Erikson's Theory Of Identity Essay

Today, within the framework of psychoanalysis social identity problem dealt with in detail Erikson, interest in particular issues of the evolution of self-consciousness of man and the stages associated with the development of his identity. It has identified eight stages in the formation of a mature identity. The first four stages occur in infancy and childhood, the fifth stage of puberty, and the last three in adulthood, old age inclusive. In his works Erikson puts special emphasis on puberty, because then a transition from childhood to adulthood. What is happening at this stage is very important for the personality of an adult.

A person’s identity is an amalgamation of characteristics that set them apart from others. Everyone is truly unique because no two people possess the same exact beliefs and qualities as another person. Though a person may have grown up in a specific culture, outside factors can contribute to the forming of an individual’s identity which causes a person to diverge from what they knew themselves to be growing up. Andrew Solomon, author of “Son”, puts forth the idea of vertical and horizontal identities. Vertical identity comes from the passing down of expectations and culture from family while horizontal identity comes from outside forces. Because everyone is not just a product of only characteristics inherited vertically or horizontally, a person

Identity is something unique that everybody has, and it is what makes us be what we are. We are part of a crowded society yet, we are all different. Every person has different personality, characteristics and behave differently. It depends on how we show ourselves in this society as Nancy Mairs and David Sedaris did. Mairs did not want to be defined by her condition even though she had to learn how to live with it, and Sedaris thought that his behavior was normal of a child without caring of the comments of people who surrounded him. Moreover, Identity is created by how we define ourselves, not by how others define us.

Erikson believed personality develops in a series of stages with impact of social experiences and conflict across the whole life span through his research with his wife at experimental school for American students. (Cherry, 2014).

Identity is a convoluted subject. It is difficult to define and to determine in a person. In the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it is obvious to see that the characters’ identities change throughout the story. It is less obvious to see how they change, and what causes the changes. Identity is always developing. It is influenced by other people’s ideas and actions and relationships, and by one’s own choices and changing opinions.

Having an identity defines a person’s personality and traits. It also tells other people where the person learned his traits and morals. In the world, everyone is born with the same identity; however, a unique identity is flexible and changeable because a person can change his or her identity based on the environment he or she interacts with, as demonstrated by Guy Montag from Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451.

The social norms of society can pressure individuals who do not conform which can lead to the creation of his or her identity. This new identity can alter how he or she react to certain events. The creation of one’s identity can change how society perceives them. One simple change can lead to multiple dramatic unpleasant consequences.An individual’s experiences in life can affect his or her identity in a way that changes how they perceive society.

What is Identity? Identity is like a fingerprint; it clearly determines who people are. Identity is something that people are not born with, it is an act people do that classifies their identity. People need to act upon their own choices to determine their own identity rather than being influenced by the choices of others. So, people must follow their own path in order to keep their own unique identity. The sources used include “Soy Yo” by Bomba Estereo, a music video. “Self-Concept” by Saul Mcleod, where Mcleod talks about how people see themselves. “Carapace” by Romesh Gunesekera, which talks about a man staying at the beach hut because his passion in cooking. Finally, “Identity” by Kayla Si, Reno, where the article talks about a self experience

After an examination of Erik Erikson and Daniel Levinson’s theories at first sight not much is alike, since the stages both differ, but digging deeper in Erikson's and Levinson’s theories have similar ideas in social development; after all, these two studies differ in the outcome. Erik erikson's theories have a greater underlining on child-adolescent development, he believes that early development of a child is the foundation and is the greatest impact on a person's identity and personality later on in life. Erikson presents the stages from childhood to adulthood, but in his theory the only significant development is during childhood, which is the problem, since an individual goes through life experiences throughout life they may have a great impact as an adult too. On the other hand Daniel Levinson’s theory signifies changes throughout all of life's experiences, from childhood to adulthood and continuing. Levinson’s theory believes that we adapt ad we let go of certain things as we move on in life and move from one stage to another.

The crisis experienced in Erikson’s fifth stage, adolescence, is identity cohesion vs. role confusion. The crisis is whether or not a person establishes an individual ego identity where their self-image fully describes them to themselves as well as everyone

Identity is social construct that many have mistaken for something an individual is born with. There are many aspects of identity that one can inherit like genes that can drive a certain type of character and certain aspects of identity a person can adopt and build for themselves. However the most part of one’s identity is consistent of what the person wants and adopts for themselves and what the society/the people around him/her choose to give him/her.

Introduction Sigmund Freud is the great theorist of the mysteries of the human mind and a founder of the psychoanalysis theory which was formed in the 1800s, the theory is well known for accessing self-identity and the self in different ways in order to discover their different meaning, (Elliott, 2015). Buss (2008) states that Sigmund’s theory of Psychoanalysis offers a unique controversial insight into how the human mind works in a way that, this theory provided a new approach to psychotherapy, thus it means that it provided a new treatment for psychological problems that even highly qualified doctors couldn’t even cure. (Buss, 2008) According to Cloninger (2013), Erik Erikson on the other hand is the founder of the psychoanalytic-social Perspective which is mostly referred to as psychosocial development theory, Erikson became interested in child development when he met Anna Freud and he trained in psychoanalysis and with his Montessori diploma, he become one of the most influential psychologist of the 20th century. His theory describes eight stages of development that occurs in sequence throughout life and unlike Sigmund Freud’s theory, Erickson’s theory is more comprehensive because it encompasses cultural phenomena and mostly applied to therapy with Children and adolescence. (Cloninger, 2013) This essay explores Freud theory of Psychoanalysis and Erikson Psychosocial theory, analyzing, comparing and contrasting the two theories looking at the basic tenets and assumptions

Psychologists are debating and trying to figure out whether the social identity theory, a theory developed by Tajfel Turner (1979) for the examination of intergroup relations, is a robust way of explaining behaviour. There has been many research studies in the past that proves that it is a robust way of explaining behaviour.

Many researchers have tried to revise after Freud 's psychoanalysis, to show the value associated with the process and I have to follow their development (Kail, Cavanaugh, 2004). The most prominent of the so-called ego psychology was Erik Erikson. As with other postfreydistov for Erickson the greatest importance was the self and its adaptive capacity in connection with the problem of the individual. However, this does not mean that he neglected his theory of biological or social factors (Kail, Cavanaugh, 2004). In fact, Erickson insisted that any psychological phenomenon can be understood in the context of a coherent interaction between biological, behavioral, and social factors empirical. Other features of Erikson 's theoretical orientation include the following: 1) focus on the changes taking place in the development process throughout a person 's life; 2) focusing on "normal" or "healthy" rather than pathological; 3) the special

Due to challenges as well as issues confronted by adolescents they may have identity confusion which is comprised of identity foreclosure, negative identity and diffusion. Identity foreclosure alludes to the identity crisis being resolved by making a series of premature decisions about one’s identity, based on other’s expectations of what and who one should be. Negative identity alludes to adolescents who form an identity contrary to the cultural values and expectations and diffusion refers to a kind of apathy in which the youth lacks any kind of passion or commitment (Louw&Louw, 2007). However, this challenge could be overcome by positive role identity or identity achievement which is “the sense of really knowing who one is and in general, where one is headed in life” (Fleming, 2004: 9).Erikson’s theory states that, throughout life, individuals go through various stages during which one will meet ever changing psychosocial challenges. The completion of the work of each stage which Erikson alludes to as a crisis that prepares one to move on to the following stage. According to this theory, if individuals do not resolve a crisis during any of these stages one will continue to create events throughout life which will recreate a crisis until one have done the psychosocial work necessary to resolve a specific crisis, or not (Erikson,