Stages of Psychosocial Development - Essay Example

As the paper highlights the reporter found meaning in her life with her children and her total being, without him by her side. Today, her children and she is very happy living together and she is proud to say that she feels accomplished and complete without her husband. The early phase of her married life falls on Erikson’s psychosocial stage 6 which covers her early adulthood. This is the stage when she was longing for intimacy; thus, marrying her husband even if she had to go against the will of her family.

This is the time when she wanted to have a close personal relationship rather than be isolated. The reporter wanted to have a satisfying relationship and develop a family of her own. The later part of her married life is a perfect example of Erikson’s “penultimate” stage or the middle adulthood stage. When she separated from her husband, that was the time when her focus shifted from herself to her immediate surroundings which are her children. Had she focused on herself, she could have just wallowed in depression and not strived to work hard for her children.

The reporter focused on integrity and not despair. She focused on the positive rather than on the negative. She had to do something for the good of my children. Her strength was her children, which is what Erickson terms “generativity”. She feared becoming meaningless or inactive. She knew she had to find new meaning and purpose in life because she did not want to be self-absorbed and stagnate. Her going back to school and finding a job was instrumental in helping her get through this stage.

The population that the reporter most wants to “give forward” to are the separated wives who feel so depressed and useless. She wants to share with them my experience. From this paper, it is clear that she wants to show them how she was able to rise up again from the pain of being left by a husband. She wants to prove to them that they do not need a husband to take care of their children. She will show them how to find meaning in their lives and view the separation as a challenge to improve oneself and be useful to society.

The reporter will point out to them that the options that they face are “generativity” or “stagnation”. It is her objective that they make the better choice of moving forward and care for the “next generation”, meaning their children. The reporter will prove to them through her experience that choosing “generativity” will lead them to the path of “integrity”, which is the positive result of the eighth stage in Erikson’s stages of development.

On the other hand, if they choose “stagnation”, it will only bring them toward “despair”, the opposite side of the eighth stage. Her ideal legacy for her family is to be able to give a college education to her children. Hopefully, if they are well-educated, they can become successful individuals both in their careers and their family lives. She may not be able to leave them with wealth but she hopes through their education they can pursue whatever it is they dream of in their lives.