Reflection Paper On Development Psychology

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.

According to Shaffer (2009), Erikson believed that human beings face eight major crises, or conflicts, during the course of their lives. Each conflict has its own time for emerging, as dictated by both biological maturation and the social demands that developing people experience at particular points in life (p.42). Every age someone deals with tells a story in their lifetime. There are eight stages in the Erikson’s stages.

His model of ‘eight stages of psychosocial development’ explains that the human development process is influenced by the society, culture, personal circumstances, relationships and environment. He considers that identity, emotions, thoughts and personalities are formed through the associations between the individuals, the society and the circumstances in which they live in. He speaks about the development challenges and conflicts individuals have to tackle in the stages of their lives (Crawford and walker: 2007). The ability to deal with these challenges and conflicts can be the source of gaining vital expertise, skills and strength for the next stages. Although successful conclusion of each stage is not entirely critical, failure can be detrimental to the development of the personality, character and self- regard and, may possibly bring about developmental stagnation, whereas assistance and support can help to overcome this obstacle (Trevithick: 2012).

Erikson was highly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory of Development. Although, at first Freud was limited to childhood based on the phallic stage, Erikson focused on developing a lifespan theory.

According to Erickson (1950) psychological development results from the interaction between maturational processes or biological needs and the societal demands and social forces encountered in everyday life. (Salkind, 2004) As you know Erickson’s theories contains eight stages and in order to move onto the next stage you must have resolved any conflict that may have occurred.

As they go through this stage young people will begin to solve problems more easily and have an appreciation of other people’s views and opinions. However as they are still inexperienced in life a young person may appear immature at times with regards to their ways of thinking and speech. During the Emotional Development stage, a young person will begin to spend less time with their parents and want to spend more time with their friends socialising instead. A young person may also feel conflicted at times, as they will want the affection from parents, however this is usually short lived as the young person will then also reject it when it is given.

Erikson’s theory comprises of eight stages. At each stage, a social conflict or crisis occurs. These are not generally deplorable circumstances; nonetheless, they necessitate solutions that are satisfying both personally and socially. Erikson holds that each stage must be resolved before children can ascend to the next stage. Maturity and social forces aid in the resolution of the crisis or conflict.

Erikson proposed various stages of psychological development that progresses as life move from one stage to another from infancy till reaching state of late adulthood. The generativity versus stagnation stage is linked with middle age adulthood while ego integrity versus despair stage is linked with late adulthood explained for person. Each stage has its own positive and negative output that influence individual thought process and approach towards society. There are various physical and cognitive changes that occur in late adulthood and that eventually lead to death or dying process. The approach towards life to manage integrity or despair defines the way death is accepted by individual or further outcome is achieved gradually in the process.

Erikson was highly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory of Development. Although, at first Freud was limited to childhood based on the phallic stage, Erikson focused on developing a lifespan theory. The eight stages are as followed: Trust vs. Mistrust (infancy): The basic and fundamental psychological task is for infants to develop a sense that their needs will be met by the outside world. Is their caregiver responsive, reliable, and willing to meet their needs? That basic trust is facilitated by a responsive caregiver once an infant gets hungry, injured, or needs to be changed.

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.

Furthermore he has mentioned in his theory, the result of completing each stage successfully, also the result of failure to complete a stage successfully. Erikson’s developmental stages are from infancy to maturity. The eight stages of Erikson’s developmental theories are: 1.

I will compare and contrast Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory and Albert Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory. Erikson is a psychoanalytic theorist who believes that our unconscious mind and early experiences in life shape our development. Erikson postulates that we develop in 8 stages that he calls psychosocial stages. Bandura, on the other hand, holds that we develop based on social cognitive stages that are affected by environmental influences. Let’s start with Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory.

While Erikson incorporated many of Freud’s theory, Erikson was interested in how social contact and associations played a role in the development and growth of human beings. A second theory that applies is Micro, Mezzo and Macro levels of conceptualization. Each member of the family can be helped by seeing to their spirituality, impulse control, work/school, ethnic identity, health, and emotional development. Life Span Perspectives Age/Developmental stage.

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development 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).

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