Social and emotional theory
Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was a pioneer in the field of psychosocial development. Erikson, who studied under Anna Freud, used Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychosexual development as a basis to build upon. However, unlike Freud, Erikson believed that human development continued into and throughout adulthood effecting each stage of a human’s lifespan (Hoffnung et al. 2013; Institute of Education, 2014; B. Newman, P. Newman, 2007).
Erikson concluded that there were three interrelated forces that all had a profound impact on an individual’s development; biological and physical strengths and weaknesses, unique life circumstances and social, cultural and historical forces (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
Erikson’s psychosocial development theory">psychosocial theory comprises of eight distinct stages. In order for a person to successfully negotiate through the stages they must overcome a crisis that is specific to each individual stage (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
The Essay on Erikson’s Fifth Stage of Psychosocial Development
As a developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson crafted eight stages of human psychosocial development. The stage that has impacted my life the most is Identity versus Role Confusion, the fifth stage. This stage deals with adolescents twelve to eighteen years old. Erikson’s fifth stage prompts teens, like me, to ask ourselves who we want to be, what we want out of life, and what ...
However, it is important to note that it is not necessary for an individual to solve or master each crisis before they move onto the next stage, although not resolving a crisis will have an impact on future stages and effect how the individual progresses through each of the stages (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
It is also imperative that we realise that conflicts are never absolutely resolved (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
Identity vs role confusion is stage 5 in Erikson’s psychosocial theory. It is a critical stage in an individual’s development for many reasons but most importantly because an individual needs to resolve this crisis on order to create their own identity or sense of self (Hoffnung et al. 2013; B. Newman, P. Newman, 2007).
This stage sees the end of being seen as a child and beginning of being treated as an adult.
Casey witnessed the separation and eventual divorce of her parents whilst battling with the above mentioned crisis which must have made her doubt herself as a person and perhaps even partially lay blame on herself, being that she was at a very vulnerable age and stage. However, we know she must have come through this stage and successfully resolved the conflict between identity and role confusion because she has been able to achieve intimacy and in order to do that an individual must know who they are themselves (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
Casey has proven she has done that with her fiancé Sam.
An individual in their early 20’s is, according to Erikson, in the midst of the crisis between intimacy and isolation. This stage of his psychosocial theory is needed in order for a person to develop the skills needed to be truly intimate and establish close committed relationships with others. If for some reason an individual wasn’t able to be intimate with someone than that is when isolation may become apparent (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
In our case study Casey, being in her mid twenties, finds herself in Erikson’s intimacy vs isolation stage of psychosocial development. Casey and her fiancé Sam have been living together for a year and got engaged eight months ago after wanting to take their commitment to the next level, marriage. Although both of them had come from broken homes, marriage was important, especially to Casey. They had hoped that they would enter into marriage not making the same mistakes their parents had done. However, although they were both realistic about marriage in today’s society, they were both entering the commitment to each other in the hopes that they would be together for the rest of their lives. Seeing that Casey and Sam are ready to take their commitment to the next level surely proves that they are as close to solving the crisis of intimacy vs isolation as one can possibly get.
The Research paper on The human developmental stage
1 Case Study Mrs Green (20 marks for general description) Mrs. Green is a 55 year old female who had a total knee arthoplasty 3 days ago. The client is on 6 hourly observations. The last set of observation are: Temp 36.5 C, RR 22, HR 110, BP 170/86mmHg and SpO2 98% on room air. She has been complaining of ‘awful pain’ in her knee. She has refused to have a shower and do her routine ROM exercises ...
Levinson’s Seasons of Adult Lives
Daniel Levinson (1920-1994) used the biographical method to learn about the lives of people and to create his stages of development. Levinson’s stages, or seasons as he referred to them as, start in early adulthood and progress through middle adulthood and into late adulthood (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
Each season consists of three parts; the entry life structure, the transition and the culminating life structure (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
The novice phase runs from around 17-33 years of age. During this season an individual has 4 tasks or goals that would be considered their primary focus. They are as follows; to form a dream of adult accomplishment, form relationships involving mentors, develop an occupation and finally to establish an intimate relationship with someone (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
Female individual’s dreams are primarily split between achievement and relationships and the mentor relationship isn’t held in such high regard as it is with males (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
In our case study Casey finds herself in the aforementioned season according to Levinson. Casey has taken the ultimate step towards commitment with her fiancé Sam as they plan their future together. They hope to eventually have children together and it is important to both of them that marriage comes before the birth of a child. Casey works at a jewellery store and although the pay isn’t much, she is earning a living and using the money to help her successfully accomplish some of her dreams such as the desire to one day own her own home and start a family.
Cognitive theory
Postformal Thought & Sahaie’s Stages of Adult Thinking
The Essay on Goal Life Work Made
In this age, which believes that there is a short cut to everything, the greatest lesson to be learned is that the most difficult way is, in the long run, the easiest. Henry Miller {1891-1980 American Author} Goal setting has been a vital element in my life that has made me a strong and determined individual. It has made my educational career more life-like and desirable. My attendance at the ...
Postformal thought is often referred to as a fifth stage in adult thinking, succeeding Piaget’s formal operational thought in which adolescence around the age of 11 would enter (Institute of Education, 2014).
Advocates of postformal thought believe that in this so called fifth stage adults have the ability and maturity to look deeper at one’s self and reflect, accept that information isn’t always free from imperfections, accept contradiction and view a challenge from many vantage points to see the bigger picture (Institute of Education, 2014).
Sahaie’s stages of adult thinking start with the acquisitive stage which is inclusive of Piaget’s four stages of childhood and adolescence development. Following that a young adult would move into the achieving stage. Middle adulthood brings with it the responsible stage and the executive stage and finally in late adulthood an individual would enter the reintegrative stage (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
During the achieving stage individuals start to set specific goals for themselves and stop allowing others to influence their decision making to the same extent as they did when they were in the acquisitive stage. Individuals are faced with real life problems and they must formulate ways in which to solve these by considering all the options and consequences (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
Casey finds herself in the achieving stage. She is a young adult and, along with her fiancé Sam, is very goal driven. Casey and Sam have the immediate goal of saving up enough money for their wedding. To achieve this goal they knew that they also had to borrow money, as savings alone still wouldn’t cover all the costs involved. Along with saving for their wedding the couple had another specific medium term goal and that was the hope of one day owning their own home. This was something that would not happen immediately as they wanted to get back on their feet after the wedding, pay back the loan for the cost of the wedding and save up more of the initial deposit. Once they had bought their own property Casey and Sam wanted to start a family of their own. Casey has chosen specific goals that are important to her. At this stage in her life, it appears that her career isn’t as important a goal as perhaps owning her own home. None the less, she has decided her own goals and placed the level of importance she feels fit onto each specific goal.
The Essay on Expectancy & Goal Setting Theory
“The application of both goal setting and expectancy theory principles help to enhance employee performance”. To what extent do you agree with this statement? Process theories are theories of motivation that emphasizes on how we make choices with respect to goals. Content theories concern with ‘what’ motivates people while process theories concern with ‘how’ motivation occurs. Major process ...
Casey shows by the way she handled the complexities of her family relationships, in particular the relationship between her mother and father, that she is capable of considering both the context and consequences of her actions (Hoffnung et al. 2013).
She wasn’t letting people, specifically her family, sway her from her better judgement and influence her decision not to have her father walk her down the aisle. This showed a sense of maturity that someone in the achieving stage would surely possess.
Evaluation
Looking at Casey and her life through the eyes of a different theories and concepts has been a rewarding and yet challenging experience for me personally. To take a theory and apply it to Casey’s life initially seemed like quite a cold task and something devoid of emotions, but I was wrong.
The most appealing theory to me would have to be Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory. Understanding the Crisis that Casey was facing at her age and stage in her life, intimacy vs isolation, helped me to analyse her romantic relationship with Sam and her challenging relationships with her mother and father due to their divorce when she was in the middle of identity vs role confusion.
Postformal thought and in particular Sahaie’s stages of adult thinking gave me the opportunity to look closely at Casey and make sense of her dreams and goals. Casey dreamt of a secure future with her fiancé Sam and set very specific goals so that she would achieve a sense of security.
The easiest theory to apply to Casey in my opinion was Baltes’ lifespan concepts. Marriage and divorce fit nicely into the categories or normative and non-normative life events and both of these have played some part in Casey’s life.
References and further reading
Hoffnung M, Hoffnung R, Seifert K, Burton Smith R, Hine A, Ward L, Pause C, (2013).
Lifespan Development: a chronological approach. 2nd ed. Australia: John Wiley & Sons Australia Ltd.
Institute of Education, Massey University (2014).275.102 Human Development: Course material. Palmerston North, New Zealand: Author.
Newman, B. M, & Newman, P. R. (2007).
Theories of Human Development Mahwah, N.J: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
