Question

Locate an elderly person—perhaps contact a retirement home for someone you may visit or interview a neighbor or grandparent. Ask them to share with you their life story and what they can of their personality. Begin the paper by describing who you interviewed, how you met them or know them (This should be no more than ½ a page and give the basic demographic information. For example: Mrs. Smith is a 50 year old Caucasian woman who grew up in South Boston. She was a housewife and raised three children. She also worked in a factory…..etc). • Based on your interview, assess their personality in terms of Erikson’s developmental theory. You must include THREE of Erikson’s stages. Be sure to explain Erikson’s theory as you describe it. How did they resolve the various stages? Where do you believe they fit now? You should also comment on other aspects of their personality, but be sure to spend at least half the paper on Erikson’s theory.

Answer 1

Erik Erikson proposed psychosocial theory in which he enumerated that we experience eight different stages of development over our lifespan from infancy to adulthood and at each stage we encounter crisis that we need to resolve. Thus successful accomplishment of each developmental task results in a sense of proficiency whereas incapability to resolve the crisis leads to feeling of insufficiency.

In first stage of a child life major emphasis is on parents to properly nurture the ability of a child as it can facilitate the child to develop confidence, faith, self-reliance and self-assurance. However if a child fails to experience the belief then he might develop uncertainty, irrelevance and mistrust.

In second stage which generally occurs between 18 months and 3 years the child has a prospect to develop self-esteem and independence as he learns new skills and understands activities which can be right or wrong. Thus during this period child can show signs of disobedience, annoyance and perseverance as he tends to be vulnerable with an occasionally feeling of embarrassment and low confidence due to lack of ability to learn certain skills.

In third stage we experience a desire to replicate other people around us and take initiative in creating play situations. Thus we come up with stories like Barbie’s and Ken’s toy phones and little cars etc. that what we believe it mean to be an adult. Furthermore we also set in motion to put into use all those magnificent expressions which we believe can facilitate to explore the world.

Fourth stage called Latency is competent of learning, creating and achieving several new skills and knowledge thus developing a sense of business. This in fact is also a very important social stage of development and if we experience unsettled feelings of insufficiency and inadequacy among our peers then we can have severe problems in terms of proficiency and self-respect.

In fifth stage growth depends on the activities a person indulges into thus at this point development principally depends upon what an individual actually does. Thus an individual indeed must effort to realize and find his individuality and distinctiveness while negotiating and struggling with social interactions and developing a sense of moral value and ethics.

Sixth stage is also regarded as the young adult stage where an individual tend to seek friendship and love. Some also begin to settle down and establish families. Furthermore young adult tries to seek an in depth understanding and fulfilling relationships but if ineffective and unproductive then they might go in isolation. Thus significant relationships at this stage are with matrimonial partners and friends.

In Seventh stage career and work are the considered to be most crucial and significant element along with family. Middle adulthood is also the time when an individual can take on greater responsibilities and control. At this stage people work to ascertain steadiness and growth endeavoring to produce something that can make a difference to society. Furthermore idleness and insignificance are general fears during this stage.

Eighth stage involves much reflection as grown-up adults can look back with a sense of truthfulness, satisfaction and accomplishment which indeed can facilitate to have a significant life and provide valuable contribution to society whereas others may have a sense of hopelessness during this stage dazzling upon their knowledge, experience and failures. Thus they may apprehend death as they effort to find a purpose to their lives