Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Stage of Young Adulthood Intimacy vs Isolation - Coursework Example

ERIK ERIKSONS PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGE OF YOUNG ADULTHOOD INTIMACY VS ISOLATION The sequence of milestones during the life course is monumental as it depicts a pre-defined pattern of movement towards a predestined stage in life. Today’s children do not seem to follow the contemporary uniform pattern on their way to maturity. Rather, they hasten to their adulthood in a rough, personalized pace. Some of today’s children never experience the eight milestones of the life course, regardless of whether the choice is theirs or forced by circumstances. Others attain the indicators in a very unsystematic method. There are individuals who choose to seek a specialized progression earlier entering into relations; others choose to bear offspring at an early age and then get into engagements later. Furthermore, there are those who leave their schooling to attend to work and then resume to their studies later in life. In current environments, the life period between the ages of 20-40 years has been transformed into a distinct segment of the life course on its own (Henig, 2010). To some extent, a debate has emerged as to whether this stage should be recognized as an important stage in the life course. Scholars agree that the stages in human life progression incline to trail a pattern that resembles human nervous developments. However, the need to appreciate the period of young adulthood as a fundamental stage in human development has been necessitated by both economic and cultural dynamics. In order to form a precise understanding of these trends, it is important to take a critical look at the intimacy versus isolation stage of the life-course as postulated by Erik Erickson. The stage of affection versus separation is the sixth step of Erikson’s theory of psychological development. The stage arises in the age of young adulthood. During this period, most young adults are confronted with the challenges of leaving the comfort of their parents and engage in intimate, loving relationships with other people. Even though the psychological theory is often considered as a series of regular, sequential steps, it is necessary to note that each stage contributes to the development of the next one. This explains why the intimacy stage follows the identity stage where individuals are expected to form, a precise understanding of their impending identity as independent and responsible adults. Indeed, Erikson believes that having a fully developed sense of self is paramount to being able to form and sustain long-lasting intimate relationships. Persons with an ill established sense of self-incline to involve in less devoted relationships, and are more probable to report expressive isolation, despair, and solitude. According to Erikson, the previous achievement of a sense of personal identity, as well as the engagement in productive work precipitates to a new interpersonal dimension of intimacy. It is noteworthy that the intimacy in Erikson’s perspective means more than physical intimacy alone. Rather, the psychological theory encompasses an individual’s ability to experience life in conjunction with others without the fear of losing one’s identity in the process. When it comes to intimacy, success or failure doers not depend directly upon the parents, but rather indirectly owing to their contribution to an individual’s success or lack of it at the preceding stages. As in the case of personality, social situations, such as beliefs, can delay or encourage the development of a sense of intimacy. The development of isolation and intimacy are believed to be crucial psychological accomplishments for young adults. According to several studies, successful development within the realms of personality and intimacy has been related to self-esteem, ego and cognitive intricacy, and moral reasoning (Craig Bray, Adams & Dobson, 1988). A lot of research on this concept has revolved around intimacy and isolation, with special interest in young adults. Even though it is usual to view that one can develop intimacy during their late adolescence years. Erikson postulated that adolescents have the capacity of experiencing and expressing intimacy in its entirety until a later stage in life. This could be partly attributed to Erikson’s theorization that intimacy development might not occur until a person has neared the completion of his identity formation. It is plausible that adolescent love is different from true intimacy since it is merely an attempt to understand one’s identity through a projection of self-esteem onto another person. When it comes to young adults, true intimacy becomes defined by a fusion of identities that stimulate a harmonic relationship between these varying identities. The fusion takes place while the individuals simultaneously get to retain their unique individualities. The stage of intimacy and isolation can have numerous instances of intimate connections. According to research conducted by Orlofsky (1976), the levels of intimacy can be divided into separate outcomes on the basis of the presence or absence of close relationships. These groups range from squat intimacy to extraordinary affection. Individuals considered being isolated lack the psychosocial development necessary for having or maintaining interpersonal commitment and intimacy. This is the main category within which most of the young adults in the 21st century tend to fall. This is owing to the levels of relationship breakdowns and the increasing tendency by young adults to remain tied to their parents’ homes. The cataloging of pseudo-intimate portrays persons who bear a resemblance to the intimate in respects to partaking intimate and dedicated relationships. However, these individuals derive their motivation from some underlying factors that differentiate them from those within the intimate category. Stereotyped persons have characteristic superficial relationships that are developed on the basis of personal gains. Finally, the pre-intimate category depicts individuals engaged in relationships on the basis of openness and responsibility. However, these individuals lack the commitment for intimate relationships. It is significant to note that intimacy does not necessarily involve sexuality. Rather, it entails relationships between friends. These are mainly individuals who have interacted under several circumstances, and developed a sense of commitment to one another. It is this innate sense of the pledge that finally demonstrates affection in its widest standpoint. When there is a failure to develop this sense of intimacy with friends or acquaintances, the result is a sense of isolation that has a high potential of breaking any future relationships. It is important to note that the stage of intimacy versus isolation dwells more on the factors and issues that propagate or fail to propagate individuals.’ Moreover, comprehension of behavior-outcome instrumentalities, as well as the engagement of efficacious behaviors tend people struggle in the pursuit of those better outcomes. The stage incorporates another crucial distinction that lies within the class of behaviors that are motivated or intentional. As such, it puts a clear distinction between the self-determined and controlled forms of internal regulation. It is plausible that motivated relationships are self-determined to the extent that they are developed in a total volition and endorsed by an individual’s sense of self. On the other hand, actions are controlled if they are under any compulsion by some intrapsychic or interpersonal force. The bottom-line here is that when a relationship is self-determined, the regulatory activity is voluntary, but when it is controlled, the regulatory process becomes complicated and intimacy may fail to be realized. According to the research conducted by Olfrsky, individuals within the isolated category form the bulk representative of isolation. It is notable that this stage has been painstaking by Erikson as the consequence of indecorous crisis determination. In this regard, isolation can be perceived as an inhibition that takes chances with one’s identity to experience and express true intimacy. This apparent failure to achieve intimacy results from the fear of the implications, such as commitment, which are viewed as integral elements of intimate relationships. The proponents of the debate argue that most young adults demonstrate an increased level of commitment fear. This has led to altered patterns of the isolation and intimacy stage. Unlike intimacy, those experiencing isolation are constrained in psychological growth owing to their inability to mature to the next stage of development. When compared to their adolescent counterparts, young adults are believed to have the genital maturity essential for experiencing true intimacy and love. This is because such individuals have successfully passed through the preceding stages of development, and hence they have acquired the ability to develop high-level intimacy. It is important to note that only individuals who have developed this level of intimacy can progress successfully through the intimacy versus isolation stage. On the other hand, those who fail to gain this experience, either due to economic, cultural or psychological factors, demonstrate an obscured ability to experience true intimacy (Kacerguis, & Adams, 1980). In order to gain a precise understanding of the isolation and intimacy stage, this research study considered the case of a young adult (named Alicia for purposes of this paper). The young lady has recently acquired her master’s degree and is currently working as a human resource manager with a multinational company. Even though she is proud of her new achievements, she harbors some resentment toward some unfulfilled objectives. When asked why her life is not as joyous as one would expect it to be, Alicia asserts that she feels a void that needs to be filled in the shortest time possible. She laments that her pursuit for higher education and a promising career has denied her the chance to seek for a romantic partner with whom to settle down in a happy relationship. Most of her former schoolmates in high school and university are now settled, with bouncing kids. They appear to be very happy in their new-found status even though they are still struggling to look for jobs that will bring food to the table. As for Alicia, she has all that she has always wished to have, except a long-term partner to settle down. To make the matters worse, she is worried that most of her peers are now married and settled, and she may be forced to settle down with someone outside of her age bracket. According to Erickson’s stages of life development, the most fundamental question that is present in Alicia’s mind is; can I love? During the stage of young adulthood, individuals begin to harbor sentiments for exploring relationships that will terminate in long term commitments with someone apart from their family members (Erikson, 1968). Regardless of success in other areas of life such as educational accomplishments or advancements along the career ladder, life still feels incomplete without a lifetime partner with whom one can share their experiences and explore other possibilities. The intimacy conflict becomes more profound around the age of thirty years more than any other stage. Individuals at this stage are eager to merge their identities with friends and companions. They have a yearning desire to fit in. Once individuals have secured their characteristics, they are ready to enter into long-term obligations with others. They are now ready to make the compromises and sacrifices that such relationships may demand them to last longer. Such compromises involve fewer engagements in learning activities, as well as less commitment to career pursuits. Alicia has already achieved as much as she wanted along education and career domains. This explains why she is willing to settle down and explore the last component that will make her life complete and enable her to fit well within the society. The effective triangulation of this stage leads to a relaxed relationship, characterized by a sense of obligation, care and protection within the relationship. Any attempts to avoid intimacy due to fears of commitments and relationships can result in isolation and depression due to loneliness. On the hand, successful navigation of this stage leads to the development of the virtue of love (McAdams, 2001). During the period of intimacy, internalization develops as an innate process through which individuals transform regulation by external contingencies into some form of regulation by internal processes. Psychologists believe that individuals who harbor an inherent motivation to internalize and integrate within their cognitive realm the regulation of unpleasant feelings of intimacy gain some effective functioning in the social domain. Psychology scholars and researchers also believe that the length to which internalization and integration processes proceed in an effective manner during intimacy is a function of the social context within which the individual dwells and interacts with other people. Another line of perspective in the realm of intimacy explores the issue of locus control. Locus control is interlinked with the concept of attributions, where the attributions refer to a person’s perceptions concerning the causes of successful or diminishing relationships. It is important to look at every facet of the prevailing conditions that are necessitating the creation of another life stage between adolescence and early adulthood. It is plausible that the presence of fewer employment opportunities after school has necessitated the need for the young adults to stay longer under their parents watch. This has been so as they wait for opportunities to open up in a competitive job market. Such factors must be put into consideration before allowing the youth some more time before they can take overall responsibility on their adult livelihoods. In such a case, the age of 20s cannot be set as a critical segment in life cycle just in order to accord the youth some more time of irresponsibility. It is high time that young people must be enlightened on what it means to be independent and responsible. In support of the positive effects of the 20s as a distinct stage in life, the youth is likely to become more focused than during any other stage in their lifetime. It is true that the young men and women are less certain about their future at this stage. However, they are likely to remain more optimistic and prepared to embrace adulthood regardless of their economic and social backgrounds (Neyer & Asendorpf 2001). Thus, there is what one can define as a” sense of responsibilities” in the fact that the youth have not yet interfered with the realistic and idealistic visions of what lies ahead in their adult lives. The 20s is a critical stage in life as it heralds a point where young men and women are allowed to strategize about their adult obligations. During this time, young adult are without fearing any form of public censure concerning their performance. Only then can the rate of societal maturation get synchronized with the rate of brain maturation (Ideastream 2014). In conclusion, it is plausible that the need to recognize the intimacy versus isolation stage as a critical stage in the life course has been necessitated by rapid changes in the current social-economic environment. Failure to protect and support the youth can lead them into a very dangerous path at a very critical moment in their lives. It is a moment that has great potential to determine the turn of events in all subsequent phases later in life. Any wrong decisions made at this age can have irreversible detrimental effects in the whole of adult life and even in their prime ages. The understanding of the intimacy stage should not be based merely on overprotective or over- supportive instincts towards the youth as such motives may delay the launching of the youth into self-dependent and responsible lives in later adulthood. Rather, the stage should be viewed as an important period in life of individuals. This is so because it allow the young adults adequate time to reflect on the best ways to shape their future as they prepare to take full control of their live. It is plausible that it is pivotal for individuals to develop close, committed relationships with other people. This only happens when individuals successfully navigate through the different stages of the life course, especially the intimacy versus isolation phase. It is a success at this stage that leads to strong and formidable relationships that can endure the succeeding stages in the life span. Failure to navigate the stage successfully results to loneliness and isolation, and this can impede the navigation of the other stages of development. References Craig-Bray, L., Adams, G. R., & Dobson, W. R. (1988). Identity formation and social relations during late adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 17 (2), 173-187. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. New York: W.W. Norton and Company. Henig, R., (2010). What Is It About 20-Somethings? Retrieved 02 December 2014 from http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/22/magazine/22Adulthood-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Ideastream, (2014). Failure to Launch. Retrieved 02 December 2014 from http://www.ideastream.org/soi/entry/52663 Kacerguis, M. A. & Adams, G. R. (1980). Erikson stage resolution: The relationship between identity and intimacy. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 9 (2), 117-126. McAdams, D. P. (2001). The psychology of life stories. Review of general psychology, 5(2), 100. Orlofsky, J. L. (1976). Intimacy status: Relationship to interpersonal perception. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 5, 73-88. Read More