Integrity versus despair is the final stage of Erickson’s developmental sequence. In this stage, older adults seek to intergrate their unique experiences with their vision of the community. In addition, this stage involves the reflection of their past. The individual may exhibit a positive life review or they may conclude that their life has not been successful. In this last stage, the individual has a life review and look back at one’s life experiences. They also evaluate them and interpret them as meaningful or not. At this stage many develop pride and contentment with their personal history and “explore their self-worth and the value of their lives” (Harrand & Bollstetter, 2000). Unfortunalely, others experience despair such in the case of my client Petra. …show more content…
The disacord comes from the intent to gain a full understanding of the stage. In fact, “The final task is to look back on his or her life and try to integrate it into a coherent and acceptable whole. If the individual can manage to do so, he or she will reconcile negative experiences from the past and as a consequence develop ego integrity and wisdom” (Rennemark & Hagberg, 1997). In the case of my client Petra, she constantly remineses about her past and reflects on her wrongdoings. It seems as she is full of regret about her past life and feels despair as she can not mend her mistakes. According to Hamachek (1990) he mentions different characteristics of older adults who have a sense of integrity and characteristics of older adults who have a sense of despair as well. Hamachek (1990) describes older adults with integrity as someone who is in “control of their life”, and are “reasonably happy, optimistic people, satisfied with their lives”. On the other hand, though Hamachek (1990) describes those in the despair stage as having “little control over what happens” and “unhappy, pessimistic people, dissatisfied with their
Many individuals strive to be the best and thrive in this world inhabited by seven billion people, by taking control over their own destiny. However, success requires a sacrifice of personal desires and ambitions at times which not a lot amongst us are willing to give. It is sooner or later that the temporary reformation fails and their true self resurfaces where they are back at where they began. A lot of us are unwillingly left to deal and live with these unfortunate circumstances. The impact that these events leave upon us is very significant and sometimes temporary. The poem, "The tent delivery woman's ride" by Wilmer Mills, and my own experience explains that the significant events negatively effect an individual's ability to determine
This stage involves an individual reflecting on themselves and their life in order to determine if they are content with the life they lived or if they have any regrets. If the young adult is unable to establish contentment and peace, then frustration and regret results because the individual becomes saddened they didn’t live a better life (Potter, Perry, et al. 2013). Unfortunately, this patient is experiencing despair because he is currently divorced living alone. Although his children visit him often, they live out of town and are busy with their own lives. Additionally, his present diagnosis of pneumonia and rhonchi facilitate the deterioration of his health as well as his past medical history (cataract and femoral surgery).
Greg is a forty-one year-old man, who is retired from the military. He is in stage seven of Erikson’s psychosocial development called Generativity vs. Stagnation, which includes middle adulthood, forty to sixty-five years of age. According to Capps (2004), Erikson defines generativity as “the concern in establishing and guiding the next generation” (p. 25). This stage claims the largest stretch of time on Erikson’s chart encompassing middle adulthood. Greg has become successful throughout this stage and has a feeling of accomplishment by being active in his home and community. Stagnation represents an individual that is disconnected or uninvolved in their community because they fail to find away to contribute to society. Greg realized he was
Despair.” During this stage the person correlates wisdom with life experiences and the sense of life accomplishments. Those who fail this stage results in a sense of despair the feeling of an unfulfilled life. Those who successfully master this stage will gain the ego skill of “Wisdom.”
An interview was arranged with an older adult to discuss issues related to aging. The interview was designed to gain appreciation and understanding of an older adult. One theory of aging came into mind when I thought about this topic. Erik Erikson Life-Course and Personality Development theory, “Erikson described the task of old age as balancing the search for integrity and wholeness with a sense of despair.” NS is the older adult that I conducted the interview with. I’ve decided to pick NS to interview because she is very positive about life and her age. Everything that I have come across about aging is negative such as depression, isolation, and illness.
The main tenant of the psychosocial development theory throughout the life cycle is that an individual’s personality is held to unfold over the course of their life, with healthy development based on the ability of the individual to master tasks and skills at each level or stage of life (Coady & Lehman, 2008; Hutchison, 2008). Erikson’s original model sectioned the life span into eight levels with each containing its own unique psychosocial challenge or conflict which, depending on the outcome, would help the individual experience positive growth (Coady & Lehman, 2008; (Hooyman & Kiyak, 2005/2011; Hutchison, 2008). The eighth stage encompasses late adulthood, where the conflict experienced is that of integrity versus despair. If an individual has experienced successful o...
In Erik Erikson’s theory he explains that in every stage, a positive or a negative attitude is developed within an individual. During our developing stages we are either successful or we fail. Each stage will come to us whether or not we’re ready for them or not. You can think of the stages as learning stages where crisis occur .Only if we have learned from the previous crisis we are successful. You cannot avoid 1 stage and move to a next stage because of the developing process. The outcome of our lives depends on the way we chose to progress throughout each stage in life. Erikson had his own way in describing each stage in life that we all must go through.
Aging and old age for a long time presented as dominated by negative traits and states such as sickness, depression and isolation. The aging process is not simply senescence most people over the age of 65 are not Senile, bedridden, isolated, or suicidal (Aldwin & Levenson, 1994). This change in perspective led the investigation of the other side of the coin. Ageing is seen as health, maturity and personal Royal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generatively, coping and acceptance of age-related constraints (Birren & Fisher, 1995). Psychological und...
The last stage of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development, which I have no personal experience with, is the crisis between integrity and despair. Swartwood (2014, p. 86) states that at this stage individuals “struggle [with] the acceptance of impending death and the fact that our lives are primarily historical, rather than in the future.” When the elderly look back on their lives and realize that they lived their life with purpose, they are filled with a sense of integrity. On the other hand, individuals who fail to view their life in this positive light tend to fall into despair.
When elderly people move into the last of life’s eight stages of psychosocial development, they enter the ego-integrity-versus-despair stage. This process is defined by looking back over someone’s life, evaluating it, then accepting it. People who become successful in this stage feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment. Erikson refers to this acceptance as integrity. This differs from generativity because one is accepting the end of their life, instead of accepting where their life will start in a sense of career and self. However, if one is to look back on their life with dissatisfaction, they may feel they have been cheated or missed opportunities. Such individuals will mostly be depressed or angry about the way life turned out and
As human beings age, according to Erik Erikson, they go through developmental stages that help to create and transform their personalities. If needs are met and the ego is gratified, then the individual is able to move on to the next challenge. Onward they march in life and in stage until they find the end level: integrity versus despair. This has been categorized as adults 65 years and older by Erikson. Here, people are to reminisce and judge their lives in terms of merit or disappointment. Erikson himself had a lot to comb through in his later years.
...r past with little or no regrets and will be satisfied overall. If a person is unsuccessful in this phase they will feel that they wasted their life and they will only think of regrets. They will feel despair (Cherry, 2011).
In life there are many people, things, or places that we experience that have influenced our lives so unique and powerful there unlike any other. Some women experience such alteration with the birth of a new baby. While for another person this life alteration may be making partner at a law firm. Though everyone experiences life on a different level one thing is for certain, not everything in life is a good experience. Everything in life is balanced, and with every joy comes some form of heartache. For some people it takes an emotional toll so incoherent that it never fades. After World War I many men experienced the let down affiliated with the war, and discovered there fight for admiration and loyalty led to nothing more than a expulsion of lost values, thus leading to the “lost generation.”
Aging and being old was dominated by negative characteristics and conditions such as illness, depression, and isolation for a long time (Eibach, Mock, & Courtney, 2010). At first glance the terms “success” and “aging” seem to be in conflict to each other. When asking people about aging, their answers have many facets that are also found in psychological definitions: successful aging is seen as health, maturity and personal growth, self-acceptance, happiness, generativity, coping, and acceptance of age-related limitations. In the psychological sense successful aging is also often seen as the absence of age-associated characteristics (Strawbridge, Wallhagen, & Cohen, 2002). It seems that successful aging means is not aging.
Integrity is the quality of being honest. When you are honest about something or a certain situation you are considered a person of integrity. Also when you have integrity you have strong moral principles. When you have strong moral principles you know what is right and what is wrong. “Having integrity means doing the right thing in a reliable way. It's a personality trait that we admire, since it means a person has a moral compass that doesn't waver. It literally means having "wholeness" of character, just as an integer is a "whole number" with no fractions.” Furthermore, having integrity is a quality that many strive to have because it often means that you are a good person.