Eriksons stages of personality development - Assignment Example

Erikson’s stages of personality development Introduction This paper is going to discuss in-depth Erickson’s stages of personality development in a young child and the experience that coincide with each of the Erickson’s stages of child development. One of the most vital contribution made by Erickson to the theory of development is his emphasis on the relationship the entire society and the interpersonal experience has to the unfolding of an individual’s personality. Every stage in the Erickson theory posits of psychosocial development with a clear conflict. Essentially, there is a solution established at the end of the conflict. The conflict arises as a result of interaction with the environmental components’. However, failure to negotiate the eight stages appropriately remains at the verge of exposing the child to mental pathology later in adulthood. The paper will also give a clear example from a book that explains what takes place in every stage and what is expected to be happening in every child development. Erickson integrates in-depth the ideas of development into his theory thus encompassing an overview of the entire human life cycle. Erikson’s stages of personality development The first stage of Erickson development stages is trust versus mistrust. This stage starts from the moment a child has been born up to eighteen months of age. During this stage, the child is considered to be at its most vulnerable moments. In addition, the child is also dependent wholly on whoever it is that is to provide him or her with all the things he or she needs in order to sustain himself throughout this first stage period. The provider of the basic necessity is also going to be who the child is going to adapt to as long as the provider keep on providing for the child. When the provider no longer provides the needs of the child, the child will start mistrusting the provider since the child can no longer trust the provider to provide for his or her basic needs. An example of a book that coincides with this stage of human development is the happy book: touch and feel fun for every little one written by Diane Muldrow. This book consist of texts that are rhyming and illustrations that are colorful that includes pages with a touch and feel textures, glow in the dark surprise, lift the flap messages and scratch and sniff scents. The book is specifically designed to lift the feelings of the child up. The second stage of development according to Erickson consists of autonomy versus shame and doubt. This stage starts from the toddler’s age of eighteen months up to three years of age. At this stage, the child begins demanding his independence. During his stage, the child starts doing things the way he or she feels she wants to do. The emotions, shame, and guilt, are developed in this stage of personality development. When the child fails to achieve his or her desired goals at his tasks that he or she is doing, or someone else is talking about him, it leads to the emergence of guilt and shame. The book that coincides with this is little brown bear will not go to the school that is written by Jan Dyer. This story tells how a little small bear did not want to go to school since he wanted to seek a job and work just like his parents. However, things are not working out because every time he secures an opportunity he keeps being fired. One day when he went out to search for another job, the little bear passed by the school and saw his classmates working having great fun while working on several projects. The little bear decided henceforth that this is the type of jib he would love start doing, going to school and have fun with the rest of the classmates while working on various projects. The third stage of Erickson developmental stages is the initiative versus guilt. This stage starts at the preschool age of three years to six years of age. The muscular activities of children increase during this stage and make the child constantly ask questions on nearly everything that they have interest on. During his stage, children take the initiative of doing things on their own. However, this initiative in children can be brought down when they develop guilt. During this stage of child development, the providers should be warned on not overdoing things too much during this stage. They should be told to give children all but just enough space so that the child can be able to accomplish his or her initiative. The book coinciding with this stage of human development is Leonardo the Terrible Monster written by Mo Willems. The story talks about a monster who is not that scary. Therefore, the monster starts searching for the weakest person so that he can scare. He finds a little boy who burst into tears when he tries to scare him away. The child cries not because he is scared but because he is lonely. Therefore, Leonardo develops a change of heart and feels immense guilt trying to scare a little boy. Since Leonardo changed his initiative because of the guilt he developed towards the little child, the little boy and Leonardo henceforth became great friends. The fourth stage of Erickson developmental stage consists of industry versus inferiority. This stage begins at the school age of six years up to eleven years of age. During this stage, the child concerns are extended from the home to school. The emphasis of the child is shifted towards his or her education. During the previous developmental stages of the child, the child was mostly maturing until he reached where his or her concerns are towards academic achievements. The child feels worth at this stage but those children who are not proficient in their academics develops a sense of failure, and a feeling of inferiority might even ensue. The child could also feel a sense of shame of the providers of his necessities shared his failure with others. The book was written by Jules Feiffer; I lost my bear, coincides with this stage of development. The book talks about a small girl who misplaces her favorite stuffed bear and is not going to give up looking for it until she finds where it is. Therefore, as she is getting into bed that night, she finds her stuffed bear under her coverings. The little story reflecting on the little girl and the bear demonstrates the determination of children during this stage. This stage proves to be crucial for most children who are always filled with a determination to achieve certain tasks and goals so that they can get satisfied. The strategy of Erickson tries to help in explaining why humans do have conflicts during their personality development. The first stage is the most crucial stage in any child’s security. This is because once the child does not receive appropriate attention by the person who is responsible for giving care; he will definitely start developing mistrust with other people in his or her life. This stage is seen in almost every child who was abandoned in during his or her early life. Such children have trouble in trusting people even children of his age. If the child or baby has a good relationship with its caregiver, then trust will be well established, and the child will grow trusting the individual providing it with the necessities. However, a form of mistrust does occur when the baby has been deprived of the basic needs. The second stage is conflicted between autonomy and doubt. At this stage, children beings demonstrating their independence. This stage is also crucial in any child development. During this stage, the child starts developing interest in wanting to stand on his or her feet, but the feeling is shame and doubt emerges when the baby is openly exposed and conscious of being looked at. If a child has parents who are encouraging, then chances are that the child will be more successful in life compared to those children whose parents do not motivate them at all. Children need motivation to doing things that they feel like. In case of frequent demotivation, they develop negative feelings that will later hurt their progress. In the third stage, the child develops issues between his or her initiatives with guilt. This develops when they want to do those things that they want over those that they would like to do. At this stage, the child aggressiveness is portrayed. The child will develop feelings of discovering who he or she really is. The child becomes very aggressive and acquires a lot of knowledge that generates a lot of curiosity in the child. Whenever this happens, it brings a reaction to those who are surrounding the child. This develops a feeling of fear in the child of being punished and thus brings about a sense of guilt in the child. Finally, the fourth stage, the struggle of the child is between industries versus inferiority. During this stage, the child is eager to make something out of themselves so that they can feel worthy. They develop feeling of being great individuals and no longer want to be nobody. They need support during this stage in order to achieve great in their academic endeavors. The child needs to feel that they have worth, a sense of purpose and they belong. During this stage, the child has a great desire of industry to wanting to do so that he or she can get a reward. A sense of inferiority that he or she is not better compared to other children of his age creates a lot of danger to the life of the child. Therefore, the caregiver should step in and look forward to guiding the child up a more positive road of identifying himself. Conclusion The states of life developed by Erickson were to help people be able to see how personality is developed in every age as a child grows. One of the most significant contributions of the developmental theory of personality development by Erikson is that its emphasis is placed on the experience that every child goes through during growth. This integration is very important in exposing the ideas behind developmental thus encompassing every single stage of human growth. Works cited Simanowitz & Pearce. Personality development. 2003 .New York: McGraw-Hall Read More