Erick Erikson Stage 8 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Erick Erikson Stage 8 - Essay Example In the art of making up a balance between these two forces, there arises a psychosocial vacuum. It is from this point of view that Erikson developed his theory. He believed that the ego exists all through a lifetime (Bee, 2009). He also challenged a fellow psychologist, Sigmund Freud, by noting that behavior was not all defensive. In his belief on the enormous influence of culture on behavior, he explained the interaction between the body (physiology), mind (psychology), and culture (ethos) in the process of development. Philosophically, he summed the stages into two important principles; One’s world gets bigger as they grow, and, Failure cumulates along the stages (Bee, 2009). The literature describes Erickson’s eight stages of psychological development. Infancy stage (birth to 18 months) According to Erickson theory of psychological development, first stage occurs from birth to one year or 18 months. This is a fundamental stage for child’s development. At infan cy stage, the basic conflict is between trust and mistrust, significant event at this stage is feeding. At this phase, a child develops senses of trust to their parents or caregiver, after they have shown care, reliability, or consistency, and affections. Lack in providing support, care, and reliability; will lead to a child developing senses of mistrust to people surrounding them; the guardians, caregivers, and parents (Crain, 2011). Infants are usually dependent, thus, their development of trust is ultimately based on quality and dependability to their parents or caregivers. In a successful development of child’s trust, she/he will be feeling secure and safe with the world. Caregivers and parents who are emotionally unavailable, inconsistent or unreliable, and rejecting their children, they will lead to the development in feelings of mistrust (Crain, 2011). Therefore, failure of a child to develop trust with their caregiver, will lead to believe that, the world is unpredict able and inconsistent, hence, leading to fear. At the later ages in life, child with trust will have personality of confidence or fearless while those who had mistrust will develop personality of fear. Stage two: Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt It begins from 18 months to 3 years. Mobility of children was focused during development of the theory. The physical development advances, and the child try to press for their independence. Some of the common behaviors noticed are making choices on clothes to wear, picking the toys to play with, and choosing what to eat. A child in this stage tends to be autonomous or independent (Wrightsman, 2010). The child is in dire need of their parent’s support, to avoid experiencing failure. In this process, protection from constant failure and ridicule should be avoided through encouragement. Parents should not criticize their children for accidents, and failures, at the same time, not to perform every task for the child. If self- control is at tained without loss of self –esteem, then the child grows will be characterized with will as a virtue. If children are encouraged at this stage, they will become more independent and therefore, autonomy will be achieved. However, if constantly criticized, they begin to feel ashamed of their abilities, thus, developing poor self- esteem and later become doubtful (Kail & Cavanaugh, 2010). Stage three, pre-school (3 to 5 years) At the third stage of psychological development, it occurs between the