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Critical analysis of erik erikson theory
Critical analysis of erik erikson theory
Strengths and weaknesses of Erikson's stages
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Psychological Theory Theorists have expanded our knowledge of psychology, influenced one another to broaden, and built upon each other’s theories to develop their own. One theorist who has built upon previous theorists was Erik Erikson. Erikson developed an eight-stage theory of identity and psychosocial development, which has countless strengths and weaknesses. Erik Erikson was influenced by Freud and his concept of the ego. Erikson observed the impact of external factors on personality from not just childhood, but throughout the entire lifetime. He developed eight stages, which are split into different age brackets. As an individual passes through these stages, they must successfully complete the crisis to move forward onto the next one. …show more content…
One strength is that unlike Freud’s psychosexual theory and other theories of the era, it spans the entire life. The ability of Erikson’s theory to conceptualize the influence relationships have on individuals and society is a strength. Another strength is that one can feel accomplished by moving consecutively through stages. It looks at social and cultural influences on behavior and identity (site …show more content…
Erikson’s theory has some limitations. It seems to focus mainly on childhood, even though it does span the entire life. Another limitation in the theory is how it is applied to other cultures. Each culture is in its own category and has a different way of doing things. Erikson’s stages are rather concrete, whereas numerous cultures vary in ages of toilet training, breastfeeding, and even marriage. Since Erikson’s theory has rather concrete stages, how would these types of cultures fit into his model? Yet another limitation to Erikson’s theory is how can one resolve an issue within a certain stage? These are unlimited examples of both strength and weaknesses. Apply Theory to Applied Behavior Analysis In the Applied Behavior Analysis field, countless individuals can be helped using ABA techniques and psychological theories. My client is a 41-year-old man, who just went through a divorce, lost his job, and is now rebuilding his life. He is dealing with the loss of seeing his two children on a constant basis. He is now dealing with thoughts of failure, not fitting into any place in society, and isolation. While looking at Erikson’s psychosocial theory, I can address this client multiple issues with the stages intimacy vs isolation and generativity vs stagnation. Since he is newly divorced, it can be stated that during young adulthood his intimacy issues began with his wife, which drove to the isolation feelings and divorce. He now has to begin
Erik Erikson was heavily influenced by Freud but while Freud was an ID psychologist, Erikson was an ego psychologist. Erikson stressed that the development of the ego depended heavily on personal and social aspects. “According to Erikson, the ego develops as it successfully resolves crises that are distinctly social in nature. These involve establishing a sense of trust in others, developing a sense of identity in society, and helping the next generation prepare for the future” (McLeod, S. 1970). His theory focused on personality development through eight distinct stages. He believed that personality progressed in a stacking or pre-determined manner, this is referred to as the epigenetic principle. One must
Erikson’s theory, developed in 1963, supports the idea that early life experiences impact an individual across their lifespan. This theory considers that the growth of an individual is a result of interaction with the environment, biological maturation and societal influences, therefore, allowing for experiences from early life, to influence an individual throughout their lifespan (White, Hayes, and Livesey, 2009). Erikson’s theory focuses on eight different developmental stages within a lifespan and in order to progress from one stage to another, an individual must overcome a potential crisis of two opposing forces at each stage. There are two types of resolution of each stage, successful and unsuccessful. If an individual is
One of Freud's followers, Erik Erikson, developed his own theory called the psychosocial theory. Similar to Freud's theory, psychosocial theory also has a series of developmental stages. For example, in adolescence where Frued deems it to be the genital stage, Erikson calls this stage Identity vs. Role Confusion. The psychosocial theory focuses more on a series of choices an individual has to make throughout their life, each choice leads them to develop differently.
In the 1950s, after studying Freud’s work, Erik Erikson developed his theories. Instead of Freud’s psychosexual stages, Erikson developed psychosocial stages. Erikson expanded on Freud’s work, and added that not only were the first years of development important, but that development continued through to early adulthood and
Erikson believed that people develop in psychosocial stages. He emphasized developmental change throughout the human life span. In Erikson's theory, eight stages of development result as we go through the life span. Each stage consists of a crisis that must be faced. According to Erikson, this crisis is not a catastrophe but a turning point. The more an individual resolves the crises successfully, the healthier development will be.
Eric Erikson was one of the most famous theorists of the twentieth century; he created many theories. One of the most talked about theories is his theory of psychosocial development. This is a theory that describes stages in which an individual should pass as they are going through life. His theory includes nine stages all together. The original theory only included eight stages but Erikson‘s wife found a ninth stage and published it after his death. The nine stages include: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. identity confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, integrity vs. despair, and hope and faith vs. despair (Crandell and Crandell, p.35-36)).
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development were complex, but simple. It is something everyone will go through and experiences will always be different. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his stages can lead to quite a disaster. Surprisingly, previous stages are highly influential to the proceeding stage. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his psychosocial stages can have a very devastating effect on a person. This is because the effects built up rather than taking the place of one another. The effects are quite horrifying, but with the right environment, experiences and beliefs, everything can go well.
Both Freud and Erikson theories are based on the psychoanalytic theory which according to Kathleen Berger is “a grand theory of human development that holds that irrational, unconsicious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior.
His belief was that each human developed their own personality through a series of stages and these stages developed due to the social experiences that one experienced through life. According to Erikson, there are eight stages and each stage centers around a conflict that has to be resolved. Under Erikson’s theory, if conflict or crisis is not resolved, then the outcome will be more crisis and struggles with that issue later on in life (Domino & Affonso, 2011).
Erikson’s theory has a total of eight different stages. I believe Erikson had a great idea and was correct in his theory and thoughts. His stages and repercussions of each stage can be evident in my life as well as others in my life. Erikson’s first stage is about trust and mistrust in the first year of life. In my first year of life my family was very present. There does not go a week where my family does not recount about that first year and different silly or happy stories, I do not know of first hand, but can tell you without hesitation. Being that I was the first child of my parents, so as a result my parents dedicated every day to me and to support us. On my mother 's side I was the first grandchild to be born. As a result there was always
Erikson’s psychosocial theory is an eight stage theory on human psychological development. Erikson broke this theory of eight stages into groups by age. They are labeled as crisis stages and a person cannot move on from one stage to the next stage until the crisis is
Erik Erikson developed eight stages of psychosocial development (Gordon & Browne, 2014). Each stage was characterized by an emotional challenge and the stages built upon previous experiences (Gordon & Browne, 2014). His stages of development gave us the term identity crisis which describes
The psychodynamic theory encompasses both Freud and Erikson. Freud believed the three components of personality were the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is responsible for all needs and urges, while the superego for ideals and moral. The ego moderates between the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. However, Erikson believed that personality progressed through a series of stages, with certain conflicts arising at each stage. Success in any stage depended upon successfully overcoming these conflicts. The advantage to psychodynamic is that it encompasses the individual, meaning that the theory looks at personality from childhood all the way into adulthood. The disadvantages of this theory are that it cannot be tested validly. Therefore,
Erik Erikson’s eight Stages of man; politically known as the eight stages of psychosocial development. He promotes social interactions as a motivation to personality development. Erickson studied stages from the beginning of the life cycle to the later stages of life. Erickson was trained under the famous Sigmund Freud. His belief was that it wasn’t only sex that motivated personality development. Social interaction and a growing sense of competence is the key to it all. Because his beliefs differed from the beliefs of Freud, Erikson quickly began to work on his own. Erickson has focused on many different eras of psychological development.
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.