Identity issues for women 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 …show more content…
These psychosocial crises’ are categorized as followed: Trust vs. Mistrust (infant -eighteen months), Autonomy vs. Shame (eighteen months to three years), Initiative vs. Guilt (three to -five years), Industry vs. Inferiority (five to thirteen years), Identity vs. Role Confusion (thirteen to twenty one years), Intimacy vs. Isolation (twenty one to thirty nine years), Generativity vs. Stagnation (Forty to sixty five years), and Ego integrity vs. Despair (sixty five and older). Erikson’s ideas were to a certain extent influenced by Sigmund Freud’s theory on personality but Erikson focused more on the roles that society and cultural …show more content…
Although it is something everyone goes through, the harsh reality is that women are going through these stages earlier and with more consequences than men .A women’s identity has already been manipulated by society and now men are also playing a huge role in the way women see themselves. Men nowadays believe it is acceptable to use women for sex and for their own pleasure but what they do not realize is the impact it places on women when they leave after they got what they wanted. This impact that men leave on women could later result in depression, anxiety and even suicide. While men seem to have a clear boundary between identity and intimacy, some women may not, which is why they should think before just trying to “hit
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
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
He implemented eight psychosocial stages which includes trust versus mistrust. One example of the specified inclusions are infants. In order to come to a resolution for these feelings of insecurity, infants look towards their care givers for care and stability to fulfill their desired needs. With autonomy versus shame stage, children begin to assert their independence, utilizing their skills otherwise they will end up doubting their abilities. Initiative versus guilt is another stage where pre-scholars develop initiative by devising and carrying out bold plans. These people plan activities, developing a sense of initiative with others therefore feeling secure in their ability to lead and make decisions. The identity versus role confusion stage is noted as Erikson’s most popular. He characterized adolescence as a crucial and critical time of identity development. To achieve a sense of identity some adolescents attempt to define and explore who they are regarding their career choice, religion, political views, sexual orientation etc., figuring out a way to fit into society. According to Erikson, “the adolescent mind is essentially a mind or moratorium, a psychosocial stage between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be developed by the adult” (Erikson, 1963, p.245. As they go through the different sexual and
The focus of this week assignment is to discuss the interactions of gender, ethnicity, and identity development. In addition I will discuss the role of stereotyping and how it influence male and female gender identity. In conclusion I will discuss the impact that ethnicity and gender have on children when it comes to choosing between the ethnic identity of their family of origin and their culture.
Beginning with Erik Erikson’s childhood, our textbook describes, “it is not surprising that the theorist who gave us the concept of the identity crisis experienced several crises of his own.” His first crisis occurred when he found out that his father was not his biological father. Knowing of this information, he kept his father’s last name until he migrated from Germany to the United States then changed his name to Erik Homburger Erikson. As life went on, Erikson experienced other identity crises situations that later gave him the idea of using his experiences to develop a profound theory that would change the world of psychology. At the age of twenty-five, Erik Erikson was offered to teach at a school established for the children of Sigmund Freud’s patients and friends (Schultz). Being taught by Sigmund Freud’s daughter Anna, he decided to approach Freud...
Law is a tool, a tool of resistance, power, or even oppression. In many women’s experience with the law, the law exists as a tool of oppression. Internationally, across many states like Ohio itself, a husband can legally rape his wife if his wife is subdued by drugs, or any substance that lesser her chances of resistance and encourages consent (Allen, 2015). Across many legal institutions, and systems a woman suffers from discrimination or oppression due to her ‘multiple identities’ (Lockhart & Mitchell, 2010). Legal institutions and their processes overlook and ignore the experiences of people, in particular women who are subjected to dimensions of “race, class, gender and sexuality… in relation to their struggle against racial, sexual, sexual orientation and class oppression” (Lockhart & Mitchell, 2010). Law and legal processes hardly examine other characteristics of women because these institutions are centred on “objectivity and universalism” (Marchetti, 2008); only one characteristic or experience is examined to determine the outcome of a case. The objective of this essay is to explore the intersectionality of women and how it has come to be the forefront battle for equal rights for women. This essay will also look into how and why legal processes and law centre their
Psychosocial stage of development The theory of personality of Erik Erikson is among one of the most important theories used to explain how people develop their personality. Although a psychoanalyst, Erikson not merely considered the psychosexual aspect as the mere factors that contributed to the development of individuals’ personality, but also took into account the psychosocial aspect. Erikson divided personality development into eight stages: basic trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. role diffusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair, (Cervone & Pervin, 2013; Johnson & Ahmad, 2014; Maitland, 2011). According to this theory, I have been greatly influenced by the stage four: industry vs. inferiority.
Gender roles are not the product of innate biology; They are formed based on the cultural and societal beliefs that surround an individual during their development. These factors play a very important role in gender identity, and often lead individuals to believe in stereotypical representations of gender identity such as gender roles. The way in which these cultures interpret the expression of gender identity heavily impacts the way an individual chooses to express themselves.
Many philosophers and psychologist from Jean Piaget to William James have theorized what makes a person who they are, their identity. Jean Piaget believed that the identity is formed in the sensorimotor stage and the preoperational stage. This means that a child is forming his identity as late to the age of seven (Schellenberg, 29) However, identity is strongly impacted by society such as school, church, government,and other institutions. Through our interactions with different situations our personality develops (Schellenberg 34). "In most situations there is a more diversified opportunity for the development of social identities, reflecting what the individual wants to put forth to define the self as well as what others want to accept,"(Schellenberg 35). Therefore, humans, much like animals, adapt to different situations based on who they are with. Individuals are always changi...
Erik Erikson’s psychoanalytic theory of development is made up of eight stages that span the lifetime. The stages correspond to a specific age and provide a blueprint for what to expect universally from someone in that stage in terms of social development. Erikson believed
In this paper I will be focusing on Erikson’s Theory mainly about identity versus role confusion. Finding one’s identity is not always an easy task. Everyone at some point in his or her life has had, as Erikson puts it, an identity crisis. Everyone experiences different struggles that can have either a positive or negative impact on their identity. On my path to identity, I have reached identity achievement, which means I have explored and made commitments. I will also be focusing on two articles highlighting a fifth possible outcome regarding identity and looking at identity statuses as developmental trajectories.
During the state that Freud considers the oral stage, Erikson says that babies learn to trust or mistrust someone to care for their needs. Erikson next stage which is paralell to Freud’s anal stage called the autonomy vesus shame and doubt. During this particular time, children either learn to become self sufficent or lack confidence in their own abilities. Next stage is the initiative versus guilt stage. In my opinion, this stage determines the maturity and influence of a person’s parents. With Freuds and Erikson ideas both in mind, the industy vs inferiority stage is similar to the latency. During adolescenes, according to Erikson adolescents try to figure out who they are sexually, politicall and vocationally. The next stages of itimacy versus isolation is a build on from the previous stage. During this time, a person has pretty much accepted who they are and accepted or isolated from others. The next two stages reaches beyond the depth of Freud’s ideas. According to Erikson, generativity versus stagnation develops which occurs during the middle age of adulthood. While in this stage, a person with find a way to be productive or contribute to others or become complacent and stagnate with their lives. The final state in Erikson idea is the integrity versus depair stage. It is in the time that a person
This assignment’s main focus will be centred on Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, which consists of eight stages however only the fifth stage ‘identity versus role confusion’ will be discussed. Aspects such as identity crises, exploration of autonomy whilst developing a sense of self, factors that may contribute to identity formation as well as the successful/unsuccessful resolution of this particular stage will be discussed thoroughly. Erikson’s theory was also expanded by James Marcia, who identified certain identity statuses. The discussion will then progress to the psychosocial development of a case study based on Anna Monroe in connection to the difficulties she faced, such as gender, sexuality, peer pressure,
However, Freud’s theory was centered on psychosexual stages, Erikson’s theory elaborates on the effects of social experiences across an individual’s life span. Erikson’s psychosocial stages is divided into eight stages: Stage 1 – Trust vs. mistrust, Stage 2 – Autonomy vs. shame and doubt, Stage 3 – Initiative vs. guilt, Stage 4 – Industry vs. inferiority, Stage 5 – Identity vs. role confusion, Stage 6 – Intimacy vs. isolation, Stage 7 – Generativity vs. stagnation and Stage 8 – Integrity vs.
In Erikson’s Identity vs. Role Confusion stage, I thought, “Who am I?” countless times like many other adolescents. I occupied much of my time trying to construct a firm identity of myself, which I now realized did more harm than good. Letting myself explore different interests would have helped me find my identity than me trying to fake some firm identity.