Question

Why was the quality of the parent-child relationship so important to Erickson? Discuss at least (5) things that Erickson would have said a parent should do to encourage the basic strengths in a child younger than 11 years of age.

Allport:

Describe 4 characteristic of a trait. How do traits differ from attitudes?

Describe Allport’s concept of functional autonomy. What role does it play in the development of personality? What is the relationship between our motivation(work, love motivation, exercise motivation, etc) and our different levels of functional autonomy?

Answer 1

According to Erik Erikson children at the age of 11 stand in the fourth developmental stage, Industrious vs Inferiority. A child reaches this stage after successfully accomplishing the first three stages such as Trust, Autonomy and Initiative successfully. If there is a problem at one of these stages, it would affect the child in the later stages but Erikson finds the fourth stage very important as it spans 6 years from the age of 6 to 12. Children either become competent by being industrious or feel inferior. In order to develop competency, parents could encourage their children when they try new things, provide opportunity to explore new things, encourage them when they struggle to do things, help them with whatever they are not able to do on their own and avoid criticizing for doing something wrong. He points out three traits such as Cardinal, Central and Secondary.

Gordon Allport's explanation of trait has four distinct characteristics. He says that it's dynamic because it keeps changing according to the situation, it's unique to each individual, it revolves around one's psychosocial system and it refers tot eh adjustments that a person does in order to survive in the environment or suit the environment better. Trait is mostly inherent and inbuilt but attitude depends on the environment and people in the environment. Attitude is basically an individual's reaction to the external events. Functional Autonomy, according to Allport refers to an individual's motivations, especially internal motivation in completing a task perfectly without much external motivations. This functional autonomy which is driven by internal motivation is what drives people who are achievers and innovators. One doesn't give one's hundred percentage in all the tasks but in tasks that one likes. Thus it differs from person to person, place to place and in different environments.