The Theories of Bandura versus Erikson

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 (1959/1980) stages of psychosocial development. Though Erikson was influenced early on by his teacher, Sigmund Freud, unlike Freud or Piaget, Erikson emphasized the role of culture and society in the development of personality throughout an individual’s lifespan. Erikson (1950) believed that individuals experience a psychosocial crisis during each of the stages of development and that the way in which those crises are resolved results in either a positive or negative impact on the development of personality as one progresses through life. In his Eight Stages of Man, Erikson (1950) argued that psychosocial development occurs through the positive resolution of the following eight crises: (a) trust v. mistrust, (b) autonomy v. shame and doubt, (c) initiative v. guilt, (d) industry v. inferiority,

Erik Erikson describes in his research eight psychosocial developmental stages. Although the first five are based on Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, he also added three adult stages. Erikson’s theories vary from Freud’s in that he believes genes and biological impulses, along with family and culture have the strongest consequence on human development.

Erikson developed eight psychosocial stages in which humans grow through in a life span. His theory of pysychosocial development caused others to show an interest and desire to do research on the the development of humans throughout their lifetime.

The way in which an individual’s psychological development interacts with the environment around him/her defines Psychosocial. With this, one’s psyche develops with the help of social interactions and helps mature him into a functioning human being. Although this is different from social psychology, in which the focus is on social patterns in people deduced through their psychology. Psychosocial was the term first coined by Erik Erikson in his “Stages of Development”. He stated that there exist various stages of psychosocial development. Each stage makes a person overcome some challenges, which in future would cause experience them as problems. However, these stages need not to be considered in definitive order

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,

The best-known neo-Freudian was Erik Erikson. He formulated his own theory of personality development. He projected that everyone goes through psychosocial stages rather than psychosexual stages as Freud proposed. Erikson has identified eight stages of psychosocial development that each person goes through during their entire life span. In Erikson's theory, the stages of development process unfold as we go through life. Each of these stages has tasks that have to be mastered in order to build toward a satisfying and healthy developed life. Those who do not master the task will have a hard time dealing with crises.

Erik Erikson created a theory, in which he created eight stages of development based on Freud’s theory of development. The eight stages are trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, ego identity vs. role confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and ego integrity vs. despair. As someone develops in age, going through these stages, it increases in complexity. Erikson believed that each stage becomes a crisis that needs to be solved through self-discovery.

Just like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed in the significance of early childhood. However, he believed that an individual’s personality development occurs over the individual’s entire course of life. In the early 1960s, Erik Erikson proposed a theory that provided a description of eight different stages of human development (Scheck, 2014). According to him, in each phase, individuals face new challenges and the outcome of the stage depends on how individuals handle the encountered challenges (Scheck, 2014). The stages are named based on the possible outcomes.

Development can be defined as a gradual process of change and differentiation from a simple to a more advanced level of complexity (Mosby, 2010). Human development is a process that is unique to each individual, with many internal and external factors responsible for shaping the characteristics of the individual. In this essay, we shall explore my own development from the perinatal stage through to young adulthood. Focus will be placed on the different domains of change, namely; physical, cognitive, social and emotional. Throughout this essay various theories and concepts will be discussed in relation to my development.

This theory is the third of eight parts to Erik Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Erikson states that we progress through these eight stages of development in a fixed order with each stage involving a crucial event or predicament that must be overcome in order to progress to the proceeding stage. This event takes place during a critical period within the individual’s development, thus if it is negatively resolved then it will prevent optimal development into the following stages however if it is positively resolved then the individual will advance normally. The manner in which we progress through each stage shapes our personalities and abilities, as even if we negatively complete a stage, we still pass through it, however the consequences are revealed later on in the next stage and so forth.

The development of a child is viewed from a number of different perspectives by several developmental theorists. While some say that development continues throughout the life, others would hold an opinion that children stop to develop as soon as they mature. Therefore, lifespan developmental theorists have focused on a number of areas while studying the development of an individual. Some of these areas include cognitions, social development, sexual development, moral development and more. Each of these theories is important in order to completely analyze the process whereby which a child matures and transitions into an adult.

Erik Erikson is known for his psychoanalytic theory of psychosocial development comprising eight stages from infancy to adulthood. Psychologist Erik Erikson, is a major contributor to developmental psychology, who proposed a comprehensive theory of the ways that individuals develop their identity, a sense of who they are, and society's influence on that development. Erikson stated that people go through crisis at each stage of their lives. The stages each had a developmental task to be mastered. As an individual resolved these various crises an individual would have a better harmony with their social environment that they live in. If an individual could not successfully resolve a crisis, they would be” out of step”, and the individual would have a greater difficulty in their dealing with a crisis in the future. Erikson did however recognize that an individual can develop through a stage negatively and still go on with their life. Erikson stated that each of the psychological stages have a basic conflict and important event leading to growth. The theory was developed from his hundreds of clinical observations in children.

For my life journey I have chose to use Eric Erikson’s theory I have decided to use his theory because to me his theory suited my life appropriately. Eric Erikson is a well known theorist from the twentieth century, he has produced many theories. One of his most known and recognized theory is the psychosocial development. This theory describes the steps a person goes through in life. There are nine stages in his theory. Originally his theory only eight steps, but his wife found the last step after his death and published it. The nine stages are: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role confusion, intimacy and soliditary vs. isolation, generativity vs. self absorption and stagnation, and integrity vs. despair. Although, I have not gone through all of these steps yet due to my age I am only twenty two. I will speak about the steps I have gone through so far.

Erikson thus chose to propose three more stages to show development occurrence over an entire lifespan of human development, which shows Erikson’s belief in personality growth (McLeod, 2013).