Comparing Erikson's Stages And B. F. Skinner

A Comparison Of Erik Erikson’s Life Cycle Stages and B. F. Skinner’s About Behaviorism Erik Erikson released his theory on the cycle of life in 1950. He and his wife Joan had worked together on “The Life Cycle Completed” in order to describe the eight stages of development. After Erikson’s passing, his wife added a ninth stage in the most recent version of the book. Within this book, the nine stages are described in detail as they relate to human psychosocial development. The original eight stages and psychosocial orientations that are acquired with each stage are as follows, infancy: basic trust vs. basic mistrust, early childhood: autonomy vs. shame, doubt, play age: initiative vs. guilt, school age: industry vs. inferiority, adolescence:
Infants are dependent on their mother for sustenance to live and love to nurture their development.
Early Childhood The crisis that Erikson describes during early childhood consists of “autonomy vs. shame and doubt”. Throughout early childhood children have trouble relating to others but by developing a sense of being in control of their own life, such as free will, they will make it out of this crisis. However, on the other end of this crisis, children may experience a great amount of shame in not being able to control themselves, developing into an obsession with trying to control themselves and others.
Play Age At the play age, children experience the “initiative vs. guilt” crisis, which occurs due to children experiencing difficulties within the family such as the Oedipus complex, which may result in aggressing towards the parent of the same sex or an attraction toward the parent of the opposite sex. When children at the play age experience this crisis they tend to “take initiative”, such that they be come more social or they may experience guilt due to the aggression and sexual attraction they are feeling towards their
During puberty teenagers tend to explore different social groups and may develop a sense of identity in a specific group that they feel comfortable in. When teenagers struggle to discover their identity within a clique, their sense of self is not as clear and could lead to misbehaving in adolescence that may potentially effect young adulthood.
Young Adulthood Within young adulthood, most individuals have developed a sense of identity in some way. With a feeling of stableness within oneself, individuals then go on to search for another individual to share their life with, whether it is friendship or romantically. During young adulthood if an individual feels as though they have failed in finding this connected with others, they may isolate themselves and become anti-social.
Adulthood
As individuals progress through young adulthood and do eventually find a romantic partner, the next struggle is having a stable income and community to raise a family in. When individuals feel as though they are contributing to the community through work and raising their family in a stable home they will continue to grow in that manner. However, in other cases individuals who do not experience such growth will stagnate within family life, work life, and their social