Erik Erikson And His Theory Of Personality Development
Erik Erikson was born on July 15, 1902, was a German psychoanalyst of German origin, well known for his contributions psychology. Its origins are mysterious because his biological father was an unknown Dane. He abandoned his wife when Erik was born. His mother, Karla Abrahamsen, a young Danish woman of Jewish origin. Erik and his mother lived alone for the first 3 years of his live. She work to give him the best education and a life with good conditions. . Then she married Dr. Theodor Homberger, who was his son's pediatrician and together they moved to Germany. Erik was very interested in art and that's why when he graduated from high school he began to integrate into the art world to become a recognized artist. Erik was a very liberal teenager and he liked to walk the streets of Europe and visit its museums, sometimes even sleeping under bridges for fun.
He developed a theory of personality development, which he called psychosocial theory. It describes eight stages of the life cycle or psychosocial stages (crises or conflicts in the development of life, to which people have to face). Trust vs. Mistrust (from birth to approximately 18 months), is the physical sensation of confidence. This is the stage where babies begin to have confidence in their parents and this depends on their parents and the treatment they give the baby, for example, if the mother attends to the baby every time she cries to see what she needs, if it is food or a dirty diaper. If the parents take good care of the baby he will have confidence quickly in them, but if the parents do not attend quickly the baby he will not feel in confidence. ¨It is receptive to environmental stimuli and therefore sensitive and vulnerable to experiences of frustration that are the earliest experiences that provide acceptance, security and emotional satisfaction and are at the base of the development of individuality¨. Parents have a very important roll in this stage because their way of being, confidence in themselves and relationship with other people will be perceived and reflected in them and by them. Autonomy vs. Self-Doubt (from 18 months to 3 years approximately). This stage is linked to the muscular development and control of the eliminations of the body. In this stage the baby begins to know his body and to make it stronger.
In this stage the baby feels embarrassment and doubts, since it is not altogether strong and doubts that his muscles can hold him every time he tries to get up or move. For example some babies when they experience tommy time need few people around them because they are embarrassed and start crying. This stage is quite slow but progressive. “The child begins to experience his own autonomous will experiencing impulsive forces that are established in various ways in the behavior of the child and are oscillating between cooperation and stubbornness”. The attitude of the parents and the support of these for the baby is supremely important at this stage because this stage will influence the following and the parents will depend on the performance of the babies. Initiative vs. Guilt (from 3 to 5 years old approximately). The third stage of the Initiative is given in the age of the game. “The child develops activity and imagination and is more energetic and talkative, learns to move more freely and violently, his knowledge of language is perfected, understands better and asks questions constantly”. All this helps the child to expand his imagination, to have initiative, to be more active and perform with more energy continuously. There is a crisis that is resolved with an increase in his sense of being himself. It is more active and is provided with a certain surplus of energy, identifies what can be done with the action. “Characteristics of this stage: The intrusion in space through vigorous locomotion. The intrusion into the unknown by means of a great curiosity.
The intrusion into the perceptual field of others. Sexual fantasies (games in this age have special symbolic connotations about sexual aspects)”. Regarding the latter, the child has a rudimentary genitality and often has feelings of guilt and fears associated with it. Industry vs. Inferiority (from 5 to 13 years old approximately). This is the stage in which he begins to grow, start school and to know many things that he did not know existed. In this stage the children begin to grow along with other people they did not know but who will be part of their life because they will all experience growth at the same time. At this stage, the children are anxious about what they will do, they will begin to plan their things without the help of an adult, as well as begin to solve minimal problems such as their own fights, misunderstandings or discussions. At this stage, children can also feel bad or sad because they may feel discriminated against by adults. They also feel insatiable whenever they do not give permission to do things or perform activities for which they are not yet suitable. Identity vs. Role Conffusion (from 13 to 21 years old approximately). “They experience both identity search and identity crisis that will rekindle the conflicts of each of the previous stages”. This is one of the most difficult situations for parents since they face new challenges and being their older children makes it difficult to guide them. They are characteristics of the adolescent's identity ,the temporal perspective, orientation in time and space.
Intimacy vs. Isolation (from 21 to 40 years old approximately). Intimacy supposes the possibility of being close to others since the subject possesses a feeling of knowing who he is, he is not afraid to 'lose' himself; unlike many teenagers, the young adult no longer has to prove himself. But to this it is added that our society has not done much for young adults either; the maladaptive tendency, which Erikson calls 'promiscuity', refers particularly to becoming too open, very easily, with hardly any effort and without any depth or respect for intimacy. This tendency can occur with lovers as well as with friends, colleagues and neighbors. Generativity vs. Stagnation (from 40 to 60 years approximately). The fundamental task of this stage is to achieve an appropriate balance between productivity 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 ones”. Both having and raising children as well as performing tasks related to teaching, writing, inventiveness, science, arts and social activism complement the task of productivity; in short, anything that fills that 'old need to be needed'. Stagnation, on the other hand, is 'self-absorption': taking care of nobody; People try to be so productive that there comes a time when they can not afford any time for themselves, to relax and rest. In the end, these people also fail to contribute something to society.
Ego-Integrity vs. Despair (from approximately 60 years to death). This is the last stage. In delicate late adulthood, or maturity, the primary task is to achieve integrity with a minimum of hopelessness. First a social distancing occurs. From a sense of uselessness there is a sense of biological uselessness because the body no longer responds as before; Along with the diseases, concerns about death appear. Friends die, relatives too, and this contributes to the appearance of a feeling of hopelessness. In response to this hopelessness some older people begin to worry about the past. Ego integrity means reaching the terms of life and therefore reaching the end of your life terms. Erikson also proposes a theory of competence. Each of the life stages gives rise to the development of a series of competences. If in each of the new stages of life the person has achieved the competence corresponding to that vital moment, that person will experience a sense of mastery that Erikson conceptualizes as ego force. Having acquired competence helps solve the goals that will be presented during the next life stage. Another of the fundamental features of Erikson's theory is that each of the stages are determined by a conflict that allows individual development. When the person manages to resolve each of the conflicts, it grows psychologically. In the resolution of these conflicts the person finds a great potential for growth, but on the other hand we can also find a great potential for failure if we can not overcome the conflict of that life stage.
