The Theory of Psychosocial Development by Erikson Psychosocial

The Theory of Psychosocial Development by Erikson Psychosocial Development

Who Was Erikson? • An American German Psychologist trained in classic Freudian Psychodynamic theory. • Rejected Freud's overemphasis on sexually driven, unconscious forces of the id as the determinant of personality o Theorized instead, that it is the development of the ego, the rational, problem-solving, reality-based aspect of personality that is the center of personality development.

Development of Ego Strength Ego strength: The internal capacity of the individual to function in their world, rebound from difficulties and deal with environmental and personal opportunities and challenges in a realistic and fruitful manner.

Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development Proposed that we all develop ego strength by progressing through 8 distinct stages in life. In each stage we learn from others about ourselves, the world and society and how to function well. Each is then a stage of Psycho-social Development.

Essential Features of the Psychosocial Stages Each psycho-social stage is defined by a specific life challenge that emanates from our relationships with others. This challenge elicits a bipolar emotional crisis that we must resolve. In later years Erikson renamed these crises as conflicting or competing tendencies.

Essential Features of the Psychosocial Stages – Ego Virtues If we resolve the crisis well, we develop a new skill that we can use to function in the world. These skills Erikson called Ego Virtues: Personal life skills and strengths that will allow us to deal with the up’s and down’s of life.

How do we RESOLVE the competition between these conflicting tendencies? The resolution of the crisis at each stage will NEVER be achieved by choosing one of the competing tendencies over the other! We must instead find a balance between these dual emotional tendencies and blend them into ONE ego virtue.

What are the 8 stages of Psychosocial development? In order to quickly cover all eight stages we will now watch a short video that presents the dual, competing tendencies (crises) for each stage. Then return to the lecture. Hit CTL and Click the link below: Overview Erikson's Psychosocial Theory of Development

Critique of the Video You may have noticed two problems with the video presentation. • First, the video emphasized the two conflicting crises for each stage, but neglected the ego virtues. o Common mistake, also in the textbook but this is a major flaw since it is the ego virtues achieved that take us, better prepared, to move on in life to deal with the next psychosocial stage and life itself. • Second, it sounded as if resolution was based upon choosing the more positive emotional tendency but ego virtues are always about BALANCE.