Question

Describe how personality in adulthood changes and also how it remains stable. According to Erikson, what is the major goal of adulthood? What types of experiences in adulthood would lead to that? According to the Big Five Factor of Personality, where do you think you fall on traits such as openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism?

One of the major personality stereotypes in adulthood is the concept of the midlife crisis. What do researchers say about the midlife crisis?

Answer 1

Eric Erickson a renowned psychologist developed a psychosocial theory of development, to understand the development of one's personality. Erickson proposed that an individual's personality goes through stages.Erickson believed that an individual's personality develops based on his interaction with the society.

Eric Erickson's Theory of Psychosocial Development emphasizes on individual's relationship with the social environment for healthy development to occur throughout his lifespan. Erickson developed a theory to understand how a person's childhood, adolescence, adulthood, affects his entire life. He proposed Eight Stages which every person goes through in their life. Each stage is defined by a conflict which involves an individual's relationship with the social environment (mother, father, immediate relatives, peers, colleagues), that must be resolved in for healthy development to occur over a period of lifetime.

Erickson's stages of development include:

Trust versus mistrust(birth-1year), is the first stage of all the eight stages. It occurs from birth to eighteen months of age. It is indeed one of the most important period's of a person's life as it is during this time that the infant develops their trust or mistrust towards the world in their growing years. The only way an infant can seek for attention is by crying, either for hunger, discomfort or fear. The child's trust develops depending on how quickly his/her need is met by the parent, caregiver. Some parents are more receptive than the others. Some caregiver's immediately attend to their child's need whether it is to provide food to eat, or comfort them when they are scared or just when they need someone to hold them and cuddle upto them, while the other caregivers think the baby to be extremely cranky and let them be with a hope that they'll stop crying on their own. The quality of care that an infant receives plays a very important role in how his personality develops in the growing years. By responding as soon as a parent can, a foundation of trust is established.Some adults are more easily trusting than the others. People who are able to trust more easily are secure adults who as infants received great deal of attention and care from their parent or caregiver. Individuals who find it very difficult to trust other people had caregivers who were emotionally unavailable or inconsistent during their childhood.

Identity vs Role Confusion(Adolescences), according to Erickson, early adulthood has it's own conflicts associated with it, which includes having an identity crises. An individual indulges in self-doubt, questions his or her self-worth and is basically in the process of figuring out themselves. This conflict needs to be resolved at the earliest as it may lead to serious self-confidence issues later in life.

Intimacy vs Isolation(Adulthood),as an individual grows into an adult, he explores himself and tries to have a steady and intimate relationship. If a person is unable to explore this side to him, then it would result in isolation and he may not be able to find a partner for himself to grow old with.

Generativity vs Stagnation(Middle Adulthood), when an individual reaches mid 40's, they would have done enough in life but would hit a rough patch wherein they may feel like, 'what next'. They may feel that their life has reached a plateau in terms of growth and they may feel the need to develop generativity. If this conflict is not resolved at this stage, then they would just be stagnant in terms of growth as a person.

Ego Integrity vs Despair(Final Stage), the later stages in life, when a person is in his late 60's or 70's has mostly achieved everything that they may have wanted to in life. That is the time when they look back and reflect. Ego integrity refers to them feeling satisfied with the way they have lived their life or may feel despair and regretful about the things that they may have missed out upon and left unaccomplished.