ERIK ERIKSON

Human Developmental Stages

Understanding Erik Erikson and his Take on Life Developmental Stages ABSTRACT

The is about Erik Erikson 's Developmental Life stages , eight clearly distinct sequential stages that he believes people go through throughout the course of their lives . Also included is a very brief of Erikson 's beginnings which sheds some light on his lifelong interest about identity and personality . Further , a short of the supposed reasons behind the popularity of his developmental stages is included for better understanding

Each of the eight life stages are characterized by

a conflict or crises , a central task which determines the outcome of the crises related developmental tasks and the significant people who greatly contribute to the success and failure of each task . All these are briefly included and described in the .Understanding Erik Erikson and his Take on Life Developmental Stages

Perhaps one of the most known developmental psychologists who has amassed a great deal of following and influenced even more is Erik Erikson . One of the reasons behind his popularity is the practicality and the realness of his life developmental stages . Aside from this , his developmental stages are easy to follow and understand even by non-psychology folk

Erik Erikson was born in Germany to parents who separated even before his birth . A physician , Theodore Homberger , married his mother and raised him as Erik Homberger (Kaplan , Saddock , Grebb , 1994 ) Perhaps one of the reasons behind his curiosity about identity is that he also experienced a number of conflicts early in his life . As a young boy people would often wonder and even question his Jewish faith despite his Danish appearance this may be one of the reasons why he developed a penchant for understanding identity throughout the course of his career The same interest was further strengthened when he became a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Society where he also met Anna Freud , Sigmund Freud 's daughter (Erikson , Coles , 2000

Initially Erik Erikson 's development stages were proposed simply as an improvement on Sigmund Freud 's psychosexual stages . Erikson accepted many of Freud 's concepts and theories but believed that something else or something greater than sexuality molds an individual 's personality (Butterworth , 2002 ) He further believes that personality development does not stop during childhood but is an ongoing process that takes place throughout the course of one 's life

Erik Erikson 's most influential book , Childhood and Society , published in 1950 discussed the eight specific divisions of the human life cycle each division corresponding to a developmental goal for that particular stage in life . This is based on the epigenetic principle that development follows a sequence or clearly defined stages that must be resolved for a smooth transition to the next stage (Kaplan , Saddock Grebb , 1994 ) The importance of transitioning smoothly into the next stage is quite critical since failure to resolve conflicts in each stage may result to maladjustment later on (Erikson , 1994 ) Further , his theories are psychosocial in nature that emphasizes the interplay...