The Trust Versus Mistrust Theory of Erikson

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I was born to a teenage mother where physical abuse between my mother and father had been present. Though my mother had been caring and loving towards me, eventually my father had become absent because he desired to be with a family he created during my parent’s marriage. By the time I was five-years-old he had become completely absent from my life. Due to the witnessing of the abuse my father had done to my mother, I had become a child who could not count on others being kind or caring in my life which caused me to become weary of others around me. I had projected my insecurities on other people especially when my mother had started to date other men as I was afraid of any man my mother started dating, I mistrusted men, and pushed people away because I was afraid they would leave me.
My mother had become the only person that I would ever trust and be comfortable being attached to in life. This theory correlates to Erikson's “trust versus” mistrust theory where children are trusting and expect their relationships to be persistently gratifying or the child is mistrustful and is persistently mistrustful of those around them, in effect the child will withdrawal from people around them. As a result of my childhood lifestyle I had become a mistrustful child. I did not like strangers especially men to come near me and I had always remained fearful that they would hurt my mother or I. This in turn has continued to follow me throughout my development as I continue to struggle with it in my early adulthood. Despite the amount of mistrust I had developed, I was a child that was full of wonder and possessed the desire to be an individual. When I was younger at the young age of three, I would want to buy my own food with the little...

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...le to become more open to people and have learned to allow myself to make bonds with others and not be afraid of their exit from my life or of them potentially hurting me emotionally. With this, I can see myself being more trusting to others and creating better bonds with people which can lead to me eventually forming more intimate relationships with others without burdening others with my insecure attachment style.

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