Erik H. Erikson’s Psychosocial Development Theory
Erikson’s Biography and History
Erik Homburger Erikson was a renowned American Psychologist through the psychosocial development theory, born in Germany in 1902 and died in 1994 (Patel, 2016, 1). Her mother gave birth without the biological father,an issue that was significant in Erickson’s life. Erickson grew and used his stepfather’s name after her mother married him in 1905(Patel, 2016, 1). However, Erick felt that the father did not accept and like him to a satisfactory level compared to the daughters. Following the feeling of disturbing identity and acceptance by the stepfather, Erikson changed his name toErikson.
During his life in Germany, Erickson met Anna Freud, the daughter to Sigmund Freud, where his life took the cause of psychoanalysis. He enrolled in the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute for psychoanalysis through a curriculum based on developmental and psychosexual stages(Patel, 2016, 1). The institution gave him a diploma instead of a usual degree, although his extensive experience and reading provided him with the knowledge in psychoanalysis. Ericksonlater emigrated to America with his wife Joan, who he married in 1930 due to Germany’s Nazi invasion(Patel, 2016, 1).
America provided Erickson with an opportunity to practice psychoanalysis,primarily through children in Boston. He worked in different medical institutions,including Harvard’s Psychological Clinic and Harvard Medical School,where he met with Kurt Lewin, a fellow psychologist and two anthropologists, Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead(Patel, 2016, 1).Erickson took advantage of the exposure to study children psychology through different environments, social structures, and psychological issues, which he recorded in his books such as ‘Childhood and Society.’
Ericson also worked in California in the Institute of Child Welfare and also the University of California at San Francisco andBerkeley. In the two institutions, he was still studying children of Native American descent. However, in 1951, the university forced him to take an oath as evidence of being non-Communist(Patel, 2016, 1). Although he was a non-Communist, he did not sign the oath citing freedom which the First Amendment provides. The university forced him to resign and went back to Massachusetts to continue his practice in emotionally challengedyoung people.
Theoretical Perspective and Erikson’s Contribution to the Psychology Field
Erickson’s Sub Field
Erikson focused on developmental systems theory. He built his approach to that of Sigmund Freud, who was also a developmental psychologist. Erickson had a particular interest in child development after a long time study of children’senvironments, social structures, and psychological issues(Capps, 2015, 347). His psychosocial development theory focused on how children and older people develop an identity as they grow, an area that relates to developmental systems.
Major Contribution to the Field of Psychology
Erickson’s contribution to the area of psychology was the development of frameworks that explains how people form identities. Among the significant contributions is the discovery that children’s environment contributes significantly to their growth, identity, self-awareness, and adjustment. Erickson builds on Freud’s five developmental stages to eight based on psychanalysis. He showed that people develop through eight stages, where every step has conflicting values. The ability to solve the conflict and select the right value pushes the children to the next step(Batra, 2013, 250). Erickson identified the eight steps as hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom. In each step, there are competing issues, for example, mistrust versus trust in phase one. The environment, for example, trustable caregivers,enables children to win over the stage and move to the next one.
In developmental stages, Erickson also contributed to the understating of how adults and adolescents form identity through an identity crisis. He identified that adults’ and adolescents’ development is based on solutions to the prompt about who they are in different situations(Capps, 2015, 349). The ability of such people to organize their history, beliefs, abilities, and drives to see themselves leads to development.
Another contribution was the development of a framework to explain how people function successfully in their usual self. He expanded on Freudian work in dysfunctional behavior to show how functional behaviors impact people.He showed that culture and societies impact the psychological development of individuals(Dunkel&Sefcek, 2009, 16). Erickson alsodeveloped a framework to understandthe causes of human war, aggression, and conflict. He argued that arrogant placement of a person’s society, culture, or race above those of other peoplemakes people aggressive to defend their side.
Significance of the Theory
Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development is significant in the field of education to understand and plan structures to provide to children. The approach helps teachers to understand the child’s developmental stage through personality analysis to personalize the environment and structures. Teachers, through the theoretical framework, can coach parents to look at their children’s shortcomings and guide on the need for social structures. Another contribution and application of Erickson’s theory are in the selection and training of leaders. Erikson studied the impact of challengesthat leaders faced on their identities, which made them successful in their work. The structure, which includes documentation of historical leaders, helps in the identification of qualities of leaders to train upcoming ones. Another application is in counseling, especially on the youths who need to discover their identities(Erikson, 1984, 157). Counselors use the theory to help youths organize their history, beliefs, drives, and abilities, which leads to self-realization.
Impact of Erickson’s Historical and Life Context on the Theory
Among the significant life incidences in Erickson was confusion over his identity following his stepfather’s less acceptance. He needs to identify who he was and understand why his father had less attraction to his son made him focus on identity development. Erickson was in a crisis with his identity wondering how he could not develop a good relationship with his biological father. He did not know that the father was no biological at the time. He recognizes that “there were the 60’s when problems of identity were so widely…” necessitating the need to consider psychosocial elements (Erikson, 1984, 155). Erickson identifies that his challenges and that of others, he faced motivated him to study identity crisis. The incidence could have pushed him to study identity crisis, which was the basis of his theory.
Erickson’s relationship with other psychologists and topologists could also have impacted his theory. The first contact in the line of psychology was Freud’s daughter. Erickson might have shared his story with the daughter, and the daughter led him to his father for more guidance. The theory is an extension of Freud’s model, although through psychoanalysis revealing external motivation and guidance (Capps, 2015, 349). Freud could have, therefore, motivated Erickson to focus on developmental psychology to understand his identity, an area that challenged him in early life.Erickson also met two anthropologists in the course of his learning. The mention of anthropologistsin his bibliography means that they hand an impact in his life. While anthropologists study how the environment, including culture,affects one’s life, Erikson studied through psychoanalysis how the same environmentaffects development. The anthropologists could have, therefore, impacted Erickson to also focus on how the environment could have shaped him to have a different identity with his father.
References
Erikson, E.H., 1984. Reflections on the last stage—and the first. The psychoanalytic study of the child, 39(1), pp.155-165.
Capps, D., 2015. ‘Erik H. Erikson’s Psychoanalytic Portrait of Martin Luther’, Pastoral Psychology, 64(3), pp. 345–368.
Patel, A., 2016. Person of the Month: Erik Erikson (1902-1994). The International Journal of Indian Psychology, Volume 4, Issue 1,(No. 79), 3(4), p.1.
Batra, S., 2013. The psychosocial development of children: Implications for education and society—Erik Erikson in context. Contemporary Education Dialogue, 10(2), pp.249-278.
Dunkel, C.S., and Sefcek, J.A., 2009. Eriksonian lifespan theory and life history theory: An integration using the example of identity formation. Review of General Psychology, 13(1), pp.13-23.