Erikson's Eight Stages Of Psychosocial Development

The movie American Teen is a documentary that was released in 2008. The documentary is about seniors in high school in Warsaw, Indiana. The purpose of the documentary is to focus on small cliques that develop in high school. Out of the cliques, Hannah Bailey became a person of interest. Hannah is an eighteen year old female that attends Warsaw high school. The town of Warsaw is mostly white, middle class, and Christian. Hannah is seen as the rebel or free spirit of the high school. She has a best friend named Clark and lives with her grandmother. Hannah’s mother was diagnosed with manic depression and is unable to care of her, and her father is a businessman in Ohio.

For over a decade, many a middle school student has watched an episode of degrassi and wondered “How accurate is this show anyway?” Everyone at some point questions how many teens deal with any of the situations dealt with in this TV show. The drugs, depression, and drama come off as excessive, but then again we should be watching the show in context. These high school students, like every Degrassi student before them, experiences biological, cognitive, and social change daily. They are slowly growing into the people that will one day make some of the big decisions in this country or even other countries. First these young people are forged through the biological and cognitive changes they will face, as well as the uncontrollable environment with which they were born. Leading up to an important discover that all adolescents must make, their identity. All adolescents will be challenged to make the decision on who they are and what for what they stand at some point in their teen years. Following two students from this generation of Degrassi students, Tristan and Miles, one can see that the road to identity achievement is different for everyone, but follows certain circumstances and experiences not unique to the adolescent condition.

Much like Maeve’s trial and error phase, Erikson’s theory of identity versus role confusion explains psychological conflict of adolescence. This theory states that this conflict is resolved positively when adolescents achieve an identity after a period of exploration and inner soul searching. If a young person’s earlier conflicts were resolved negatively or if society limits their choices to ones that do not match their abilities and desires, they may appear shallow, directionless, and unprepared for the challenges of late adulthood. (p. 314). Maeve luckily didn’t make many choices that were resolved negatively. These social and emotional changes weren’t always easy for the rest of the family to deal with, but they were a part of her growth. With us there to provide nurturing support, she was able to develop her own healthy identity after her period of “soul searching.”

Hannah attended Harrold Middle School before attending the high school. Hannah shared with me something funny that happened to her in school which was during her choir class, they went around singing and people started clapping and she found it amusing. She dislikes school because of the bullying and negative people,who complain during school. Her favourite thing about school is the school is full of individuals that have outgoing personalities and are active in clubs and activities. Hannah’s plans after graduation are getting into art school starting out at The Arts Institute in Pittsburgh,Pennsylvania. If she were to obtain a million dollars, she would use it for her college loans she will receive. Her favourite thing she did this summer was being in Florida with her Aunt,Uncle and

Starting with Kohlberg’s Moral Development, Allison fits into the Post-Conventional Morality stage. Allison is an outcast who is very shy and doesn’t have any friends, the complete opposite of Claire. Allison tends to follow the beat of her drum and does whatever she wants and what she believes is right. She chooses not to smoke, act like she is a compulsive liar, and she explains at one point in the film that she would never treat others badly. Allison sticks with her own principles and the only reason she is in detention is that she had nothing better to do. In Erikson’s Social Development, Alison fits into the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage. In this stage, people are figuring out who they are and have some independence, while Alison has already been given too much independence due to her neglectful parents. At some points, she seems as though she knows her role at school and is finding her identity, but she is really confused since she hadn’t been given the right care and attention by her parents. She said that her parents think she is invisible suggesting she is not getting any encouragement or help from them. In Marcia’s Identity Status, Alison fits into the Diffusion stage because as her clothes and bag show she is extremely disorganized and doesn’t have anything figured out. She is also withdrawn as soon as she entered the library she sat all the way in the back. Allison doesn’t know where she will end up and

One of Melinda’s main problems is that she, like many youths entering high school, has a stereotypical vision of what her experience should be like. In her mind at least, high school is a time for dating, alcohol, and parties. Because of this, she thinks that she needs to act and dress a certain way to get people to like her; she is deeply afraid of rejection and is insecure. Her immersion into high school culture went smoothly at first, but ultimately her naivety will make her an outcast, forced to watch her peers from the sidelines.

It outlines the struggle an individual faces in finding stability between developing a sense of forming a unique identity while still being accepted and “fitting in” with society. Erikson believed that when teenagers adequately navigated their way through this crisis, they would transpire into having a clear understanding of their individual identity and easily share this new ‘self’ with others. However, if an individual is unable to navigate their way through this crisis period, they may be uncertain of who they are which can result in a lack of understanding, leading to disconnection from society and the people around them. If youth become stuck at this stage they will be unable to become emotionally mature adults, according to Erikson’s theory. This period of an individual’s life allows them to investigate possibilities which will lead them to discovering their own identity based upon the result of their explorations.

According to Erikson’s Nine Stages of Psychosocial Development, “Trust vs. Mistrust,” trust and, or, mistrust is experienced from as young as infancy. I first experienced trust when I was just an infant. Since my birth, my parents have been entrepreneurs, specializing in home decorations and home improvement. Where ever my parents went, I went, which is the reason why I found trust in them. I always knew that I would be right by my parents side at all times. Both parents pulled an equal amount of responsibility while raising me and my other four siblings, with each of us being two years apart. As claimed by my parents, I started walking at only five months and I did not crawl on my knees, as babies usually do, for a long. My parents also

Zoe was about to begin her junior year at a new high school. She acted calm on the outside but on the inside her heart was pounding as she pulled into the parking lot to start her first day. She was always known for very outgoing but also had a quirky side. One of her biggest fears was not fitting in with the other girls at the school (1-Social Identity Theory, Haun 83). Hannah was a longtime family friend who also attended Baker high school. She was Zoe's key to meeting new people and becoming part of the popular group (2- Theory of Interpersonal Needs/Inclusion, Haun 114).

Psychosocial Development From The Health Promotion Strategies Through the Lifespan, describes the developmental stage for adolescents. In this age group adolescents are trying to distinguish between identity formations versus identity diffusion. My patient does appear to be at this stage, but she is on the opposite side of the spectrum, where she is presents actions that describe the identity diffusion. Identity diffusion is where the “adolescent fails to achieve a sense of identity.” Due to my patients traumatic past she is very self-conscious about her image, has low self-esteem, and a negative self-concept. Additionally, since she has had repeated stressors in her life such as physical, psychological abuse, death of a significant other, alcohol and drug abuse. Thus, she is less apt to form a stable identity. My patient is still trying to seek out who she is, but needs a stable role model in her life who she can look up to and guide her. (Murry, Zentner, Yakimo, pg.460-461, 2009)

David does not engage in typically teenage behavior such as hanging out with peers or dating. Therefore, a suggested homework assignment would be for him to gradually incorporate himself into activities with his peer group such as attending a sporting event or theatre production hosted at the school. Also, as a part of therapy process, David’s hobbies and personal interests would be explored as they are currently not known. Based on these interests he would be encouraged to seek out a school club or group that supports the interest allowing him the opportunity to be around other peers with the same interest. The commonality of having a similar interest with others may be the foundation needed for David to begin building meaningful relationships with his peers.

The critical period in childhood development is when the newborn needs to spend time with the mother. As the mother bonds with the child it creates a baseline of interaction where the child can learn how to trust the parent. Many newborns need to be close to the mother after birth because if not they are liable to fall into illness. Thus, in chapter one, Erikson’s idea of 8 stages of the human life span, the first one is trust vs. mistrust (Santrock 17). As the child receives the attention required it will learn how to trust adults, however, when going thru mistrust it is not receiving the care it needs and later on in life develops trust issues. Also it causes further more complications later on thru the child’s life-span

Eric Erikson was one of the most remarkable theorists of the twentieth century. One of his famous theory is the psychosocial development theory. This theory comes in different stages as part of human development. The first stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development is the trust vs mistrust stage which occurs from birth to 12 months old. Erikson proposed that “infants learn about the basic trustworthiness of their environment from their caregivers” (Dunn & Craig, 2013, p.14).

All throughout our lives, we wrestle with the question of who am I and what do I want in life? However, it is usually during the adolescent years that this issue really comes to a head and we begin a more earnest search into finding ourselves and deciding the direction we want to take with our lives. One of the theorists who studied this idea of identity formation was James Marcia. Marcia proposed that there were four different stages or statuses in the development of identity which he labeled Identity Diffusion, Identity Foreclosure, Identity Moratorium, and Identity Achievement. In this essay, we will briefly summarize his four different stages and then apply his theory to my own identity development during the adolescent years.

I will try my best to suppress my feelings. I will try to make my English more legible and use real words, even if they look disgusting.some words are too complex for me to know how to write properly so please forgive me.