Erick Ericksons Stages of Development Essay

Erick Erickson was a German psychoanalyst. His interest in identity was developed from his personal experiences he had at school. One of the main elements of his stage theory, which are known as Erikson’s Stages of Development, is the development of ego identity. Ego identity is the sense of connection or belonging between a person and a particular social religion, political group, value, sexual orientation, and so on. He believed that our ego identity changed constantly due to new experiences or different interactions you have with people daily. To explain his ideas more clearly he organized life into eight stages that start from birth to death, According to the theory if you complete each stage you will have a healthy personality and feel a sense of satisfaction with yourself. If you fail to complete each or an individual stage it can result in having an unhealthy personality or a bad self-esteem. Each stage has two outcomes. The first four stages occur in childhood, the next four are at adulthood. Since adulthood includes too many years he divided them into adolescence, middle adulthood, and seniors or maturity. The stages of development are: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. hame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. identity diffusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair. The fifth stage of development, identity versus identity diffusion, occurs in adolescence, which includes teens from ages 12 to 18. In this stage, adolescents discover who they really are. They begin to know what their role in gender is, what their role in society is, discover their strengths, weaknesses, and make goals. In order to accomplish this stage adolescents need to explore different identities and commit to one or try to â€Å"fit in†. I think that it is very obvious when you see a teenager in this stage because one day you might see them with a group of friends that are athletic and dressed in jerseys, running shoes and so on, then later you might see them with a group of Goths who dress in black. Deciding whether you will attend college or just go to a vocational school, and simply finding what you want to become in the future, or study is also a part of your identity, even religion and political views are part of finding out who you really are. It is a complicated process but that is why you need to mature to make the correct choices. You need the encouragement and reinforcement of your loved ones to help you. If you fail to accomplish this stage you have what is called an identity crisis or also known as a diffusion which means you are not committed to an occupation, a religion, or your cultural identity. This is considered to be a normal problem in a teenager’s life. There is a solution to this problem because but you explore the different identities and decide which one appeals to your life style and you commit to it, you are ready to move on to the next stage and be an independent adult. Erickson’s fifth stage is influenced from James Marcia identity statuses, which are, identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, and identity achieved. Marcia’s ideas will help you better understand the importance of Erickson’s stages of development. Identity diffusion refers to when there is neither an identity crisis nor commitment. Identity achieved is when the person has gone through an exploration of different identities and made a commitment to one. Moratorium is the status in which the teen is currently in a crisis, while exploring a variety of identities and is ready to make choices but not ready to commit to one. Last is foreclosure which is when the adolescent is committed to an identity but they commit to an identity because it has been handed to them. These are not stages but rather a process to finding an identity. So how does this stage affect you personality? A teen who has answered the question â€Å"Who am I? †, and â€Å"Where will I go later in life†, learn fidelity. Fidelity is being loyal to a person, cause, or belief. Devotion is also learned through this stage. Devotion is defined as love, loyalty, or enthusiasm for a person, activity, or cause. You also become a more social person and do well with social relationships. Those who receive proper encouragement and reinforcement when exploring will move on to the next stage with a strong sense of self and a feeling of independence and control. Being independent is admitting you did wrong, being able to think for yourself, you also learn how to take care of yourself. We need independence in order to survive. A teen learns to be true to themselves. The other outcome to this is stage, not finding who you are, can make you confused about your role in society, and cause you to have a weak self-esteem. You can also be an insecure individual who feels lost in the world. A person that has identified diffusion may be described as disorganized, complicated, and somewhat unethical. Finding your identity is a process full of anxiety, but it is very normal for a teen to go through all this trouble. A lot of the choices you make at this point in life are influenced by your peers. This is the time of age when you get the most peer pressure, you begin to rebel against your parents, and begin to explore your role as a men or women. I believe the process might be different for a female compared to a male. So the purpose of finding an identity is to know who you are, what you want in life, and what you want to become, to be an independent individual with a strong sense of self, who knows how to develop social relationships. People will begin to look at you different when you develop an identity, and they can treat you more serious, and more like an adult.