Defensive Mechanism and Psychosocial Theory in human Life
Students name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Defensive Mechanisms and Psychosocial Theory in Human Life
Defensive Mechanisms by Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud contributed a lot in human psychology when he developed twelve defensive mechanisms in life. These defensive mechanisms protect individuals from painful emotions, ideas and drives that are unpleasant to their life( Coope, P. (1986). Denial is a good example of a defensive mechanism which occurs when a person refuses to accept the existence of some facts because they are trying to separate themselves from painful events despite everyone around them knows it. Example of this is when students do not agree they have not prepared for the exam despite the fact that they know very well they are going to fail the exam due to lack of preparedness. Another example of a defence mechanism is displacement, and it occurs when a husband gets angry at their spouse or child because they had a bad day at work. This is to satisfy themselves from frustration at a lesser being since they cannot face or beat their bosses.
Psychosocial Theory by Erickson
Much like Sigmund Freud, Erickson believed psychosocial theory, and he suggested eight stages of development where personality develops in series of stages from birth to death (Exploring Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development pg 15). He added that Individuals who successfully complete these stages would become competent in the area of life while those who failed will not make it in life. He also added that they are crisis in each stage where an individual must struggle and negotiate in order to grow properly. The first stage is trust vs mistrust where an individual develops the sense of trust to the world and in order a person to succeed in this stage he or she should trust things that are appropriate to avoid mistrusting ideas that may help them his life.
The second stage is autonomy vs shame and doubts where a person develops free-thinking and become independent but if an individual does not balance between those opposing forces, he would end up being shameful and will always have a doubt of himself(Christiansen, S. L., & PalvR. (1998). The is initiative vs the guilt which he said a person develops a sense of self-drive, but if he fails, he will end up regretting why he has not done in the appropriate way. Industry vs inferiority as the fourth stage where a person develops the ability to achieve what he wants in his life like in schools and sports, but if he fails, he will being inferior to others. Identity vs the confusion is where a person identifies himself where he belongs through social relationship or otherwise being confused in society; this stage would lead up to a stage of intimacy vs isolation leading him or her to a romantic relationship. Generative vs stagnation as the next stage is the capability of a human being to be productive and contribute to the development of the society instead of becoming a failure. The last stage is integrity vs the despair since an individual who succeeded in his life would feel being appreciated while the other feels being neglected.
The concept of Prejudice and Discrimination
Prejudice is a negative and baseless attitude towards certain members of the society because of differences they possess like age, sex or their race( The nature of Prejudice pg 231). An example is when individuals from certain religion see people who have different beliefs as bad people of society just because of their religion. Discrimination is the ability to distinguish stimulus, which is almost similar so as to respond to the correct one. Example of these is the example of Ivan Pavlov’s experiment where a dog was able to distinguish between the sound of the bell from other animal sounds.
References
Vaillant, G. E. (1992). The historical origins and future potential of Sigmund Freud’s concept of the mechanisms of defence. International review of psycho-analysis, 19, 35-50.
Christiansen, S. L., & Palkovitz, R. (1998). Exploring Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development: Generating and its relationship to paternal identity, intimacy, and involvement in childcare. The Journal of Men’s Studies, 7(1), 133-156.