What Molds us to be what we are now
As we all know there are several theories that might have influenced ones development and this sometimes explain of what we have become or what we will be in the future. The development of human depends upon how we were raised or what has influenced as during the process of growing. And this all boils down to the beginning of our developmental stages. As the Psychosocial development theory of Erik Erickson describes the human as a series of eight ego developmental stages from birth to death. Each stage represents a psychosocial crisis, of which the goal is to integrate physical, maturation, and societal demands. Erickson says that Ego development is influenced by family, social, and other developmental factors. In the Psychosocial development, there is a lifelong series of conflicts that is affected by the social and cultural factors. By which each conflict must be resolved so that the child or adult can progress emotionally. Unsuccessful resolution of these conflicts may leave the individual emotionally handicapped.
Erik Erickson Stages of development
- Trust vs. Mistrust stage - develops during infant stage; the infant develops the attachment to the mother. And this will help an individual to have more trust in people, more faith and hope about the environment and the future. But if this crisis never resolves, there can be general difficulties of the individual relating to people effectively, there will always be suspicions, trust-fear conflict, and fear of the future. This depends upon the love and care that the mother shows her child. If she neglects her child during the time of need like for example, when an infant cries and ignores it, of course the child will feel that she is not loved or wanted. So mistrust develops, resulting to depression, withdrawal and even paranoia.
- Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt stage - here the child develops some basic control over self and environment. This explains how an individual develops a sense of self-control and adequacies giving the child the will power that will help us accomplish and build self-esteem during childhood and adolescence. The parents must guide the child gradually and firmly but letting the child build their own independence, then the child develops ones autonomy. Independence-fear conflict and severe feelings of self-doubt develops if this stage did not resolve. Like if the parents are too permissive, harsh or demanding, the child may feel defeated and thus experience shame and doubt. Since the independence is never developed, the child will embark upon neurotic attempts to regain feelings of control, power, and competency during growing up. And this can cause the child to have obsessive behaviors. But if the parents is too loose or the child was not given any limits or guidance then the child now gains to shame and doubt, and causes the child to be impulsive.
- Initiative vs. Guilt stage - develops during the late childhood. The child here becomes purposeful and directive; there will abilities to initiate one's own activities, developing the sense of purpose. The parents must be supportive and understanding of the child's efforts to show initiative, to help the child develop the sense of purpose, and sets goals and acts that they may reach it. But if the child is being punished for showing initiative, leads to the development of guilt and may cause inhibition if done in excess. The child may then feel the sense of inadequacy or guilt, and aggression-fear conflict may appear. But of course if the parent allows the child to have too much purpose and no guilt even if the purpose is bad, then this may lead to ruthlessness, as such may achieve their goals without thinking or caring of those people that they may step on or hurt during the process.
- Industry vs. inferiority stage - occurs during the school age. This stage develops social, physical and school skills, developing competence and ability to learn and work on the process. Not only the parents must support the child's effort to develop the sense of competence but also all the adults around him/her such as the teacher. The child here tames their imagination and impulses, and tries to please others. If the adults' supervising the child shows no support then the child develops inferiority, then inertia or helplessness occurs, driving the child to be an underachiever. But too much competency, and the child advances too fast to be an adult, then this can now cause the child to be shallow or histrionic person.
- Identity vs. role confusion stage - develops during the adolescence stage. The task here now is to develop the sense of identity. The young adults now try on different identities, this we call identity crisis, using their friends to reflect back to them. If they are able to resolve this crisis, then they develop fidelity, by which their abilities to gain different kind of friends. But if an individual fails to resolve, identity diffusion sets in. Their sense of self will be unstable and threatened. Too little identity may lead them to join cults or hate groups, but too much of it may show fanaticism.
- Intimacy vs. Isolation stage - the ability to love deeply and commit oneself now develops during the early adulthood enters. Intimacy is developed by establishing intimate bonds of love and friendship, the ability to be close, loving, and the vulnerability to romance. But the failure to develop intimacy brings on emotional isolation, egocentricity, and even promiscuity.
- Generativity vs. Stagnation stage - middle adulthood, the stage of fulfilling life goals that involves family, career, and society. This is as simple as the ability to give and care for others, and by having a strong sense of creativity and becoming successful develops generativity. Stagnation develops if one is self-absorbed, feeling of little connection to others, and offers little to the society. This may lead to rejectivity and a frustration to feel any sense of meaning or the inability to grow as a person such as those who are having the unresolved mid-life crisis. But too much generativity may now lead to overextension, such as those people having no time for themselves because of being too busy.
- Integrity vs. Despair stage - this is when an individual looks back over one's life and accepting its meaning. This entails the sense of integrity and fulfillment. The individual must accept that their life is coming in an end, accepting all the successes and failures, ageing, and loss. Unresolved crisis may follow dissatisfaction with life. An individual may gain ego integrity and accept their lives if they succeed and establish a sense of wisdom by accepting death as it come. But for those who do not feel despair may dread their death. On the other hand, too much wisdom may lead to presumption, and too much despair leads to detest for life.
This is only one of the Developmental Theories that I used to explain what molds a person to become as such.
