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Erikson's psychosocial theory
Erikson's psychosocial theory
Social development of adolescents
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Examining Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Theory of Development Through Interviews
Erik Erikson theorizes that throughout life, an individual goes through several personal struggles and crises that must be resolved (Myers, 2010). There are eight stages of development: infancy, toddlerhood, preschool, elementary school, adolescence, young adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. This paper will focus on adolescence, young adulthood, and middle adulthood. For the adolescent (from teens into 20s), the greatest challenge is finding a single identity and a sense of self as opposed to being confused of their role in society. Conversely, the young adult (20s to early 40s) struggles through finding intimacy to avoid becoming socially isolated. Finally, the middle
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What are some of your most important goals?
Where in you life do you receive the most pleasure and satisfaction? Why?
What are your fears in life?
Who/what are your biggest influences?
I conducted the interviews by recording their answers with my cellphone and then later documented their responses, noting any similarities with Erikson’s theories and similarities.
Results
Adolescence The adolescent generally seemed to have trouble settling on a single identity. Furthermore, she stated that high academic expectations and fear of failure to be her biggest challenges.
The teenager felt like she changed her personalities depending on who she was with, citing influences such as her family, particularly her older sister, social media, her friends, her teammates. Her true self emerged when she was with her family. Her social media persona was more tailored and in tune with the “spectrum of trends” that she wanted to fit in. While she took more fashion and style cues from online, it was her friends that shaped her interests and even her patterns of speaking. Similarly, she suggested that she would mimic her field hockey teammates’ personalities to feel more
During this stage, Erikson believes that the individual’s successful identity formation relies on social, cognitive and physical maturation (Pittman, Keiley, Kerpelman, & Vaughn, 2011). The individual tries out different roles for who they see in themselves and who they portray to others, eventually committing to their own personal role and occupational choice. Pittman et al. (2011) describe the identity formation as “consisting of decisions, investments, and commitments tied to current and future roles, goals, and relationships.” Additional considerations for identity formation include the context of the culture which is available to the adolescent during this time. After successful resolution of this stage during adolescence, individuals will typically progress into Erikson’s Intimacy versus Isolation stage during young
A person entering their twenties are in for a challenge when they are asked to take on Erickson 's first task of adult life. The first stage of adulthood is intimacy versus isolation where people are searching for a partner also looking for a loving relationship. This can be a very entertaining experience or a very stressful experience for young adults. Both Belsky, Privacy, Intimacy, and Isolation and observation can give a reader many great examples of what it is like to go through this time in life.
Tracy Freeland in Thirteen is the epitome of a person going through the stages of adolescence. All of the surroundings you grow up in affect and help shape the person you become. In Tracy’s case, her identity was formed by her choices with her new friends, and how she chose to explore that new world. It can be seen throughout this film how easily adolescents are influenced by those around them when deciding the type of person they want to be in adulthood. References Berk, L. E. (2011).
The Physical and Social development of children is important and Erikson studied how children grow and develop. There are eight stages of development. When Erikson first got started, Why he studies psychology and About the eight stages of development. He studies the different systems of children while they develop. He also studies the founding of adulthood.
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
As an individual stuck amidst a foundation known for its propensity to breed social congruity, college has opened my eyes to numerous distinctive reasons why individuals decide to act in ways they wouldn't regularly act. Since they ordinarily aren't certain of their character, adolescents are more inclined to similarity than others. In the most essential structure, college is tormented with congruity through the generalizations that learners seek after and explore different avenues regarding trying to uncover their personality. There are two sorts of Conformity: the kind that makes you do your errands when your father authorizes you to, and the less than great kind in which you aimlessly take after the thoughts and tenets of an inner circle or gathering, without addressing the negative impacts it has upon yourself and the improvement of whatever remains of public opinion. Conformity is basic in that people strive for a feeling of strength and acknowledgement in their lives. As a result of this need, “we therefore figure out how to fit in with principles of other individuals. What's more the more we see others carrying on in a certain manner or settling on specific choices, the more we feel obliged to stick to this same pattern.” Despite the freedoms we are supposed to have in American society most adolescents find it difficult to have their own identity.
Her philosophy is to “go with the flow” and take life one day at a time. She falls into Marcia’s and Josselson’s identity diffusion status. During this stage, she has shown to have low levels of exploration and commitment because she has not considered her identity at all. In addition she has not established any type of life goals. Her “go with the flow” attitude reflects her hedonic behavior as she floats through life. The social process of how she learns who she is has not become integrated yet because she has not realized what her social identity is or defined her personality traits; therefore, she bounces from one thing to the next with no certainty. Many individuals in this stage of diffusion are obsessed by seeking out things for the gratification of pleasure (Oswalt,
Also, Erikson’s Intimacy versus Isolation theory explained that young adults at this stage will think about being intimate or having a close relationship with a person (Miller, 1983). This could be a friend who they can confide in or a sexual partner (Miller, 1983). Those who engage in marriage at a you...
From the life course perspective, midlife behavior has both antecedents and consequences. Earlier life experiences can serve either as risk factors or as protective factors for the health and well-being during this stage of development. According to the study Journey from Childhood to Midlife completed by Werner and Ruth Smith in 2001, by middle adulthood, most people have noted a balancing in their lives and improvement in overall quality of their lives. The period of early adulthood had provided positive turning points such as community college, marriage to a stable partner or military service. A contributing factor is relationships that provided emotional support as well. The presence of a nurturing caregiver from infancy, as well as emotional support along the way from extended family, peers, and caring adults outside the family created a positive environment for the person to continue along the life course. Erik Erikson, Karl Jung and Daniel Levinson are three prominent developmental theorists on human development on the journey of life.
Emerging adults are always in the search of their own identity while experimenting with their life, love life and career path. Constant changes in emerging adult’s life are common. From changing residential place to love life, work and education, instability often presents during emerging adulthood (Santrock, 2013). In addition, emerging adults tend to place focus on themselves where they have no commitment and responsibilities toward others. This provides them a great chance to exercise their own will and to execute their plans for the future. During emerging adulthood, many feel like as if they do not belong to either adolescents or adult. The transition ends only when they have distinct marks of an adult. According to Arnett (as cited in Santrock, 2014), “emerging adulthood is the age of possibilities” (p. 296). The age of possibilities is when an individual has the opportunity to turn things around in life, especially when they are from a poor family
Biological influences combined with societal and social expectations contribute to how well people learn to adapt to their environments (2013). According to Erikson, there are eight stages of development. Within these states, there are different psychological, emotional and cognitive tasks. In order to adjust, individuals must learn to develop these tasks. During adolescence, Erikson states that each person needs to navigate through the development task of ‘‘Identity vs. Identity confusion ’’ (2013). He defined this task by stating that adolescent children must learn to develop a sense of self and establish independence. Prior to this stage of development, a person’s parents largely influence their identity. In this stage the adolescent children begin to explore and develop their identity outside of their parents’ influence (Hill, Bromell, Tyson, & Flint, 2007). Adolescents are generally more egocentric at this stage and have an increased sense of self-consciousness. They also have a strong desire to conform to peer influence and develop concerns regarding their appearance. They develop concern about their level of competence in relation to their peer group as well. As peer influence increases, during this stage, parental influence decreases (Ashford & LeCroy, 2013; Hill et. al, 2007). Conflict generally increases between parent and child at this stage of development (2007).
Massey, R. F. (1986). Erik Erikson: New-Adlerian. Individual Psychology: The Journal of Adlerian Theory, Research & Practice, 42(1), 65. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Erik Erikson developed the eight stages of life theory. Erikson’s theory focuses on the development from birth to death, social context, and interpersonal relations during each stage of life (McAdams, 2009). In the same manner, each stage of life is comprehendible in three levels, such as the body, ego, and family and culture. The eight stages of life are infancy (trust vs. mistrust), early childhood (autonomy vs. shame and doubt), childhood (initiative vs. guilt), childhood (industry vs. inferiority), adolescence and young adulthood (identity vs. role confusion), young adulthood (intimacy vs. isolation), mature adulthood (generativity vs. stagnation (or self-absorption)), and old age (ego integrity vs. despair).
Identity is one of the most controversial topics to discuss. Not only can someone’s identity take years to find but it can also be easily manipulated. Gender differences has been discussed several times when dealing with identity issues. According to Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory, he states the approximate age to be facing the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage starts from thirteen years old and ending at twenty one years old. Although finding one’s identity could occur at any point in time, it really comes to play during the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage in Erikson’s Theory. Being in a society that is very progressive has many consequences. According to Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory, intimacy vs. Isolation should usually
Young adults think differently than adolescents and they have different views and opinions on things. During adulthood, an individual begins to discontinue their risky behaviors such as having sex without protection, driving recklessly, and playing dangerous sports. On the other hand, some people still continue this behavior while in adulthood but it is not common. Many people believe that the key sign of actually becoming an adult is financially supporting oneself. This step occurs sooner to the students who either do not attend college or do not finish high school. Students which go to college, this occurs to them later on in life. Establishing intimacy is the sixth step in Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, “intimacy versus isolation.” Once a person has established their own identity, they are prepared to establish a “shared identity” (intimacy) with another person. Men and women resolve intimacy issues very differently, for instance, some women establish intimacy by getting married and having children, before they actually establish their identity. Middle-aged women attending college are an example of these