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Critical analysis of Erikson's theory
American dream
Critical analysis of Erikson's theory
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Paper #1 (chapters 1-7) In chapter 1, we discuss Erik Erikson. Erikson had a theory about personality developments and in this chapter we focus on one. In Erikson’s psychosocial development he has eight stages and in the fifth stage he writes about Ego identify vs. Role Confusion. This happens in adolescence, which is from ages 12 to 18. During these ages the adolescent is becoming more independent and prepping for adulthood. The individual also is looking to fit into the world and belong to a society. Many and all adolescents deal with dilemmas while growing up. Some of the problems they can face while becoming their own person can be poverty, health problems, family problems, dealing with the modern world and much more. When a teenager …show more content…
This theory is presented in both criminology and in Sociology. The strain theory touches upon the topic of how social structures within a society can add pressure to some people to commit crimes. One thing that is pressurized todays society in America is the American dream. The American dream is supposed to be a person who is financially stable and has a house and a family and is happy, but people are changing it into materialistic things and focusing on it for the greed. The overall culture of this dream causes multiple levels of stress and anxiety. If you don’t succeed in completing these goals then you are looked upon as a failure within your community. This type of point of view takes away any positivity the dream was supposed to have at …show more content…
There are three theories that are focused on. Those theories are of life-course, latent trait, and trajectory. In the life-course concept there is a problem behavior syndrome. In this section it reviews how there are a cluster of ant social behaviors. The different signs of anti social behavior may include: substance abuse, early pregnancy, suicide attempts, and delinquency. Latent trait theories are about personal attributions or characteristics that control and increase the adolescents possibility of committing a crime. The criminal offender can have an impulsive personality and it can lead to low self control and weakens the social bonds. All of this and criminal opportunities are what make a deviant/criminal. The trajectory theory is a view that there isn’t just one path to criminal behavior, but instead that there any many different
Majority of the citizens in the United States have always strived to obtain, what is known as the American dream. That dream usually involves having a well-paid career, a family, and having a big house in a neighborhood free from crime. According, Robert Merton in his theory of Strain theory believes that these goals are instilled at an early age, which these goals are held to all of its members in society; however the means of obtaining these goals are not equally distributed out. The means being defined as education, the concepts of hard work are ways to achieve these goals. Merton’s strain theory is an explanation of criminal behavior, according to the textbook, Adler, Mueller and Laufer (2010) defined Strain theory as “that people are law-abiding citizen, but when under great pressure will resort to crime. Disparity between goals and means provide this pressure.”(p.106) Merton goes that in a class-orientated society, opportunities to get to the top are not equally distributed. There are two important elements that in any society. The (1) cultural aspirations, or goals that people believe are worth striving for, and (2) institutionalized means to accepted ways to attain the desire ends. Inequality between goals and means fosters frustrations, which leads to strain. (Alder, Mueller, and Laufer 2010).
The psychosocial stage represented by adolescence, as we can see from Erikson’s model, is the resolution of the conflicts raised by the profusion of role changes in adolescent life. Healthy resolution of these conflicts would mean that the person would be able to adjust to the changing role demands of the period of adolescence while still retaining a strong sense of their own lasting personal identity. If the increasing role demands of adolescence placed too great a stress on the individual, then identity diffusion would result. This means that the individual would become confused about who they were, in view of all the different roles which they seem to be acting
According to Robert Agnew, “Strain Theory is based on the idea that delinquency results when individuals are unable to achieve their goals through legitimate channels, achievement or strike out at the source of their frustration in anger”. (Agnew, R. (1985). A Revised Strain Theory of Delinquency. Oxford journals. 64(1).151-166). The norms are violated to alleviate the strain that accompanies failure. When a good look is taken at the theories the strains might not only come from peoples frustrations with acquiring “ The American Dream”, but it becomes a mixture of strains such as economic deprivation, abuse, neglect, or the loss of a loved one. However, most people that experience strains do not commit crimes.
The General Strain Theory scope has an intention of providing a clear explanation for why and why not crime occurs across all levels of society, while maintaining that stress is a major cause of criminal involvement. When people experience negative emotions, such as anger, frustration, or depression, they are in result unhappy and upset, thus experiencing strains or stressors (Ganem, 2010). Crime is then a way of reducing or escaping from these strains, and it is their method of coping with their emotions. According to Agnew, “Strains refer to events or conditions that are disliked by individuals (1992,
An example when an adult was scaffolding an infant during the time I was observing Lab 1 would be when George of 1 year and 3 months was wobbly walking and exploring his surroundings and worryingly one of the instructors said “no, no” and instead he walked towards another designated play era and uncertain he looked back and made eye contact with the same instructor. She reassured him that he could go play into the area by gesturing and saying “that’s okay ” so he proceeded to play in that area.
Erik Erikson, a German-born American who is a well known developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst, established the grand theory of psychosocial development. Throughout his theory, persistently stresses that one’s personality advances non-stop throughout the duration of several differential stages. Erikson’s theory also goes in depth to explain the immense impact of social experiences in one’s lifespan. The main element that is produced from his theory of psychosocial development is essentially ego identity. Ego identity can be defined as a sense of self, or better, the knowledge of one’s self that forms through a process within all social interaction. Contemporary
General Strain Theory was discussed by Robert Agnew, and first published in 1992. According to General Strain Theory individuals engage in crime because of strains or stressors which produce anger and anxiety (Agnew, 1992). Crimes become the outlet that the individual uses to cope with or remedy the strains or stressors. Agnew states that there are three different types of deviance producing strains.
He named this stage of development, identity vs. role confusion. At this age children explore their individuality and independence. They develop a sense of who they are and where they belong. Those adolescents who are given proper encouragement and reinforcements at this stage of development, will develop a sturdy sense of identity and also a feeling of individuality. Those adolescents who continue to be uncertain of themselves and their wishes will feel unconfident and uncertain about themselves and their future. Adolescents who complete this stage successfully will lead to a strong dependability, which Erikson defined as being capable to live by the world standards and
This period is marked by physical, social, moral and emotional development (Davies, Hartdegen, Haxell, Le Geyt & Mercier, 2012). It is a time when the adolescent’s sense of self or identity is becoming much more clear and they are beginning to understand their role in society, starting to question the morals of others and contemplating their own moral and ethical beliefs (Davies et al., 2012). During this time Erik Erikson believed that adolescents are faced with the psychosocial stage of identity versus role confusion (Berk, 2008). Adolescents explore their values and role in society, overcoming this conflict to better understand their own identity, however if they do not fully overcome this conflict, Erikson believed that the adolescent would be confused about their values and future adult roles (Berk, 2008). This conflict was clearly demonstrated in my own development during the late teenage years when I experienced both the results of failing to overcome and then overcoming Erikson’s fifth psychosocial stage. At age eighteen I finished secondary school and began my tertiary studies, I had been accepted into the degree I had wanted to study since middle childhood, however I quickly learnt that I was enjoying neither my studies nor my experience of life in halls of residence. I discontinued my studies after only
An integrated theory is a combination of 2 or 3 theories that offers many explanations on why crime is occurring, compared to a traditional criminal theory that just focus on one type of aspect (Lilly et al.2010). The purpose of integrated theories is to help explain many aspects into what causes criminal behavior and why one becomes delinquent. From this an argument arises can integrated theories be used to explain all criminal behavior. Integrated theories are successful in explaining certain aspects of crime on what causes one to become deviant; however one theory alone cannot explain why an individual engages in crime. This paper will examine three integrated theories and look in-depth how these theories can explain different aspects on why criminal behavior occurs and the weakness of each theory. The three integrated theories that will be discussed in this paper are Cloward and Ohlin Differential Opportunity theory, Robert Agnew General Strain theory, and lastly Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond theory.
Strain theory is the inability to achieve one’s goals because of the loss of positive stimuli, or the presentation of negative stimuli. Strain theory may play a pivotal role in some of my peer 's lives due to their inability to achieve their goals. In class we talk about how strain theory cause great deal of crimes through means of certain strains or stressors, which increasing the likelihood of crime. Examples of Stressors and strains is not having positive role model this may influence crimes to happen. Other issue of strains that may play a role in crime is the inability of gaining monetary success. Monetary success usually cause problems that arise due to the lack of income or lack of quality education that would drives individuals to commit crime. My perspective to general strain theory is that a lot pressure was put on me to succeed in life, and that played a factor in my of my own strain to succeed, we didn’t have a lot income in the house, but my parents did provide everything in order for me to succeed. People such as Robert Merton believed that when societal norms only accepted goals, such as the 'American Dream, ' which then place pressure on the individual to conform, they force the individual to either work within the society has produced, or instead becomes a members of a deviant subculture in an attempt to achieve those
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
Strain theories of criminal behaviour have been amongst the most important and influential in the field of criminology. Taking a societal approach, strain theories have sought to explain deficiencies in social structure that lead individuals to commit crime (Williams and McShane 2010). Strain theories operate under the premise that there is a societal consensus of values, beliefs, and goals with legitimate methods for achieving success. When individuals are denied access to legitimate methods for achieving success, the result is anomie or social strain. This often leads an individual to resort to deviant or criminal means to obtain the level of success that they are socialized to pursue. This is the basic premise of strain theory. This paper will explore the evolution of strain theories by first examining their intellectual foundations which laid the foundation for Robert Merton’s theories of anomie and strain. Merton’s strain theory will be discussed in detail including the modes of adaptation that people use when faced with societal strain. Finally, the paper will conclude with the strengths and weaknesses of Merton’s strain theory and an examination of the criminological theories and social policies it has influenced.
Successful resolution of this psychosocial stage of development is imperative in order to acquire an enduring incorporated sense of self and to progress to the next stage of development. Society and one’s culture also contributes enormously to the commitment or prevention of dealing with the challenges faced during adolescence. Regardless of what challenges are faced during this stage of development, overcoming it is a fundamental necessity in order to progress into a strong-willed and stable individual in
No matter who you are I believe that everyone will go through stages in their life that will get them to where they are on today. I am a person who has a very interesting story; this is the first time it will be told in full. We were asked to use Erik Erikson’s theory of development as a guideline to telling the story of our lives. At first I was very nervous; however, I soon realized that this would be a fun task. Erik Erikson has eight stages of Development (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman). I will be walking you though my life using each one of his stages drawing out the map of my life. Within my life I have had some very interesting encounters. I have been through foster care, abuse, rape, molestation, starvation, adoption, depression, and success. Although my life may not be perfect, I believe that I have overcome these battles and become the person that I am on today. I will be talking about a few crises, milestones, and some of the people that were set in place to help me and or hurt me.