Psychosocial Development Essay

Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory has eight distinct stages.

The first stage of “Basic trust vs. mistrust” occurs during infancy (birth to 18th months old). At this stage, infants need to form a loving, trusting relationship with the caregiver, or there will be a risk of developing a mistrust and insecurity about the world. For me, I had a favorable outcome for this stage because my needs to survive, including food, love, warmth, safety, and nurturing were all met. For instance, because my mother was at home taking care of me, she was able to sensitively and appropriately respond to me whenever I cried for attention and food. This could be connected with my securely attached behaviors with my parents in the further stages. Thus,

shame and doubt”, where the child develops basic physical skills such as walking, grasping, and rectal sphincter control. The child gains some control and independence, however, may develop shame and doubt if they feel incapable of learning a skill. By the age of 3, I was able to stand up and walk around wherever I wanted to go unaided, and join in simple activities such as stacking blocks and playing ball games. My mother also mentioned that in the playground, I was able to climb up the stairs and go on slides without much help from my parents. So, because I achieved many basic physical skills, which is task needed to be achieved at this stage, I was able to have a favorable outcome for this

Role Confusion” occurs during adolescent years. This stage puts focus on achieving a sense of identity in occupation, sex roles, politics, and in other areas. For me, this stage was the harshest and toughest period of my life. I struggled to discover who I am, what I want to do in the future, and what skills I am capable of. I had to somewhat adjust how I perceive my identity and roles to how people around me and my parent’s perceive me. But because what I wanted to do and their expectations were very different, I had a lot of conflict, especially with my parents. At this period, I wanted to gain independence and valued my relationship with friends and spending time with them, but my parents always told me to think about what a “student” should focus on. I knew they respected my decisions and had trust for me, but I could feel the worry whenever they were talking to me. But luckily, as I gained different experiences through school curriculum and constantly found approaches to life, I was able to decide what I really wanted to and what was really important to me. Thus, I believe that these struggles were necessary for me to form a clear sense of who I am and what I have to do. Although this stage was a tough period, I had successfully built a sense of identity in few areas so I was able to have a favorable