ERIK ERIKSON

Erik Erikson and Psycho-Social Developmental Stages

Abstract

Erik Erikson was one of the great intellectuals of his time. Erik Erikson was a prominent psychodynamic theorist. Erikson has emphasized the role of social relationships in human development. He presented eight stages of psychosocial development which explained how people pass through various developmental stages. The psychosocial crises of various stages of development involve trust versus mistrust, autonomy versus doubt, initiative versus guilt, industry versus inferiority, ego identity versus role confusion, intimacy versus isolation, generativity versus self absorption, and integrity versus despair.

Table of Contents

Abstractii

Introduction1

Discussion1

Contributions of Erik Erikson to the Field of Psychoanalysis1

Erikson's Stages of Psycho-Social Development1

Stage One2

Stage Two3

Stage Three3

Stage Four4

Stage Five5

Stage Six5

Stage Seven5

Stage Eight6

Conclusion6

References7

Erik Erikson and Psycho-Social Developmental Stages

Introduction

Erik Erikson was born on 15th June, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. After finishing high school education, Erikson focused his attention on becoming an artist. He spent a year travelling throughout the Europe. Erik Erikson attended two art schools including the Badische Landeskunstschule located in Karlruhe and the Kunst-Academie in Munch (Coles, 1970).

Discussion

Contributions of Erik Erikson to the Field of Psychoanalysis

Erik Erikson is considered one of the great intellectuals of his time. He has made significant contributions to the field of psychoanalysis. According to Erikson, identity is something individuals develop from the time of birth. He further explained that identity reach its crisis point during adolescence. This identity crisis of adolescence is critical because it is the time when individuals develop their personal identities and also identify their place within the society (Evans, 1967).

Erikson's Stages of Psycho-Social Development

Erik Erikson was a prominent psychodynamic theorist. Erikson has emphasized the role of social relationships in human development. According to Erikson, psychosocial development of human beings involves a series of stages. These stages begin in early childhood and continue through adulthood. Erikson has explained that the personality of individuals depend on how they deal with psychosocial crises or challenged of various stages (Nevid, 2008).

According to Erikson, “For when established identities become outworn or unfinished ones threaten to remain incomplete, special crises compel men to wage holy wars, by the cruelest means, against those who seem to question or threaten their unsafe ideological bases.”

Stage One

The first stage of psychosocial development is the oral-sensory stage. This stage involves the first year and the first and a half year of life. The psychological crisis of this stage includes trust versus mistrust. If parents provide their infants with acquaintance, reliability, and permanence, they will develop a sense that the world is a safe place to live. It is because of parents' responses that children learn to trust their own body and their biological urges. If the attention provided by parents to their infants is inadequate, they will develop mistrust. If parents are overprotective, children will develop maladaptive tendency. Erikson called it sensory maladjustment. Examples of this maladaptation include overly trusting others, gullible behavior and believing that no one will cause any harm (Cavanaugh, 2008).

Children who are at the mistrust side are likely to develop malignant tendency of ...