According to Magill, “Erik Erikson's identified the eight stages of psychosocial development which to cover a specific period of time and is biologically based” (Magill, 1998, p. 225). Erikson wanted to try to combine Sigmund Freud’s emphasis on sexual drives with the emphasis on social motive stress by other theorist (Wittig, Belkin, & Wittig, 1990, p. 279). The stages will be discussed later in the essay. I will be also giving a brief history introduction of Erik Erikson.
Erik Erikson
Erik Erikson was born in 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. His mother and stepfather were both Jewish. As a child, Erikson was considered an outsider due the blonde hair and blue eyes. During his adulthood, he graduated from Psychoanalytic Institute in 1933 where he met the daughter of Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud. He also migrated to the United States where he became and U.S. Citizen. He published his first book named Childhood and Society, which explains the theory he was in the process of developing. He wanted his theory to be based on Freud theory of psychosexual development. Erikson concluded that personality is developed over a life span of an individual. He coined the idea of the eight psychosocial stages of development, which encompasses the period of old age.
Oral-Sensory Stage: Trust vs. Mistrust
This stage is during infancy. During the first years of life, the child experiences the psychosocial conflict Erikson identified trust versus mistrust (Wittig, Belkin, & Wittig, 1990, p. 225). According to Magill, The infant is functionally helpless and dependent on his or her relationship with the parents (Wittig, Belkin, & Wittig, 1990, p. 225). For example, when the mother breast-feeds the infant, this is a sign of a trustful r...
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Erik Erikson developed the psychosocial theory, and “he describes our social experiences during our whole life span using eight different stages” (Cherry 2015). The first four stages are “trust vs. mistrust; which describes how the child needs to be able to trust their adult figures, autonomy vs. shame and doubt; which is about person control, initiative vs. guilt; which is about children learning to lead others, industry vs. inferiority; which is about gaining a sense of pride in things” (Cherry 2015). The final four stages are “identity vs. confusion; which begins the sense of self, intimacy vs. isolation; which explores personal relationships, generativity vs. stagnation; which focuses on career and family, and the final stage being integrity vs. despair; which describes reflecting back on life” (Cherry
Erickson states that this stage is the most important of all the stages of development because this the fundamental stage for all the others. Erickson labeled this stage as the “Trust vs. Mistrust”, during this stage an infant is completely dependent on the adult caretaker. Developing this trust is the first stage of development, if the infant is able to gain trust they would feel safe and secure. However, if the infant does not build a trust with the caretaker they would feel rejected as well as having a mistrusted in people and the world. In my opinion like Erickson stated this stage is the most crucial, every infant needs love and support early in their life, without the fundamental stage developed early during their life it could possibly hinder their development as well as leading to psychological stress. This stage could have also related to Erickson’s life as he never built any trust with a father figure. His biological father abandoned him before he was born and he was never accepted by his stepfather. This hinders his development of a trust as well as hinder his ability to find an
Development throughout the lifespan goes through many stages. According to Erikson, who is a renowned developmental theorist, development throughout the lifespan is psychosocial. Erikson’s theory is still prominent in today’s models of personalities and developmental psychology. Erikson believed that you had to move through each stage to be successful in subsequent stages. The stages of psychosocial development start at birth.
Erikson's Psychosocial Development in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online. (n.d.).Erikson's Psychosocial Development in Psychology 101 at AllPsych. Web. 1 December 2014.
Erik Erikson’s eight Stages of man; politically known as the eight stages of psychosocial development. He promotes social interactions as a motivation to personality development. Erickson studied stages from the beginning of the life cycle to the later stages of life. Erickson was trained under the famous Sigmund Freud. His belief was that it wasn’t only sex that motivated personality development. Social interaction and a growing sense of competence is the key to it all. Because his beliefs differed from the beliefs of Freud, Erikson quickly began to work on his own. Erickson has focused on many different eras of psychological development.
The first stage is infancy and it covers the first year of life. The issue in this stage is trust versus mistrust. This is a stage where an infant is completely dependent on their caregiver. Trust is built by the actions of the caregiver taking care of the child by feeding, bathing, changing diapers, showing affection, etc. If a child is not well taken care of then that child will not learn to trust others. New parents struggle with this stage a lot because of the loss of freedom and the diversion of some attention from spouse to newborn child. It is known as the oral-sensory stage because infants use their mouth to explore their new world. Parents must meet the
Erikson believed that people develop in psychosocial stages. He emphasized developmental change throughout the human life span. In Erikson's theory, eight stages of development result as we go through the life span. Each stage consists of a crisis that must be faced. According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point. The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be.
Human development is a highly complex lifelong process. Identity is a self-definition or sense of who one is, where one is going, and how one fits into society. It relates to our basic values that dictates the choices we make in life. It is considered that identity formation is a means of finding oneself, by matching one’s talent with available social roles. Crisis is a vital part in one’s development. It occurs in every stage of finding one’s self and without resolution, may lead to tension and role confusion. Dedicated and influential theorists such as Erik Erikson and James Marcia have contributed significantly to the broadening and understanding
82). As human beings, we are constantly encountering and resolving conflict events, which Erikson called developmental crisis. The approach we take to resolve these crises depends on the influences that are around us and the actions that we take. After examining each stage and my experiences with each one, I feel as if I have a better understanding of how I became the person I am today. My parents, family members, teachers, and coaches, along with all of the other people in my life, have helped me to create an identity for myself as I have moved through the stages of psychosocial development. Analyzing Erikson’s theory in this manner has granted me a better understanding of psychosocial development, which will be invaluable for my future career as an
Erikson's stages of psychosocial development. (2011, September 1). Retrieved September 4, 2011, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erikson's_stages_of_psychosocial_development
Psychosocial development is development on a social realm. Psychosocial development is how one develops their mind, maturity level, and emotions over the course of one’s life. The rate of development depends on different factors such as biological processes as well as environmental factors. A man named Erik Erikson who was a psychoanalyst who believed that early childhood successes and failures were responsible for influencing later developmental stages developed this theory. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is based around the theory that social experience has an impact over an entire lifespan. There are eight stages developmental stages of development in the psychosocial theory and I will briefly examine all eight stages in this
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development were complex, but simple. It is something everyone will go through and experiences will always be different. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his stages can lead to quite a disaster. Surprisingly, previous stages are highly influential to the proceeding stage. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his psychosocial stages can have a very devastating effect on a person. This is because the effects built up rather than taking the place of one another. The effects are quite horrifying, but with the right environment, experiences and beliefs, everything can go well.
Erikson’s theory emphasized how both earlier and later experiences are proportionately important in the person’s development and how personality develops beyond puberty. But, Freud would argue that most development occurs during the earlier period of an individual’s life. Freud’s psychosexual stages comprised of five stages that ends in puberty. Erikson’s first few psychosocial stages are somewhat similar to that of Freud’s stages one to three but Erikson further expands his developmental stages to eight, covering old age.
Developmental psychology is an area of research dedicated to the understanding of child-development. Throughout history many theories have been used to attempt to explain the complex process. Two of those theorists, Freud and Erikson, were instrumental in creating a foundation for child-psychology to build on. From a Freudian perspective, human development is centered on psychosexual theory. Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development. Alternatively, Erikson is considered a neo-freudian scholar who developed psychosocial theory. In Erikson models there are eight major conflicts that occur during the course of an individual’s life.
Erik Erikson was a developmental psychologist known for his theory on psychosocial development. Unlike other theorists of his time Erikson’s theory focused on human development across the lifespan from birth to late adulthood. Erickson believed that development change occurs through out our lives in eight distinctive stages that emerge in a fixed pattern and are similar for all people. Erickson argued that each stage presents a crisis or conflict which results in either a positive or negative outcome (Feldman). In this essay I will identify incidents in my own life that demonstrate each stage of development according to Erickson that I have lived through. I will also interview my Aunt Tami who will share her experiences for the remainder stages of Erickson’s development that I have not gone through thus far.