Erikson's Theory Of Cognitive Development: Adolescence And Emerging Adulthood

The concept of adulthood represents not only the sum of one's experiences, but also the determination of one's place within society. Adulthood is formed through the experiences of the individual. These experiences catalyze the acceptance of a social role, as opposed to title or paycheck. Finally, the acceptance of an individual's social role initiates a process of social unity. In this way, the sum of a person's experience and the changes that result from said experiences present the evolution of child into adult.

Child development is one of the main aspects of growing and developing as a human being, especially Cognitive Development. Encyclopedia of Children’s Health defines cognitive development as “The construction of thought processes, including remembering, problem solving, and decision-making from childhood through adolescence to adulthood.” Starting from a young age, babies begin to learn about the world that surrounds them. They learn and absorb new information in the environment that surrounds them. These skills continue to grow stronger as babies brain continue to develop more through experiences and the expansion of their surroundings. As they become older, they will find it more difficult to develop

“As with Erikson’s stages of early and middle adulthood, other theorists have clarified and refined his vision of late adulthood, specifying the tasks and thought processes that contribute to a sense of ego integrity. All agree that optimal development involves greater integration and deepening of the personality” (Berk, 2014, p604). “Ego differentiation means for those who invested heavily in their career, finding other ways to affirm self-worth-through family, friendship, and community life” (Berk, 2014, p604). As people age, they want to show other people that they still have self-worth. Although their strength and beauty disappeared, and they may not make a lot of money anymore, however, these people has a lot of legacy that can pass on

During this stage in life, Erikson describes individuals in the generativity vs. stagnation stage (Capp, 2004). Individuals between the ages 40 to 65 have generally married, have a career and have their own families. Erikson refers to generativity as a concern of the next generation by guiding and establishing them. He also stated that a well-developed man wants to feel needed and the younger generation should acknowledge that need (Capp, 2004). Dunkel and Sefcek (2009) stated that the individual is faced with the challenge of self constructive tasks and to help the next generation, not just their children but other individuals that may need guidance or influence.

As babies, depending on others is an essential part of life. Babies need food, shelter, protection and nurturance, which is provided by the caregiver. “According to Erikson, this extended period results in the first stage of psychosocial development being centered on forming a sense of trust” (Papalia & Martorell, 2015, p. 171). Stated in Erikson’s eight stages of psyhchosocial development, babies first challenge involves in forming a basic sense of trust versus mistrust. Trust allows a baby to feel safe and love. The sense of mistrust have babies feeling that those around them cannot be counted on in their time of need. This stage begins at infancy and gradually continues to about 18 months. Balancing between both, babies typically predominates

“Emerging adulthood” article written by Arnett states that emerging adulthood is a stage that has been introduced for the beginning of the age 18 till 25. This new stage is a bridge that connects the adolescences and adult childhood. Various characteristics have described to define the emerging adulthood. The methods that have used includes the age of change, the age of possibility, the age of feeling in between and age of identity exploration. Emerging adulthood is time has been given to young people where they learn how to become adults. This stage helps them to explore their choices, educations, and careers. Arnett also states that emerging adulthood most likely to seem in the developed countries rather than countries where adulthood is more cultural based. This stage is very

The stage of development I am currently in is emerging adulthood, which is the focus of the eleventh chapter entitled “Adulthood: Emerging Adulthood” on pages 389 to 424 of the book. This stage of human development typically occurs during the ages of 18 to 25, and it is characterized by being a confusing time for the person in which they try to figure out where their place in the world is. The existence of emerging adulthood was fairly recently discovered as it appeared through changing concepts in western society. It was never a stage until a couple decades ago when western culture put an emphasis on values such as waiting longer for marriage and the necessity of going to college.

As adolescences enter adulthood, they enter a long transitional period, often known as “emerging adult”. This transitional period takes place over a range of 18 to 25 years old (Santrock, 2013). At this stage, emerging adults are still in exploration in the various aspect of life such as the career path they are interested in, defining their identities and a style of living they would want to adopt. Thus, adolescences who are in transition will be caught with many intense changes and will experience major life events that are all of great importance.

Erikson 's sixth stage of psychosocial development is Intimacy vs. Isolation. This stage of development often occurs between the ages of 20-25 years or what is commonly referred to as early adulthood. During this stage of development individuals often have a strong desire to share their personal life with someone else. Individuals have now developed their own sense of identity and so they are now eager to fuse their identity with that of others. Individuals are often ready for intimacy or "the capacity to commit [themselves] to concrete affiliations and partnerships and to develop the ethical strength to abide by such commitments, even though they call for significant sacrifices and compromises (Berger, 2016). Adults during this stage of development often ask themselves "Who can I share my life with?". A conflict often arises during this stage of development between one 's desire for intimacy in a long term-term relationship and one 's commitment to not losing their sense of self in the process. Adults who master this stage of development, often develop the

Erik Erikson’s stage of psychosocial cognition describes the eight stages of a developing human being and how they should go through their lifecycle. The individuality stage meets and then describes the challenges that an individual would experience. I will try to explain how Forrest Gump will relate to Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development assumption. Forrest Gump perceive many motions as he developed throughout his life. We often coin these changes that Erikson mentions in this movie. His model conveys the biological and sociological forces that Forrest goes through to effectively outgo from infancy to adulthood.

Throughout the year we have learned about many different theorists who have done a great but also horrible job at explaining adolescent/ young adult development. In this paper I will be talking about Freud and Piaget, and how I think that Piaget was the better theorist than Freud when it comes to talking about development. I will also be talking about the similarities and difference between the two. For starters, what are their specific steps of development?

When I was born in this auspicious earth the first face I saw was my parents face. I used to cry a lot and mom usually thinks I’m hungry and feeds me every time when I do so. So I got to know my mom a lot and I used to play with my dad and these two were familiar faces to me in the initial stages and I developed a trust on them, The important thing I felt in this stage was feeding and my parent’s care. As we were in a joint family I always stayed with my parents and never allowed my uncle or aunt to lift me, when they tried to do so I used to switch on my alarm that is my cry, it forced my mom to run all the way from the kitchen to take care of me.

Compare and contrast Sigmund Freud 's psychosexual theory of development and Erik Erikson 's psychosocial theory of development.

In life of an individual there are several developmental changes or events which occur as continuity of span of life. Some of life developmental stages include infantile, adolescence, maturity, and adulthood. These phases have biological, social, psychological and physiognomic reasons to which an individual completed the course of life. Psychological analysis upon the developmental stages include the focus on characterization, demarcation and the social interaction of individual’s life (Baltes & Schaie, 2013).

The life span of an individual goes through developmental stages in life, from conception to death. The majority of the stages we pass are biological, socio-economical and psychological birth rights.