ERIK ERIKSON & DEVELOPMENT PSYCHOLOGY

DENGAIL T. HINESAPRIL 24, 2014

Born: June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany

Died: May 12, 1994 in Cape Cod, Massachussetts

Erikson’s mother, Karla Abrahamsen, came from a Jewish family in Copenhagen

German-born American developmental psychologist, psychoanalyst

Known for his theory of psychosocial development

Coined the term “identity crisis”

HOW WAS ERIKSON “DEVELOPED”?

At temple school, Erikson was being teased for being Nordic for being tall, blonde, & blue-eyed being raised in the Jewish religion

Attended Das Humanistich Gymnasium which his main interests were art, history, & languages, but lacked in school & graduated w/o academic instincts

After graduation, Erikson attended art school in Munich

ME, MYSELF, & I!

At the age of 25, his friend Peter Blos invited him to Vienna to tutor art at the Birmingham-Rosenfield School whose affluent parents were undergoing psychoanalysis by Anna Freud

Specialized in child analysis & underwent training analysis w/ Freud

1930: Married Joan Mowat Serson & converted to Christianity

1933: Studied the Montessori Method of education & received a Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute diploma

ME, MYSELF & I! (CONT’D)

1933: Moved to the United States, becoming the first child psychoanalyst in Boston, MA holding positions at Massachussetts General Hospital, the Judge Baker Guidance Center, & at Harvard Medical School & Psychological Clinic

1936: Left Harvard & joined the staff at Yale University; changed his family’s surname from “Homburger” to “Erikson” since he was a neutralized citizen

1938: Invited to observe the education of native Sioux children on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota

1939: Erikson left Yale, moved his family to California. & joined a team engaged in a longitudinal study of child development for the University of California; opened his own private practice in child psychoanalysis

ME, MYSELF, & I! (CONT’D)

Focuses on how personalities evolve throughout life as a result of the interaction between biologically based maturation & the demands of society

Writes that society in which one lives makes certain psychic demands (crises) at each stage of development.

During each psychosocial stage, the individual must seek to adjust to the stresses & conflicts involved in these crises

ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY

Basic trust vs. Basic mistrust

Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt

Initiative vs. Guilt

Industry vs. Inferiority

Identity vs. Role Confusion

Intimacy vs. Isolation

Generativity vs. Stagnation

Ego Integrity vs. Despair

EIGHT STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

“Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive. If life is to be sustained hope must remain,

even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.”

~ Erik Erikson

Birth to 1 ½ years (Infant) Getting & taking Hope Developing trust is the first

task of the ego, it is never complete

The child will never let the mother out of sight w/o anxiety & rage b/c she has become an inner certainty as well as an outer predictability

Balance of trust w/ mistrust depends largely on the quality of maternal relationship

BASIC TRUST VS. BASIC MISTRUST

1 ½ to 3 years (Early Childhood) Holding on & letting go Willpower If denied autonomy, the child will

turn against him/herself urges to manipulate & discriminate

Shame develops w/ child’s unconsciousness

Doubt has to do with having a front & back, a “behind” subject to its own rules. Left over doubt may become paranoia

Sense of autonomy fostered in the child & modified as life progresses serve the preservation in economic & political life of a sense of justice

AUTONOMY VS. SHAME & DOUBT

3 to 5 years (Play Age) Purpose Initiative adds to autonomy the quality of undertaking, planning, &

attacking a task for the sake of being active & on the move The child feels guilt over the goals contemplated & the acts initiated in

exhubant enjoyment of new locomotor & mental powers The castration complex occurring in this stage is due to the child’s

erotic fantasies A residual conflict over initiative may be expressed as hysterical denial,

which may causes the repression of the wish or the aborgoration of the child’s ego: paralysis & exhibition, or overcompensation of showing off

The Oedipal stage results not only in oppressive establishment of a moral sense restricting the horizon of the permissible, but also sets the direction towards the possible & tangible which permits dreams of early childhood to be attached to goals of an active adult life

INITIATIVE VS. GUILT

5 to 12 years (School Age) Competence To bring a productive situation to completion is an aim

which gradually supersedes the whims & wishes of play Fundamentals of technology are developed To lose the hope of such “industrious” association may

pull the child back to the more isolated, less conscious familial rivalry of the Oedipal time

The child can become a conformist & thoughtless slave whom others exploit

INDUSTRY VS INFERIORITY

12 to 18 years (Adolescence)

Fidelity Adolescent is newly

concerned w/ how they appear to others

Ego identity is the accrued confidence that the inner sameness & continuity prepared in the past are matched by the sameness & continuity of one’s meaning of others, as evidenced in the promise of a career

The inability to settle on a school or occupational identity is disturbing

IDENTITY VS ROLE CONFUSION

18 to 40 years (Young Adulthood) Love Body & ego must be masters of

organ modes & of the other nuclear conflicts in order to face the fear of ego loss in situations which call for self-abandon

Avoidance of these experiences lead to isolation & self-absorption

The counterpart of intimacy is distantiation

True genitality can fully develop Danger of this stage is isolation

which can lead to severe character problems

INTIMACY VS ISOLATION

40 to 65 years (Adulthood) Care Generativity is the concern in establishing &

guiding the next generation Simply wanting or having children doesn’t achieve

generativity Socially-valued work & disciples are also

expectations of generativity

GENERATIVITY VS . STAGNATION

65+ (Maturity) Wisdom Ego integrity is the ego’s accumulated assurance of its

capacity for order & meaning Despair is signified by a fear of one’s own death, as well

as the loss of self-sufficiency, & of loved partners & friends

Healthy children, won’t fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death

EGO INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR

OVERVIEW

ALWAYS REMEMBER DARLINGS….

“The richest & fullest lives attempt to achieve

an inner balance between three realms:

work, love, & play.”

~ Erik & Joan Erikson

REFERENCES

http://psychology.about.com/od/profilesofmajorthinkers/p/bio_erikson.htm

http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html