Erik Levinson Research Paper

1454 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development

PSYCOSOCIAL THEORY- ERIKSON German theorist Erik Erikson drew on Freud’s psychosexual theory to develop his psychosocial development theory. Erikson describes his theory as a blend of an individual’s internal psychological works and the external social influences. Erikson credits the developmental changes an individual experiences to three core factors. These being; the biological and physical limitations of an individual, the individual’s unique circumstances and the shaping of their society due to historical or cultural events. The psychosocial theory sees eight stages, which all face a significant crisis, which an individual must resolve in order to achieve a normal and fully developed personality (Newman & Newman, 2007). Erikson states …show more content…

Unlike Erikson, Levinson focused on only 3 eras otherwise known as seasons. The seasons of early adulthood, middle adulthood and late adulthood each overlap in order to allow variability and according to Levinson, make for the underlying patterns in development across this particular life stage. Levinson’s theory focuses on the important relationships an individual has, either to others or to institutions. These relationships make for failures at some stage, failures being ones incompetence to achieve certain goals by specific normative time frames, and they make for transitions into the next season (Hoffnung, et al., 2013). Levinson’s novice stage is the first of the three seasons to this theory. This stage includes four significant tasks. Firstly is the determination of a dream or goal, the second is the discovery of a mentor relationship to ultimately help achieve this goal, third is the development of a career and lastly is the formation of an intimate relationship (Hoffnung, et al., …show more content…

When thinking about the why and how of a scenario both the psychosocial theory and the cognitive theory gave me the tools that allowed me to interpret the behaviours of the characters in the case study. Erikson’s approach concreted the already instilled idea of finding intimacy in early adulthood and gave explanations for the way in which a young adult seeks a career path but also just as actively seeks love and companionship. Not only did these concepts apply to Mereana in my case study, but they also applied to myself. Being a young adult I found explanations for my own thoughts and behaviours in the life stage I am at, which in turn allowed me to understand Mereana and her story to a much deeper level as I was able to actively relate to it. On the other hand, Piaget gives a more straightforward approach to understanding cognitive development in these years. Understanding the transition between formal thinking which is a more logical approach to post formal thinking that allows room for emotional reasoning alongside the rational processes, helped clarify Mereana’s choices. Both theories were relevant in a contrasting way when Mereana was demonstrating the intimacy versus isolation stage by pursuing a relationship with Jack, but also making decisions to put her education as a priority due to her post formal thought

Show More
Related

  • Importance Of Maslow's Hierarchy Of Needs Essay

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    Erikson’s psychosocial theory is an eight stage theory on human psychological development. Erikson broke this theory of eight stages into groups by age. They are labeled as crisis stages and a person cannot move on from one stage to the next stage until the crisis is

    Read More

  • Sigmund Freud's Psychosocial Theories

    348 Words  | 1 Pages

    One of Freud's followers, Erik Erikson, developed his own theory called the psychosocial theory. Similar to Freud's theory, psychosocial theory also has a series of developmental stages. For example, in adolescence where Frued deems it to be the genital stage, Erikson calls this stage Identity vs. Role Confusion. The psychosocial theory focuses more on a series of choices an individual has to make throughout their life, each choice leads them to develop differently.

    Read More

  • Psychoanalytic Theory – Freud’s Approach Versus Erikson’s Approach

    1454 Words  | 3 Pages

    In short, both approaches showed different stages and their own missions in the life cycle of human development. Freud’s approach is more on sexual behavior and the characteristics that we born with, while Erikson’s theory is based on what we are nurtured and taught to be. They both help us to understand the basic idea of identity formation. However, there is weakness of the theory, there is no standardized conditions that can prove whether people has succeeded in a particular stage, it is really depending on personal levels of self-understanding.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Erikson And Freud

    1987 Words  | 4 Pages

    Erikson modeled his life cycle schema after the Shakespearean play “As You Like It”. The play identifies the seven ages that men experience starting with infancy and continuing in to old age.In the play the first age is infancy which lasts until a child is old enough to go to school. The third age is when a man falls in love. Next the man becomes strong and mature like a soldier and then becomes just and wise like a judge. The sixth age is when a man reaches old age and incompetency followed by age seven which is death. Erikson believed that Shakespeare had neglected to include the play stage in his seven ages presented in the play “As You Like It”. “In the late 1940s Eriksons received an invitation to present a paper on the developmental stages of life at the midcentury White House conference on children and youth. The paper they were to contribute for the conference was on growth and crisis of the healthy personality.” (Capps, 2004) It was on the way to this conference that the Eriksons realized that if Shakespeare had left out a stage then they too may have forgotten a stage. Erik Erikson realized that his life cycle model went from intimacy, signifying young adulthood in stage six to old age in stage seven. After this realization the Eriksons added “Generativity Versus Stagnation” as the new seventh

    Read More

  • Erik Erikson's Stages of Development

    3327 Words  | 7 Pages

    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, p.35-36)).

    Read More

  • Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Freud And Erikson's Theory

    1022 Words  | 3 Pages

    Both Freud and Erikson theories are based on the psychoanalytic theory which according to Kathleen Berger is “a grand theory of human development that holds that irrational, unconsicious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior.

    Read More

  • Erikson's Psychosocial Stages and Adopted Children

    1280 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Advantages And Disadvantages Of The Psychodynamic Theory

    724 Words  | 2 Pages

    The psychodynamic theory encompasses both Freud and Erikson. Freud believed the three components of personality were the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is responsible for all needs and urges, while the superego for ideals and moral. The ego moderates between the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. However, Erikson believed that personality progressed through a series of stages, with certain conflicts arising at each stage. Success in any stage depended upon successfully overcoming these conflicts. The advantage to psychodynamic is that it encompasses the individual, meaning that the theory looks at personality from childhood all the way into adulthood. The disadvantages of this theory are that it cannot be tested validly. Therefore,

    Read More

  • Two Psychological Theories of Development

    1002 Words  | 3 Pages

    This approach has become the stimulus for a number of similar theories which share the same assumptions on psychological development, yet differ in detail. (Gross, R, 2007) Erik Erikson, a neo-freudian himself accepted Freud’s theory but whereas the psychodynamic approach focuses on five main stages of development until adulthood, Erikson theorised that development is lifelong and continues throughout life until death. (Psychology for A Level 2000)

    Read More

  • The Application of Erik Erikson's Theories

    2332 Words  | 5 Pages

    Erik Erikson was a researcher of the Psychodynamic perspective who lived through the years 1902 to 1994. He developed a theory that dealt with the stages of human development and was referred to as a Neo-Freudian. A Neo-Freudian are those “who have revised Sigmund Freud’s theory” (Massey, 1986). His theory argued that “both society and culture challenge and shape us” (Feldman, 2011). Erik Erikson’s theory of psychological development does not specify specific ages, so the age categories can only be guessed upon. It is my personal thought that this was a smart move due to different age milestones for different cultures. The essay titled Erik Erikson: Ages, stages, and stories argues that the stages “are organized into a system of polarities that tempt us to think about psychological dynamics in a form that is more binary than Erikson intended.” Each stage has a ‘resolution’ or goal. Each stage presents a “crisis or conflict that the individual must resolve” (Feldman, 2011, p.16)

    Read More

  • Erikson's Theory Of Psychosocial Development

    1065 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Strengths And Weaknesses Of Erikson's Theory

    747 Words  | 2 Pages

    Theorists have expanded our knowledge of psychology, influenced one another to broaden, and built upon each other’s theories to develop their own. One theorist who has built upon previous theorists was Erik Erikson. Erikson developed an eight-stage theory of identity and psychosocial development, which has countless strengths and weaknesses.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Freud And Erikson

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    Freud’s psychosexual theory and Erikson’s psychosocial theory are two very renowned developmental concepts. Erikson was persuaded by Freud’s ideas but he elaborated on the theory differently.

    Read More

  • A Comparison Between Freud and Erikson

    1947 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

More about Erik Levinson Research Paper

Open Document