Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson

  • Jul 26, 2021
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Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson

The Erik Erikson's personality theory it is a psychosocial theory that follows the genetic principle and comprises a series of stages of human development.

Erik Erikson's theory of the stages of human development contains the following stages:

  • Stage I: sensory-oral stage
  • Stage II: anal-muscular stage
  • Stage III: genital-locomotor stage
  • Stage IV: latency stage
  • Stage V: adolescence stage
  • Stage VI: stage of young adulthood
  • Stage VII: mid-adult stage
  • Stage VIII: late adulthood

Each stage of development must be completed to move on to the next. Each stage of Erikson's theory has a function, if the task to be carried out is achieved, a virtue is learned, on the contrary, maladaptations or malignancies develop, according to Erikson.

Next, in this Psychology-Online article, we will introduce a great scholar of Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson. We explain in depth the theory of the stages of human development, the options in each of the stages, the concepts and the biography and work of Erik Erikson.

You may also like: Personality Theories in Psychology: Anna Freud

Index

  1. Start of Erik Erikson's Theory
  2. Erik Erikson Biography
  3. Erik Erikson's personality theory
  4. Erik Erikson's psychosocial and personality theory
  5. The stages of human development from Erik Erikson's theory: Stages I, II, III and IV
  6. The stages of human development from Erik Erikson's theory: Stages V and VI
  7. Stages VII and VIII
  8. Discussion of the developmental stages theory of Erik Erikson
  9. Works by Erik Erikson and his psychosocial theory

Start of Erik Erikson's Theory.

The Erik Erikson's personality theory It is born from the confluence of all its influences and its observation and study. One of his observations was to the American tribe of the Oglala Dakota (or Sioux).

In this tribe, there was a tradition that was applied to adolescents to determine their fate in life. They were encouraged to enter the forest without weapons and without clothing other than a loincloth and a pair of loafers in search of a dream. Hungry, thirsty and tired, the boy would wait to have a dream on the fourth day of his journey that would reveal his vital destiny. Upon returning home, he would relate to the tribe elders the content of his dream, which would be interpreted according to a legendary practice. His dream would tell the boy if he was destined to be a good hunter, a great warrior, an expert in hunting horses. savages, or perhaps become a weapons-making specialist, a spiritual leader, a priest, or a medicine man.

In any case, the number of roles that were played in life was limited, most of the people played generalist roles. These roles were learned by being surrounded by other people in the family and in the community.

In the time when the Oglala Dakota were visited by Erik Erikson, things had changed a bit. They had been reduced to closed reserves as a result of countless wars and threats. The buffalo, the main source of food, clothing, shelter and almost everything necessary to live, had been hunted to near extinction. To make matters worse, their customs had been taken away, not by white soldiers, but by the efforts of government bureaucrats aimed at turning the Dakota into Americans.

The children were forced to attend state schools most of the year, under the belief that civilization and prosperity arises from education. Here, they learned many things that went against what they had learned at home. They were taught to compete, which went against the Dakota traditions of equality. They were told to speak loudly and loudly, precisely when their relatives told them to be calm and still. In short, his parents were in a situation of pain in the face of what they considered a corruption typical of a foreign culture.

Over time, their original culture disappeared and the new culture did not provide the necessary substitutes: there was no more search for dreams.

Erik Erikson was touched by the difficulties of the Dakota children. But growing up and finding your own place in the world is not an easy task for many other Americans either.

To what extent are you an adult?; When do we enter puberty?; Have you already been baptized or have you gone through your "bar mizvah"?; Your first sexual experience?; 15th birthday party?; Your driver's license? His college graduation?; Voting in their first elections?; Your first job?; Legal drinking age?; college graduation?; When exactly do others treat us like adults?

There are certain contradictions: you may be old enough to drive a fast two-ton SUV, but you are not allowed to vote; you may be old enough to die in the war for your country, but not old enough to have a beer; As a college student, you can be trusted with hundreds of dollars for educational credit, but you are not allowed to choose your subjects.

In more traditional societies (as in ours 50 or 100 years ago), the young They looked at their parents, their relationships, neighbors, and teachers. They were decent, hard-working people (mostly) and they wanted to be like them.

Most of today's children seek identification in the "average", especially on television. It is easy to understand why. The people on TV are more beautiful, smarter, smarter, healthier, and happier than anyone in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, these are not real. There are a lot of students who are frustrated when they discover the great effort involved in their chosen career. This does not happen on TV. Later, they discover that the jobs they do are not as creative and fulfilling as they hoped. It's not like on TV either. It should come as no surprise then that many kids go the shortest way that crime seems to offer or the fantastic life that drugs promise.

Some people may consider these statements as a exaggeration or stereotype of adolescence modern. Your passage from childhood to adulthood may have been a smooth one, but many people, including, could have followed a dream.

Biography of Erik Erikson.

Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 15, 1902. Its heritage is surrounded by a certain mystery. His biological father was an unknown Dane who abandoned his mother just as Erik was born. Her mother, Karla Abrahamsen, was a young Jewish woman who raised him alone for the first three years of Erik's life. At this time, she married Dr. Theodor Homberger, his pediatrician, and they moved to Karlsruhe in southern Germany.

After finishing high school, Erik decided to be an artist. When he wasn't attending art classes, he roamed Europe, visiting museums and sleeping under bridges. He lived the life of a careless rebel for a long time, before seriously considering what to do with his life.

When he turned 25, a friend of his, Peter Blos (an artist and later a psychoanalyst), suggested that he apply for a teacher's place in an experimental school for American students Directed by Dorothy Burlingham, a friend of Anna Freud. In addition to teaching art, he achieved a certificate in Montesori education and another from the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society. He was psychoanalyzed by Anna Freud herself. While there, he met a theatrical dance teacher, with whom they had three children.

The moment the Nazis take power, they leave Vienna and head first to Copenhagen and then to Boston. Erikson accepted a job at Harvard Medical School and practiced child psychoanalysis in his private practice. During this time, he managed to rub shoulders with such psychologists as Henry Murray and Kurt Lewin, as well as anthropologists Ruth Benedict, Margaret Mead, and Gregory Bateson. They had a lot of influence on Erik Erikson.

He later taught at Yale and then at the University of California at Berkeley. There Erik Erikson performed his studies of the Dakota Indians and the Yurok. When he obtained his American citizenship, he officially adopted the name Erik Erikson; the reason is unknown.

In 1950 he writes Childhood and Society, a book containing articles on his studies of the American tribes, analysis of Maxim Gorky and Adolf Hitler, as well as a discussion of the American personality and the argumentative bases of his version of the theory Freudian. These themes (the influence of culture on personality and the analysis of historical figures) were repeated in other works, one of which, The Truth of Ghandi, won the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Prize.

During Senator Joseph McCarthy's reign of terror in 1950, Erik Erikson leaves Berkeley when professors are asked to sign a "pledge of allegiance." From this point on, Erikson spends 10 years working and teaching in a Massachusetts clinic and then another 10 years back at Harvard. Beginning with his retirement in 1970, he did not stop writing and researching for the rest of his life. He dies in 1994.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson - Biography of Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson's personality theory.

Erik Erikson is a Freudian ego psychologist. This means that he accepts Freud's ideas as basically correct, including debatable ones like the complex of Oedipus, as well as the ideas regarding the Self of other Freudians such as Heinz Hartmann and of course, Anna Freud.

Nevertheless, Erikson's personality theory is much more oriented towards society and culture than any other Freudian, just as you would expect from a person with his anthropological interests. Practically, he displaces instincts and the unconscious in his theories. Perhaps for this reason, Erik Erikson is as popular with Freudians as he is with non-Freudians.

Erik Erikson's personality theory: The Epigenetic Principle

Erik Erikson is well known for his work on the redefinition and expansion of Freud's stage theory. Stated that development works from a epigenetic principle. His theory postulates the existence of eight stages of human development, phases that extend throughout the entire life cycle. Progress through each stage is determined in part by our successes or failures in the preceding stages. Each stage of human development begins at a specific moment, with a certain order that has been determined by nature through genetics. If we interfere with this natural order of development by starting a stage too early or at a different time, we destroy development altogether.

Each stage of human development comprises certain tasks or functions that are psychosocial by nature. Although Erikson calls them a crisis for following the Freudian tradition, the term is broader and less specific.

The various tasks described by the author are established based on two terms: one is the infant's task, called "trust-mistrust". At first it is obvious to think that the child must learn to trust and not mistrust. But Erikson makes it very clear that we must learn that there is a balance. Certainly we need to learn more about trust, but we also need to learn some mistrust so that we don't become stupid adults.

Each stage of human development has an optimal time as well. It is useless to push a child into adulthood too quickly, a common thing among people obsessed with success. You cannot slow down or try to protect children from the demands of life. Exists a time for each function.

If you go through a stadium well, you learn certain virtues or psychosocial forces that will help in the rest of the stages of life. On the contrary, if it does not go well, they can develop maladjustments or malignanciesas well as jeopardizing the missing development. Maladaptation includes more positive than negative aspects of the task, such as people who are overconfident. Malignancy is worse, as it understands much of the negative aspects of the task or function and very little of the positive aspects of it, as mistrustful people present.

Erik Erikson's psychosocial and personality theory.

In the Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory of personality, the most important innovation was to postulate 8 stages of human development, and not 5 stages as Freud had done. Erikson elaborated three additional stages of adulthood, starting from the genital stage through adolescence described by Freud. Development does not stop after 12 or 13 years, it seems logical to stipulate that there must be an extension of the stages that covers the rest of our development.

Erik Erikson also spoke out about the interactions of generations, which he called mutuality. Freud had clearly established that parents drastically influenced the development of children, But Erikson expanded the concept to include the idea that children also influenced the development of children. fathers. For example, the arrival of a new child represents a considerable life change for a couple and removes their evolutionary trajectories. It would even be appropriate to add a third (and in some cases, a fourth) generation to the chart. Many people have been influenced by their grandparents and these by their grandchildren.

An example of mutuality can be in a teenage mother. Even though both mother and son can lead satisfactory lives, the girl is still involved in tasks of searching for herself and how to fit in with society. The past or present relationship with the father of her child may be immature and, if they are not together, she may have to deal with the process of finding a new partner. On the other hand, the infant presents a series of basic needs of every child, including the most important: a mother with mature skills and social support. If the parents of the girl in question come together to help, they will also break with her evolutionary functions, reverting to a life style that they thought had passed and that is highly demanding. Others can be added to these generations, and so on.

The ways we interact are extremely complex, but very important regarding our psychosocial development and our personalities.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson - Erik Erikson's psychosocial and personality theory

The stages of human development from Erik Erikson's theory: Stages I, II, III and IV.

Stage I Erik Erikson's Human Development

The first stage, that of childhood or sensory-oral stage comprises the first year or first and a half of life. The task is to develop trust without completely eliminating the ability to mistrust.

If mom and dad provide the newborn with a degree of familiarity, consistency, and continuity, the child develop a feeling that the world, especially the social world, is a safe place to to be; that people are trustworthy and loving. Also, through parental responses, the child learns to trust on your own body and the biological needs that go with it.

Although, those parents who are overprotective; that are there as soon as the child cries, will lead him to develop a maladaptive tendency that Erikson calls sensory maladjustment, being overconfident, even gullible. This person does not believe that someone could harm them and will use all available defenses to retain this exaggerated perspective.

If the parents are distrustful and inadequate in their behavior; if they reject the infant or harm him; If other interests cause both parents to withdraw from the needs to satisfy their own, the child will develop the malignant tendency to fading, that is, he will develop distrust. He will be apprehensive and suspicious of others, he will become depressed, paranoid and may even develop a psychosis.

If a balance is achieved, the child will develop the virtue of hope, a strong belief that there will always be a solution at the end of the road, despite things going wrong. One of the signs that tell us if the child is doing well in this first stage is whether he may be able to delay the response of satisfaction to a need: "Mom and Dad don't have to be perfect, I trust them enough, if they can't be here immediately they will be here very soon, things can be very difficult, but they will do their best to fix them. " This is the same skill that we will use in situations of disappointment such as in love, in the profession and in other circumstances of life.

Stage II Erik Erikson's Human Development

The second stage is the Stadiumanal-muscular from early childhood, from around 18 months to 3-4 years of age. The primary task is to achieve a certain degree of autonomy, while still retaining a touch of shame and doubt.

If mom and dad (and other caregivers who come on the scene around this time) allow the child to explore and manipulate his environment, he will develop a sense of autonomy or independence. A balance is required: neither discourage you nor push you too hard. A firm but tolerant educational style is recommended, in this way, the child will develop important self-control and self-esteem.

On the other hand, if parents immediately come to replace actions aimed at exploring and being independent, the child will soon give up, assuming that he cannot do things himself, developing a sense of shame and doubt. If the child is teased at his efforts, he may feel very embarrassed and doubt his abilities. There are also other ways to make the child feel ashamed and doubtful. If we give the child unrestricted freedom with an absence of limits, or if we help him do what he could do alone, we are also telling him that he is not good enough. For example, if we are not patient enough to wait for the child to tie the shoelaces of his shoes, he will never learn to tie them, assuming this is too difficult to learn.

However, a bit of shame and doubt is inevitable and it is a good thing. Without it, what Erik Erikson calls impulsiveness, an absence of premeditation and shame that later, will manifest itself with the attitude of jumping headlong into situations without considering the limits and the consequences that this can cause.

Too much shame and doubt will lead the child to develop the malignancy that Erikson calls compulsiveness. The compulsive person feels that his whole being is involved in the tasks that he carries out and therefore everything must be done correctly. Following the rules precisely prevents one from making a mistake, and a mistake should be avoided at all costs. Many people recognize what it is like to feel ashamed and continually doubt oneself. A little more patience and tolerance for children may help them avoid it.

If we achieve a proper and positive balance between autonomy and shame and guilt, we will develop the virtue of a powerful will or determination. One of the most admirable things about a two- or three-year-old is her determination. His nickname is "I can do it." If we preserve that "I can do it" (with an appropriate modesty, to balance) we will be much better as adults.

Stage III Erik Erikson's Human Development

This is the Stadiumgenital-locomotor or the age of the game ranging from 3-4 to 5-6 years, where lhe fundamental task is to learn initiative without exaggerated guilt.

The initiative suggests a positive response to the challenges of the world, assuming responsibilities, learning new skills and feeling useful. Parents can encourage their children to carry out their ideas on their own, encouraging fantasy, curiosity and imagination. Now the child can imagine, as never before, a future situation, one that is not the current reality. Initiative is the attempt to make the unreal real.

But if the child can imagine a future, if he can play, he too will be responsible... and guilty. For example, if a two-year-old flushes a clock down the toilet, it can be assumed that there was no malicious intent in the act. It was just a thing going around and around until it disappeared. What fun!. But if a five-year-old does it, we should know what will happen to the watch, what will happen to Daddy's temper, and what will happen to her. You may feel guilty about the act, and you may start to feel guilty as well. The ability to make moral judgments.

Erik Erikson is a Freudian and therefore includes the Oedipal experience at this stage. From his point of view, the oedipal crisis includes the child's resignation to abandon his closeness to the opposite sex. A parent has the responsibility, socially speaking, to encourage the child to "grow up"; "You are no longer a child!" But if this process is established in a very harsh and extreme way, the child learns to feel guilty about her feelings.

Too much initiative and too little guilt is a maladaptive tendency that Erikson calls cruelty. The cruel person takes the initiative. He has his plans, whether in matters of romance, politics or profession but, he does not take into account who he has to step on to achieve his goal. Everything is achievement and feelings of guilt are for the weak. Cruelty is bad for others, but relatively easy for the cruel person. The extreme form of cruelty is sociopathy.

The malignancy of exaggerated guilt is what Erik Erikson calls inhibition. The inhibited person will not try anything, since "if there is no adventure, nothing is lost" and nothing to feel guilty about. From a sexual, oedipal point of view, the guilty person may be powerless or frigid.

A good balance will lead the subject to the psychosocial virtue of purpose: the capacity for action despite clearly knowing our limitations and previous failures.

Stage IV Erik Erikson's Human Development

This stage corresponds to that of latency, or that between 6 and 12 years of age of the school child. The main task is to develop a capacity for industriousness while avoiding an excessive feeling of inferiority. Children must "tame their imaginations" and dedicate themselves to education and learning the skills necessary to meet the demands of society.

A much more social sphere comes into play here: parents as well as other family members and peers join with teachers and other community members. They all contribute: parents must encourage, teachers must care; colleagues must accept. Children must learn that there is not only pleasure in devising a plan, but also in carrying it out. They must learn what the feeling of success is, whether in the yard or in the classroom; either academically or socially.

A good way to perceive the differences between a child in the third stage and another in the fourth is to sit down and watch them play. Four-year-olds may want to play, but they only have vague knowledge of the rules and even change them several times throughout the chosen game. They can't stand the game over. A seven-year-old, however, is devoted to the rules, they consider them something much more sacred and may even get angry if the game is not allowed to reach a stipulated conclusion.

If the child does not achieve much success, due to very rigid teachers or very denying peers, for example, then he will develop a feeling of inferiority or incompetence. An additional source of inferiority, in the words of Erik Erikson, is racism, sexism and any other form of discrimination. If a child believes that success is achieved by virtue of who he is rather than how hard he can work, then why try?

An overly industrious attitude can lead to the maladaptive tendency of directed virtuosity. We see this behavior in children who are not allowed to "be children"; those whose parents or teachers push into an area of ​​competence, without allowing the development of broader interests. For example, child actors, child athletes, child musicians, child prodigies in short. We all admire their industriousness, but if we get closer, we see that there is no adaptive development.

However, the most common malignancy is the so-called inertia, who owns it suffers an "inferiority complex". Alfred Adler talked about it. If after the first attempt no success is achieved, do not try again. For example, many people have not done well in math so they don't go back to another math class. Others were humiliated in the gym, so they will never do any sports. Others never developed social skills, so they will never go out into public life. They become inert beings.

The ideal would be to develop a balance between industriousness and inferiority; that is, to be mainly industrious with a certain touch of inferiority that keeps us sensibly humble. Then we will have the virtue called competence.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson - The stages of human development from Erik Erikson's theory: Stages I, II, III and IV

The stages of human development from Erik Erikson's theory: Stages V and VI.

Stage V Erik Erikson's Human Development

This stage is that of the adolescence, starting at puberty and ending around 18-20 years. Currently, mainly due to a series of psychosocial factors, adolescence extends beyond the age of 20, even to the age of 25.

The primary task at this stage of development is to achieve the identity of the Self and avoid role confusion. This was the stage of human development that interested Erikson the most and the patterns observed in the boys of this age constituted the bases from which the author would develop the theory of all the others stages.

Self identity means knowing who we are and how we fit in with the rest of society. It demands that we take everything we have learned about life and ourselves and mold it into a unified self-image, one that our community deems meaningful.

There are things that make these questions easier. First, we must have an adult cultural stream that is valid for the adolescent, with good adult role models and open lines of communication.

Furthermore, society must also provide some rites of passage defined; that is, certain tasks and rituals that help distinguish the adult from the child. In traditional and primitive cultures, the adolescent is urged to leave the village for a period of determined time in order to survive on its own, hunt some symbolic animal or seek a vision inspiring. Both boys and girls must go through a series of endurance tests, symbolic ceremonies or educational events. In one way or another, the difference between that period of childhood powerlessness and irresponsibility and that other period of adult responsibility is clearly established.

Without these limits, we embark on a role confusion, which means that we will not know our place in society and in the world. Erik Erikson says that when a teenager goes through role confusion, he is experiencing an identity crisis. In fact, a very common question from teenagers is "Who am I?"

One of the suggestions that Erikson raises for adolescence in our society is the one psychosocial moratorium. Encourage young people to take "time off." If you have money, go to Europe. If you don't have it, prowl America's environments. Leave work for a while and go to college. Take a break, smell the roses, find yourself. As a rule, we tend to achieve "success" too quickly, even though very few of us have ever stopped to think about what success means to us. In the same way as the young Oglala Dakota, perhaps we also need to dream a little.

There is a problem when we have too much "ego identity." When a person is so committed to a particular role in society or a subculture, there is not enough room for tolerance. Erikson calls this tendency maladaptive fanaticism. A fanatic believes that his form is the only one that exists. Of course, teenagers are known for their idealism and for their tendency to see things in black or white. They wrap others around them, promoting their lifestyles and beliefs without caring about the right of others to disagree.

The lack of identity is far more troublesome, and Erikson refers to this evil tendency as repudiation. These people repudiate their membership in the adult world and even repudiate their need for an identity. Some teens allow themselves to "merge" with a group, especially one that may give certain identity traits: religious sects, militaristic organizations, groups threatening; in short, groups that have separated themselves from the painful currents of society. They may engage in destructive activities such as using drugs, alcohol, or even seriously delving into their own psychotic fantasies. After all, being "bad" or being "nobody" is better than not knowing who I am.

If we can successfully negotiate this stage, we will have the virtue that Erik Erikson calls fidelity. Fidelity implies loyalty, or the ability to live up to the standards of society despite its imperfections, shortcomings, and inconsistencies. We are not talking about blind loyalty, as well as accepting your imperfections. In other words, if we love our community, we want it to be the best it can be. The fidelity of which we speak is established when we have found a place for ourselves within it, a place that will allow us to contribute to its stability and development.

Erik Erikson's Stage V of Human Development

If we have been able to reach this phase, then we are in the stage of young adulthood of the stages of human development of Erik Erikson, which ranges from 18 to 30 years approximately. The time limits with respect to ages in adults are much more tenuous than in childhood stages, these ranges being very different between people. The main task is to achieve a certain degree of intimacy, an attitude opposed to being in isolation.

Intimacy supposes the possibility of being close to others, such as lovers, friends; being a participant in society. You already have a feeling of knowing who you are, you are not afraid of "losing" yourself, as many teenagers present. The "fear of commitment" that some people seem to exhibit is a good example of immaturity at this stage. However, this fear is not always so obvious. Many people slow down or delay the progressive process of their interpersonal relationships. "I will get married (or have a family, or embark on some social issue) as soon as I finish college; as soon as I have a job; when you have a house; so soon... If you've been engaged for the last 10 years, what makes you back down?

The young adult no longer has to prove himself. An adolescent couple relationship does seek an establishment of identity through the relationship. "Who I am?. I am her boyfriend". The young adult relationship should be a matter of two independent egos who want to create something larger than themselves. We intuitively recognize this when we observe the couple relationship of two subjects where one of them is an adolescent and the other a young adult. We realize the potential for dominance that the latter has over the former.

Added to this difficulty is that our society has not done much for young adults either. The emphasis on vocational training, isolation from urban life, the fracture of relationships for reasons of relocation and the generally impersonal nature of modern life make developing relationships more difficult intimate. Some people have had to move, childhood friends or college friends have no relationship, they don't have a strong sense of community. Others have grown up and settled in a particular community and have much deeper and more lasting relationships; They probably married their lifelong love and are fond of their community. But this lifestyle is fast becoming an anachronism.

The maladaptive tendency what erikson calls promiscuity, refers to becoming too open, very easily, with little effort and without any depth or respect for privacy. This trend can occur both with a lover, as with friends, colleagues and neighbors.

The exclusion it is the malignant tendency of maximum isolation. The person isolates himself from his loved ones or partners, friends and neighbors, developing as compensation a constant feeling of certain anger or irritability that serves as company.

If we successfully go through this stage, we will carry with us that virtue or psychosocial strength that Erik Erikson calls love. Within this theoretical context, love refers to that ability to ward off differences and antagonisms through a "mutuality of devotion." It includes not only the love we share in a good marriage, but also the love between friends and neighbors, co-workers, and fellow countrymen.

Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson - The stages of human development from Erik Erikson's theory: Stages V and VI

Stages VII and VIII.

Erik Erikson's Stage VII of Human Development

This stage corresponds to the middle adulthood. It is very difficult to establish the age range, but it would include that period dedicated to raising children. Approximately between 20-something and 50-something years. The fundamental task here is to strike an appropriate balance between productivity or generalizability and stagnation.

Productivity is an extension of love for the future. It has to do with a concern about the next generation and all future generations. It differs from the intimacy of the previous stages in that intimacy or love between lovers or friends is a love between equals and is necessarily reciprocal. If we don't get love back, we don't consider it true love. On the other hand, with productivity, we are not expecting, at least it seems that not implicitly, a reciprocity in the act.

Although most people practice productivity by having and raising children, there are other ways as well. Erik Erikson considers that teaching, writing, inventiveness, science and the arts, social activism complement the task of productivity.

Stagnation, on the other hand, it is "self-absorption"; take care of no one. The stagnant person ceases to be a productive member of society. It is quite difficult to imagine that one has some kind of stagnation in our lives, as illustrated by the maladaptive tendency that Erik Erikson calls overstretch. Some people try to be so productive that there comes a time when they cannot allow any time for themselves, to relax and unwind. In the end, these people also fail to contribute anything to society. I am sure that all of you will know someone immersed in countless activities or causes; They either try to take as many classes as possible or hold so many jobs that in the end, they don't even have time to do any of these activities.

More obvious still is the malignant tendency to rejection, which means very little productivity and quite a bit of stagnation, which produces a minimal participation or contribution to society. And of course that what we call "the meaning of life" is a question of how and what we contribute or participate in society.

This is the "midlife crisis" stage. Sometimes men and women ask themselves the question of "What am I doing here?" There are people who, due to the panic of aging and not having achieved the ideal goals they had when they were young, try to go back to their youth. For example, people who in this period leave their partner, abandon their work and adopt behaviors typical of previous ages.

If we go through this stage successfully, we will develop a significant capacity to look after that will serve us throughout the rest of our lives.

Erik Erikson's Stage VIII of Human Development

The last stage of human development according to Erik Erikson is the late adulthood, maturity or old age. It starts around retirement, after the kids are gone; Let's say around the age of 60. Some people at this age say that this stage begins only when one feels old, but this denial is a direct effect of a culture that enhances youth, which alienates even the elderly from recognizing their age. Erikson states that it is good to reach this stage and if we do not achieve it, there were some previous problems that delayed our development.

The primary task here is to achieve ego integrity with a minimum of hopelessness.. This stage seems to be the most difficult of all. First, a social distancing occurs, from a feeling of worthlessness; all this obviously within the framework of our society. Some retire from jobs they have had for many years; Others perceive that their task as parents is over and most believe that their contributions are no longer so necessary.

There is also a sense of biological futility, because the body no longer responds as before. Women go through menopause, some dramatically. Men believe that they are no longer enough. Diseases of old age such as arthritis, diabetes, heart problems, problems related to the chest and ovaries, and prostate cancers arise. Fears begin of issues that one had never feared, such as a flu process or simply falling.

Along with illness, there are worries about death. Friends die; family members too. The couple dies. It is inevitable that it will also be your turn. When faced with this whole situation, it seems that we should all feel hopeless.

In response to this hopelessness, some older people begin to worry about the past. Some worry about their failures; those bad decisions that were made and they complain that they have neither the time nor the energy to reverse them. We then see that some elderly people become depressed, resentful, paranoid, hypochondriacal or develop behavioral patterns of senility with or without a biological explanation.

Ego integrity according to Erik Erikson means reaching the terms of your life, and therefore, reaching the terms of the end of your life. If we are able to look back and accept the course of past events, the decisions made; your life as you lived it, then you need not fear death. Although most of you are not at this point in life, perhaps we could relate a bit if we begin to question our life thus far. We have all made mistakes, although we would not be what we are if we had not made them.

The maladaptive tendency of stage 8 is called presumption. This occurs when the person "boasts" ego integrity without actually facing the difficulties of old age.

The evil tendency is the call disdain. Erik Erikson defines it as a contempt for life, both his own and that of others.

The person who faces death without fear has the virtue that Erik Erikson calls wisdom. He considers this to be a gift for children, since "healthy children will not fear life if their elders have sufficient integrity not to fear death." The author suggests that a person should feel truly graceful to be wise, understanding "graceful" in its broadest sense.

Discussion of the theory of the stages of development of Erik Erikson.

Few people have developed more an approach to the stages of development than Erik Erikson. And that the concept of stages is not very popular among personality theorists. Of the people listed in this text, only Sigmund and Anna Freud fully share his convictions. Most theorists prefer a more gradual or gradual approach to development, using terms such as "phases" or "transitions" rather than defined and limited stages.

But of course, there are certain segments of life that are easy to identify, temporarily determined by biological aspects. Adolescence is "preprogrammed" to occur when it occurs, just as happens with birth and quite possibly, with natural death. The first year of life has very special qualities and the last year of life includes certain catastrophic qualities.

If we reduce the meaning of the stages in order to include certain logical sequences; read that things happen in a certain order, not because they are determined exclusively by biological markers, but because they would not make sense of another form, then we could even say that toilet training, for example, has to precede the mother's independence and attend lessons; that we must develop a mature sexuality before finding a partner; that normally we will find a couple before having children and that we must necessarily have children before enjoying their farewell.

If we further narrow the meaning of the stages by adding a social "programming" to the biological one, we could include periods of dependency and schooling, and likewise, work and retirement also. In this reduced form, there would be no problems to establish 7 or 8 stadiums. Obviously, it is only so far that we have felt pressured to call them stages, rather than phases or some other imprecise term.

Indeed, it is difficult to defend Erikson's stadiums if we accept them within his understanding of what stadiums are. Between different cultures and different people, timing can be very different. In some countries, babies are weaned at six months, in others, they are still breastfed until they are five years old. There was a time in our culture when women married at thirteen and had their first child at fifteen. Today, marriage is generally postponed until the age of thirty and a single child is conceived before the age of forty. Many years of retirement are sought. In another time and place, retirement is simply unknown.

However, Erik Erikson's stadiums provide us with a framework. We can talk about our culture by comparing it with others; or today compared to a few centuries ago or to see how we differ relatively from the standards that his theory provides. Erik Erikson and other researchers have shown that the general pattern adapts to different times and cultures, and is familiar to most of us. In other words, his theory is established as one of the most important paradigms within personality theories for its usefulness.

He also provides us with knowledge that we would not have realized otherwise. For example, we could think of his eight stages as a series of tasks that do not follow a particular logical pattern. But if we divide the range of life into two sequences of four stages, we can see a real pattern, with half referring to the development of the child and the other half to the development of the adult.

In stage I of Erik Erikson's developmental stages theory, the child must learn that "it" (the world, especially represented by mom and dad, and himself) is okay; no problem". In stage II, the infant learns "I can do it" in the "here and now." In stage III, the preschooler learns "I can plan" and project himself into the future. In IV, the student learns "I can finish" these projections. Through these four stages, the child develops a competent ego prepared for the wide world that awaits him.

Taking the other half relative to the adult period, we expand beyond the self (understanding the "I" as self or himself). Stage V of Erik Erikson's developmental stage theory has to do with establishing something very like "okay; No problem". The adolescent must learn that "I am fine"; conclusion of the established negotiation of the four preceding stages. In VI, the young adult must learn to love, which would be a social variation of "I can do it" in the here and now. In stage VII, the adult must extend that love into the future, that is, "take care of." And finally, in stage VIII, the older person must learn to "limit" her self, and establish a new and broad identity. In Jung's words, the second half of life is dedicated to self-realization.

Works by Erik Erikson and his psychosocial theory.

Erik Erikson is an excellent writer and will capture his imagination even when he is not comfortable with the Freudian side of him. The books based on his psychosocial theory of personality formation are Childhood and Society Y Identity: Youth and Crisis, collections of essays on subjects as varied as Native American tribes, famous people like William James and Adolf Hitler, nationality, gender, and race.

The two most famous books of his are studies in "psychohistory", the Young man luther about Martin Luther and Gandhi's Truth. His works have inspired many others and we now have a magazine called The Journal of Psychohistory, which contains fascinating articles not only from famous people, but from ancient and present practices in the development of children through rites of populations throughout the world and in all ages of story.

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.

If you want to read more articles similar to Personality Theories in Psychology: Erik Erikson, we recommend that you enter our category of Personality.

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