Jim Poss

Upon review of all the theories of human development, I believe that Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development is much easier to accept and much believable than Freud’s and Piaget’s theories. I believe that not all things in our life are dominated by sexual instincts. I believe that social conflicts and personal dilemmas shape a person on becoming who he is right now. According to Erikson’s theory, the personal conflicts that we encounter every day and every stage of our development is our determinant on how we will develop in life. If the conflict is not resolved, this may result to a stagnancy of development or abnormality in our psychological development.
In the first stage of Erikson’s theory (birth to one year), infants should be able to solve the issue of trusting others or “trust versus mistrust” stage. In this stage, the primary caregiver, mostly the mother, needs to establish that the world has the basic things that he needs, food, water, air, love, and etc. This is necessary in our development because, as infants, we cannot talk to our parents of what we need. So, the primary caregiver needs to be sensitive enough to know the needs of a child and assure him that everything will go well. In this case, the mother, whom is the primary giver of care and love to us, needs to be on her toes to keep him safe from any negativity. Inconsistency may lead to mistrust because he may think that he cannot rely on any one person. I believe that this is crucial in the early stage because people who did not get the attention they needed from there primary caregivers do not easily trust anyone, even there family and friends. In my experience, I know some who did not grow up with their parents so they developed mistrust with the people around them. They can be very selfish because they cannot trust anyone but themselves only.
In the second stage of his theory (one year to three years), the child needs to feel being autonomous or “autonomy versus shame and guilt”. In