Erik Erickson Research Paper

Erik Erikson * June 15, 1902 – May 12, 1994 * Mother- Karla Abrahamsen * He studied the Montessori method of education, which focused on child development. * He became the first child psychoanalyst in Boston. * He is best known with his book, Childhood and Society, in 1950 * Joan Serson Erikson – her wife * Erikson is also credited with being one of the originators of Ego psychology

Theories of development and the ego * Erikson elaborated Freud's genital stage into adolescence, and added three stages of adulthood * He believed that every human being goes through a certain number of stages to reach his or her full development. * He was a neo-Freudian. * He is maybe the most famous for coining
the phrase identity crisis.

Erikson's stages of Psychosocial Development

* hope - Basic Trust vs. Mistrust - Infant stage / 0-1 year. Does the child believe its caregivers to be reliable? * will - Autonomy vs.
Shame and Doubt - Toddler stage / 1-3 years. Child needs to learn to explore the world. Bad if the parent is too smothering or completely neglectful. * purpose - Initiative vs. Guilt - Preschool / 3-6 years - Can the child plan or do things on his own. If "guilty" about making his or her own choices, the child will not function well. compensated by a sense of accomplishment

* competence - Industry vs. Inferiority - School-age / 6-11. Child comparing self worth to others. Child can recognize major disparities in personal abilities relative to other children. * fidelity - Identity vs. Role Confusion - Adolescent / 12 years till mid twenties. Questioning of self. Who am I, how do I fit in? Where am I going in life? Erikson believes that if the parents allow the child to explore, they will conclude their own identity. * love (in intimate relationships, work and family) - Intimacy vs. Isolation - Young adult / mid twenties till early forties. Who do I want to be with or date, what am I going to do with my life? Will I settle down * caring - Generativity vs. Stagnation - early forties till mid 60’s / starts as the Mid-life crisis. Measure accomplishments/failures. Am I satisfied or
not? * wisdom - Ego Integrity vs. Despair - old age / from mid sixties. Some handle death well. Some can be bitter, unhappy, and/or dissatisfied with what they have accomplished or failed to accomplish within their lifetime.
"Every adult, whether he is a follower or a leader, a member of a mass or of an elite, was once a child. He was once small. A sense of smallness forms a substratum in his mind, ineradicably. His triumphs will be measured against this smallness, his defeats will substantiate it. The questions as to who is bigger and who can do or not do this or that, and to whom—these questions fill the adult's inner life far beyond the necessities and the desirabilities which he understands and for which he plans." - Erik H. Erikson (1902–1994), U.S. psychoanalyst. Childhood and Society, ch. 11 (1950)