The Stages of Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Theory as Per Scanario of Gregory and the Crisis - Essay Example

Erick Erickson’s theory of psychological development has been very instrumental in psychology. Just like Sigmund Freud, Erickson argued that the personality develops in a sequence of stages (Shabatay & Sattler, 2000). This theory tends to describe the impact of social experience in the whole lifespan. In this theory, the main element developed by Erickson is the conscious sense of self that individuals develop in the course of their interaction (Shabatay & Sattler, 2000). This is what, according to Erickson, is referred to as ego.

The ego of every individual keeps on changing as a result of new experiences and information people acquire as they interact with each other. On the other hand, this theory also states that competence motivates behaviors and actions. In this regard, each and every stage presented in this theory is concerned with being competent in an area of life (Shabatay & Sattler, 2000). However, if the stages are handled well, it is apparent that the person will feel a sense of mastery. It is also vital to note that in different stages, factors that influence sense of competence are in some situations as a result of self esteem, which happens to be the problem with some people at different stages.

With light in this, it is indispensable for people to develop some sense of self esteem in reference to their surroundings. One example of these stages, which commonly brings out application of development theory, is the school age stage. Normally, this stage covers ages 5 to 11 years. It has been documented that children start advancing their competences due to social interaction. (Shabatay & Sattler, 2000). Some literatures have also pointed out that teachers and parents play a part in the success of their children by a way of encouraging them.

On the other hand, those who get little or no encouragement tend to doubt the successes. Persons in this stage need to cope with new and changing environments. Question Two (4 marks) A child’s ability to do well in school depend on more than their inherited intellectual/cognitive abilities (nature) as academic performance is also influenced by the environment the child is exposed to (nurture). Describe how two different environmental factors from the chapter may have impacted Gregory's academic performance.

Gregory’s ability to do well in school depends on more than inherited abilities. There must be the association of the environmental factors. Environmental psychology examines the connection between human behavior and environment. The term ‘environment’ is discussed as all natural things such as the social settings, built environments as well as the learning environment. In this situation, academic performance of Gregory is largely influenced by the learning environment being interrelated with his human behavior (Bazerman, 1997).

One main factor that has affected Gregory on his academic performance is the attention. Attention can be described as the human behavior that is concerned with understanding the environment that includes involuntary and voluntary stimuli. He is at school where he has chosen to pay attention to his teachers so as he can excel in schoolwork and familiarize himself with what is around him (Kalat, 2011). The other factor, according to Bazerman (1997), is that Gregory, by attending school, goes through environmental stress and coping with such as noise and climatic extremes as he juggles