Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson was a renowned ego psychologist who came up with one of the most influential and popular development theories. He maintained that people developed in a predetermined order and organized the development into eight stages of psychosocial development. In every stage, Erikson makes it clear that an individual experiences a psychosocial crisis, which may either result in positive or negative outcomes for that individual’s personality development. According to Erikson, completing each stage successfully leads to a healthy personality, and the acquisition of moral values (Gross, 1987). Failure to complete a stage successfully can result in an inability to complete more theory stages, hence leading to a more unhealthy personality. For this essay, Erikson’s theory of development will be used to provide answers to the critical thinking questions discussed below.
Identity Crisis
Identity crisis refers to an intense exploration of various aspects of self and the different roles an individual can partake (Cherry, 2020). Identity crisis might be experienced in different stages in life, but it is highly pronounced among adolescents. In the fifth stage of his theory, Erikson has cemented this, which occurs between the age of twelve years and eighteen years. Adolescents are actively searching for personal identity and a sense of self (Cherry, 2020). This is done by exploring personal beliefs, values, and goals. It is during this stage between childhood and adulthood that individuals shape their lives for the future. They lay down foundations that will guide them through the next phase of life, adulthood.
In search of independence, adolescents start to look at their future in terms of careers, housing, relationships, and many other aspects of life (Munley, 1977). It is at this moment that confusion comes in as they try to choose among the many roles and career choices in their lives. They are also confused about the type of friends they want to identify with or ‘gangs.’ This confusion results in an identity crisis as the individual fails to understand what they want in life. Success in this stage is seen when individuals start forming their own identities based on their exploration results.
Most adolescents experience an identity crisis, especially about their career choices (Gross, 1987). This scenario happened to me while in high school, where I was torn between the various career choices presented. My parents’ influence made it even worse by proposing what I should pursue after high school, which was totally out of my preferred choices. My father wanted me to become an economist, yet I had been struggling with basic mathematics in my entire academic life. I always wanted to venture into the humanities field, not the sciences, but their pressure was too much; I did not even know what I wanted to be. Finally, in my final year, I was able to persuade my dad to accept my career choice. He lastly gave in after providing him with a lot of explanations and reasons why I could not become an economist. Right now, I usually look back and congratulate myself for standing against my father and following my heart desires; at least, I pursued what I wanted in life.
Mother’s role in creating a sense of trust or mistrust in a child. Father’s role in the care of a child.
According to Erikson’s theory, trust and mistrust have been described as the first stage of psychosocial development. This stage immediately starts after child delivery up to eighteen months and is vital in laying the foundation for the future of the child (Cherry, 2020). The stage is characterized by the fact the child is uncertain of the world in which he or she is living. Their primary caregivers create certainty among the infants at this level by providing stable and consistent care. Erikson emphasized the role of mothers in making this level of development success because, in most cases, they are the primary caregivers to the children (Cherry, 2020). Despite the changing society where babies are being left to maids and baby care centers, mothers still remain the primary caregivers. Therefore they have a significant role in ensuring that the kids develop a sense of trust by giving them the best care a mother can offer. Good care will make the kids develop a sense of trust, which they will carry forward to their future relationships with other people. It will make them feel protected even when faced with threats in life.
The role of fathers in providing care to their kids has been affected by the societal gender roles where it is the role of women to take care of the kids while men work for their families (Munley, 1977). Therefore, men end up giving very little care to their children as most of their time is absorbed in work. In reality, they are supposed to spend as much time with their kids as possible, but this only happens on rare occasions, although things are changing in modern society. According to the contribution fathers have been making towards child care, it will only be fair to say that their role is not as important as that of mothers. It is different because fathers have very little time to spend with their children. Some of them come late from the job, and the child in this first stage of development is already asleep, making it even more challenging to provide any care.
According to Erikson, to love someone requires a strong identity. Because adolescents have an identity crisis, they cannot love anyone seriously.
Erikson made a logical conclusion about adolescents who, most of the time, have confused identities. He says that they cannot genuinely love because love requires people with a strong identity. I firmly agree with Erikson’s conclusion since loving someone is a very sensitive decision that leads to long-term commitments to someone who is not your family member. Loving decisions are best made in the sixth stage of psychological development; intimacy vs. isolation. This is because, in this stage, individuals have already overcome the identity crisis of adolescents, and they already know what they want in life.
The primary reason why adolescents cannot decide on genuine love is that they are in the exploration stage (Cherry, 2020). They are busy trying on different aspects of life and checking what the outcome of their actions is. Most of the things they do are like testing, whether it is feasible in their life or not. One of those various aspects of life faced by adolescents is the relationships. Many adolescents engage in relationships, but the relationships are always short-lived because it is part of the exploration. You can take the example of high school students, most of whom are adolescents. They are always having multiple ‘lovers’ who do not even last more than one school term. Teachers in mixed schools will give a testimony of the cases they usually deal with concerning love matters all because the adolescents are in the exploration stage. The fake promises of love they make are part of experimenting with life and sometimes lead to disastrous results.
Therefore, I will agree with Erikson’s conclusion that adolescents cannot truly love because they have confused identities, and most of the time, they usually do not know what they want in life. Hence, it would be better for them to wait for the next stage of their lives to make relationship commitments.
What is Erikson’s view on homosexuality since his position of healthy relationship involves members of the opposite sex.
Erikson believes that a healthy relationship should involve mutual orgasm, which can only be achieved between partners of the opposite sex, man and woman (Gross, 1987). He does not believe that this kind of intimacy and mutuality can be found in members of the same sex. There are those attractive forces that bring a male and a female together. It is like a piece of a big machine that is missing a specific part for it to function. This is the kind of mutuality that is fulfilled by members of the opposite sex.
According to Erikson, there are relationship goals which individuals have during the intimacy stage, such as raising a family together. In the case of a same-sex relationship, such a goal of raising a family will have to include an outside force like adopting a baby, which makes it less mutual. Despite Erikson’s negative view of homosexuality relationships not attaining mutuality, some studies have indicated that there exists homosexual mutuality, just like mutuality among opposite-sex couples. Homosexual partners can grow and support their personality integration of adulthood. However, Erikson’s views do not support homosexual relationships, rather, opposite-sex relationships.
Erikson believes that inability to decide on occupational identity is the most disturbing part of adolescence.
The belief that occupational identity is the most worrying part of the adolescent is the truth of the matter (Munley, 1977). I concur with Erikson on this issue because it affects every adolescent, having gone through it in my high school years. The worst enemy of an adolescent at this stage is any person who forces them to take on an occupation that they do not like. As stated earlier, my father wanted me to become an economist like himself since my elder sister became a nurse, just like my mother. There was a conflict of interest because my father wanted me to satisfy his desires, which would have messed the rest of my life.
Many of my friends have undergone the same problem where they are torn between which careers to take in the future. I have one of my best senior friends who was forced to study medicine and become a doctor like his father. After completing medical school, he went back to college to study music, which he had a great passion for since childhood. This is just one of the many cases where adolescents get their lives ruined because they were unable to decide on their occupational choices due to influence from peers and parents. Others are simply confused because they got so many choices, and splitting themselves is not an option. Therefore, I do agree with Erikson that the most disturbing part of an adolescent is usually centered on the inability to decide on an occupation identity.
Conclusion
Erikson’s psychosocial development theory is a reflection of the reality of what goes on in an individual’s life from birth to their old age. Every stage in his theory serves a vital part in an individual’s life and, therefore, should be trended with care. Consequently, it is the role of each person to ensure that they do not make the wrong decisions in any of the stages because it may come to affect them later. A wrong decision on identity in stage five can ruin the rest of your life. None of the stages is less important; hence everyone should be keen on the course of their lives.
References
Cherry, K. (2020). Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development. Retrieved from: https://www.verywellmind.com/erik-eriksons-stages-of-psychosocial-development-2795740
Gross Jr, F. L. (1987). Introducing Erik Erikson: An invitation to his thinking. University Press of America.
Munley, P. H. (1977). Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development and career development. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 10(3), 261-269.