Question

For tthat assignment, you are to write a 2 page summary on a Famous Psychologist Erik Smith Erikson using proper APA (american psychological association) format.

Structure of assignment:

1-      Name

a.       History of person

b.      Context of when they lived

c.       DOB/DOD

2-      Contributions to the field

3-      APA format

Answer 1

I am going to write about Erik Smith Erikson who is known for his theory of psychological development and coined the term identity crisis. Erikson was born on the 15 June 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany. He attended art school in Munich as desired by his stepfather but soon he dropped out. He started to roam around along with his childhood friend Peter Blos to Germany and Italy. During this time Erikson had this preoccupation with various ideas of identity such as ethnic, religious and national. After few years, Erikson got an opportunity to work as an art teacher in Vienna. His friend Peter Blos was instrumental in getting this offer for him. Here he got spotted by Sigmund Freud’s daughter, Anna Freud. Anna got touched by Erikson's sensitivity in dealing with kids and advised him to study psychoanalysis at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. At this institute, he found mentors like August Aichhorn, Heinz Hartmann, and Paul Federn. He went on to specialize in child analysis and also received training by Anna Freud on how to do the psychological treatment of an adult. He graduated with a diploma in 1933 from Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. He went on to do commendable work with just armed with a diploma in the field of psychology.

With Adolf Hitler rise to power in Germany, he moved his family to the United States. In the United States, he became the first child psychoanalyst in Boston and also worked at Harvard medical school as a clinician. In 1936, he left Harvard and joined Yale University. He started to teach here at the medical school.In 1939 he left Yale and moved to California. He joined a team of experts at the University of Berkeley who were doing a longitudinal study of child development. Here he published his famous book, Childhood and Society. Finally, he returned to Harvard in the year 1960 and remained there as a professor of human development until retirement in the year 1970. Erikson's is credited to develop a theory that focuses on the adaptive and creative character of the ego. The Erikson's theory presents a wide and integrated set of life skills and abilities that function together to make an individual. He died at the age of 91 on 12 May 1994.