Research: Erick Ericksons Stages of Development

Erick Erickson was a German psychoanalyst. His interest in identity was developed from his personal experiences he had at school. One of the main elements of his stage theory, which are known as Erikson’s Stages of Development, is the development of ego identity. Ego identity is the sense of connection or belonging between a person and a particular social religion, political group, value, sexual orientation, and so on. He believed that our ego identity changed constantly due to new experiences or different interactions you have with people daily. To explain his ideas more clearly he organized life into eight stages that start from birth to death, According to the theory if you complete each stage you will have a healthy personality and feel a sense of satisfaction with yourself. If you fail to complete each or an individual stage it can result in having an unhealthy personality or a bad self-esteem. Each stage has two outcomes. The first four stages occur in childhood, the next four are at adulthood. Since adulthood includes too many years he divided them into adolescence, middle adulthood, and seniors or maturity. The stages of development are: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. identity diffusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, and integrity vs. despair. The fifth stage of development, identity versus identity diffusion, occurs in adolescence, which includes teens from ages 12 to 18. In this stage, adolescents discover who they really are. They begin to know what their role in gender is, what their role in society is, discover their strengths, weaknesses, and make goals. In order to accomplish this stage adolescents need to explore different identities and commit to one or try to “fit in”. I think that it is very obvious when you see a teenager in this stage because one day you might see them with a group of friends that are athletic and dressed in jerseys,