behavioral theory. I will mainly be emphazing on these two modern perspectives. Moreover, I will then evaluate the key concepts and the principles of these two theories, and briefly compare and contrast their thoughts in the following paragraphs.

Personality is derived from of many different theories and genres. Personality typically can be reference to as many diverse arrays of thoughts, feelings and behaviors that sets each individual apart in a unique way. Theorist has concluded that an individual external influence can inspire how certain traits are articulated and originated through personality theories. As each person grows older researchers have stated that a human being personality tends to remain consistently the same throughout existence. Personality theories were generally formulated from

Erik Erikson was a psychological pioneer well thought out before his time. Instead of dealing in psychosexual stages, he was discussing work in terms of psychosocial stages. Heavily influence by Freud and believing that personality played a huge part in the conflict within the ego itself, Erikson was the first ego psychologist.

Erik Erikson 's explanation of psychosocial development is one of the best-known theories of personality in psychology. The term "psychosocial development" is the pattern of change in emotions, personality and social relationship (“A Child’s World” 10). Erikson believed that the achievements and failures of earlier stages influence later stages, whereas later stages change and transform earlier ones. His theory shows the impact on social relationships throughout one’s entire life. Each individual goes through eight developmental stages, and each stage is characterized by a different “crisis” in personality- a major psychosocial theme that is above all important at that time but will remain an issue to some degree throughout the rest of life (“A Child’s World). “To Erikson, the sequence of the stages are set by nature. It is within the set limits that nurture works its ways” (“Erikson’s Stages of Development”).

Todd Anderson from DPS develops his identity in a very similar way as Erik Erikson’s identity development theory. Erik Erikson mentioned that identity formation is the most important developmental task during adolescence (Chen & Wu, 2005). He identified eight psychosocial stages. His identity vs. role confusion stage of development for 12 to 20 years old indicates: Adolescent must move toward adulthood by making choices about values, vocational goals, etc. (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015). There are four identity status: diffusion, moratorium, foreclosure and achievement which are Erikson’s conceptualization of identity development as a task involving exploration of carious possible positions in the world (Broderick & Blewitt, 2015)In the film, Todd Anderson goes through all three of the four states which are diffusion, moratorium, and achievement as he develops his identity.

Erikson was a theorist who focused on his theory for psychosocial development. The article Psychosocial Identity Development Theories, highlights the keys points and idea of Erikson’s psychosocial theory. Erikson was very focused on the idea of ego identity and obtaining full potential. His theory or “model” stats that, “identity formation is based on overcoming conflicts that individuals encounter during adolescent and early childhood.”(Karkouti, 2014, p.257) He believed that all people must endure certain conflicts in their lives, and then overcome them in order to obtain their ego identity. The idea of psychosocial development is focused on social conflicts, and environmental factors. In the psychosocial model that Erikson created, it places people into eight stages. In order for someone to move on to the next stage, they must first overcome the conflict presented to them in the stage that they are in. A well-established identity will get stronger the more that conflict is successfully resolved. The eight stages are basic trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus shame and doubt, initiative verses guilt, industry versus inferiority, identity versus identity diffusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus stagnation, and ego integrity versus despair. In this article, it not only focuses on the main idea for psychosocial development, but it continues by then saying that the theory has two criticisms, “stages are descriptive and they are difficult to be empirically

Erik Erikson stated that there are eight psychosocial stages of development. Within each of these stages, he states that there is a crisis that must be resolved. Trust vs. mistrust is the first, which occurs from the time you were born to about one year of age. From there you move on to autonomy vs. shame and doubt, which occurs from ages one to three. Then there is initiative vs. guilt, which occurs from age’s three to six. After that it is industry vs. inferiority, which occurs between ages, is six to twelve. Fowling that is intimacy vs. isolation, which occurs between ages eighteen to thirty. Then comes generativity vs. stagnation, which occurs between ages thirty and into late adulthood. The last stage is integrity vs. despair,

During this course, you have studied several models of personality development. For your Final Project, you'll write a 5- to 7-page paper that describes the way in which each of the