Critically Evaluate Erikson
& # 8217 ; s Psychosocial Theory Essay, Research Paper
Erik Erickson is perchance the best known of Sigmunds Freud & # 8217 ; s many followings. He
grew up in Europe and spent his immature grownup life under the way of Freud. In 1933
when Hitler rose to power in Germany, Erikson emigrated to the United States and
began learning at Harvard University. His clinical work and surveies were based on
kids, college pupils, victims of combat weariness during World War two, civil
rights workers, and American Indians. It was these surveies which led Erikson to
believe that Freud misjudged some of import dimensions of human development.
Throughout this essay, Erikson & # 8217 ; s psychosocial theoretical account will be explored,
discussed and evaluated interms of it & # 8217 ; s constructs, theories and premises. The
theoretical underpinning will be discussed with mention to the nature versus raising
argument and besides the continuity versus discontinuity statement. It will so be shown
how Erikson has influenced the manner psychologists view the importance of individuality
during striplings. First, nevertheless, Erikson & # 8217 ; s work will be put alongside that of
Freud & # 8217 ; s to set up an apprehension of the footing from which it came.
Erikson & # 8217 ; s psychosocial theoretical account was to a great extent influenced by Freud, and portions a
figure of cardinal thoughts. For illustration, both Freud and Erikson agree that every
person is born with a figure of basic inherent aptitudes, that development occurs through
phases, and that the order of these phases is influenced by biological ripening
( Sigelman, and Shaffer 1992 ) . Erikson besides believes, as did Freud, that personality has
three constituents: the Idaho, the self-importance, and the superego. Therefore it is just to state that
Erikson is a psychoanalytic theoretician.
However, Erikson does reason that societal and cultural influences have a critical
function in determining human development, and less significance should be placed on the function
of sexual impulses. Freud did observe nevertheless, that societal agents such as parents should be
regarded as of import, but it is Erikson who highlights the forces within a much
broader societal environment, including equals, instructors and schools which are extremely
of import harmonizing to Erikson. Erikson, so, moves more towards the & # 8216 ; nurture & # 8217 ; side
of the nature & # 8211 ; raising argument than did Freud, sing raising as every bit of import in
development. This & # 8216 ; nurture & # 8217 ; mentality highlights the accent on environmental forces
within Erikson & # 8217 ; s theoretical account. Experiences in life, alterations achieved through acquisition, the
influence of methods of kid raising, social alterations and civilization all have an
exceptionally of import function on human development harmonizing to Erickson.
In add-on, Erikson & # 8217 ; s theory encompasses the whole of the human life-span,
sketching the phases that occur, which will be looked at more closely subsequently on. Erikson
besides regards the person as holding duty during each phase of development
and that they besides have the chance to accomplish a positive and healthy declaration to
the & # 8216 ; crisis & # 8217 ; experienced. Erikson, hence, puts less accent on the Idaho and alternatively
topographic points more accent on the self-importance. In his position, human existences are rational animals
who & # 8217 ; s ideas, feelings, and actions are mostly controlled by the self-importance and it is the
self-importance & # 8217 ; s development in which he is interested in.
Before we go any farther it is of import to look at Erikson & # 8217 ; s psychosocial
theoretical account in more item in order to understand the undermentioned rating.
Erikson & # 8217 ; s theoretical account consists of eight phase of development, with each phase
blossoming as the person goes through the life rhythm. Each phase consists of a & # 8216 ; crisis & # 8217 ;
that must be confronted. The term epigenetic rule was used by Erikson to depict
the procedure that guides development through the life rhythm. Within this it is urged that
everything that grows has a bluish print, each holding a particular clip of dominance, until
all of the parts have arisen to organize a & # 8216 ; functional whole & # 8217 ; ( Siglemann and Shaffer 1992 ) .
It has been attained that Erikson & # 8217 ; s psychosocial theoretical account consists of eight phases
of development which continue thoughout the life-span of an person. This thought of
& # 8216 ; discontinuity & # 8217 ; suggests that development occurs via a series of disconnected alterations that
develop from one phase to another. Presumably Erikson believes that an person
experiences a rapid period of alteration and reorganization before being elevated to a new
and more advanced phase of development. Continuity theorists nevertheless, would reason
that human development is a procedure that occurs in little stairss, without sudden
alteration. Physical growing and linguistic communication development, for illustration, demo smooth,
gradual and uninterrupted growing. But Erikson does non wholly govern out this statement.
He suggests that experiences in the early phases have a bearing on the experiences in
the ulterior phases, this indicates that earlier and later development are connected in such
off as to propose continuity. Erikson besides stresses the importance of environmental
influences which would put the accents on uninterrupted development, nevertheless, he
besides highlights the influential function of ripening in the growing sequence ( as highlighted
before ) . This suggests that Erikson did non ally himself with either utmost point of
position. He recognised that some facets of development are uninterrupted, whereas others
demo stage-like features. What Erikson has produced is a sequence of critical
periods in the human life rhythm. However, he did non connote that the crisis was by any
agencies ruinous, but that they represent important developments in which a decisive
bend, one manner or another is ineluctable ( Stevens 1983 ) .
Eriksons psychosocial theoretical account is really generalized and he himself acknowledged
that no effort was made to follow the differences in self-importance development between the
sexes. Erikson justifies this determination by reasoning that beyond childhood there are no
consistent differences between the development of work forces and adult females. It has besides been
suggested that the theoretical account lacks rigour ( Stevens 1983 ) , as the behavior and
constituents are non easy to stipulate exactly and they are frequently ill-defined. Some have
criticised the imbrication of the phases, though this may reflect the manner things truly
are instead than any insufficiency in the history. As mentioned during the debut,
Erikson & # 8217 ; s theoretical account was based on his clinical work and surveies of people from all phases of
life, which provided first-class entree to adumbrate inside informations of their life experiences.
However, Erikson accepted the possibility that due to this, his theory could be category or
civilization edge and actively pursued to rectify that averment via his anthropological
studie
s and seminars to discourse and compare the forms of the life rhythm in societies
other than his ain. In ulterior Hagiographas, Erikson goes on to intensify his part to our
apprehension of the life rhythm in two peculiar ways. One is represented by his
biographical surveies of the lives of specific persons. The other, which will be
considered following, is to lucubrate in greater item on the issue which foremost come to
& # 8216 ; dominance & # 8217 ; ( Stevens 1983 ) , as we become big, individuality.
Erikson believed that adolescence was a clip of major alteration. It was he who
characterised adolescence as a & # 8216 ; critical period in the life long procedure of organizing one & # 8217 ; s
individuality & # 8217 ; ( Sileman and Shaffer pp315 ) . The construct of individuality is a consistent subject
throughout Erikson & # 8217 ; s work and there are several grounds why it assumes so much
importance for Erikson, one of which is it & # 8217 ; s significance in modern life. Harmonizing to
Erikson the nature of society will reflect in the psychological jobs
characteristically experienced by the members of that society ( Stevens 1983 p59 ) . In
today & # 8217 ; s society, Erikson claims, identity confusion is the most of import issue.
Harmonizing to Erikson, during his & # 8216 ; individuality versus individuality confusion & # 8217 ; phase, striplings
are faced with happening out who they are and where they are traveling in life. Many new
functions are being explored and parents must let their kid to to the full make so in a healthy
mode, which will assist get at a positive individuality. However if an individuality is imposed
upon the stripling and they are non allowed to research for themselves, so & # 8216 ; individuality
confusion reigns & # 8217 ; ( Santrock 1992 ) . Some persons may retreat or turn to drugs
and intoxicant to alleviate anxiousness.
There are a figure of good grounds why Erikson & # 8217 ; s theory may be right, and
an persons sense of individuality may alter well through adolescence. It is this
period of the life rhythm that physical alterations occur, which will impact an persons
organic structure image or sense of physical ego. Besides during this period a form of sexual
relationships demands to be decided upon while social outlooks urge a immature individual
to do some pick of career.
However, this back uping grounds merely highlights that Erikson & # 8217 ; s thoughts were
non obtained via any large-scale study & # 8217 ; s, they were infact merely based on his ain
observations, and his clinical pattern. Therefore they require the grounds and support
of empirical findings to detect when a sense of individuality is really achieved. The
most thorough effort to make this was made by James Marcia ( 1966 ) , after he
developed a interview technique to asses & # 8216 ; individuality position & # 8217 ; . Within the interview
inquiries associating to business, faith, political belief and attitudes to sexual countries
would be asked, and depending upon the replies an person would be placed into
one of four groups. These groups are: diffusion ( or confusion ) , where the person
has non yet started believing about individuality earnestly, foreclosure, where a committedness
has been made but without traveling through a crisis, moratorium, where the person is
traveling through a & # 8216 ; crisis & # 8217 ; , and eventually accomplishment, where the person has been
through the & # 8216 ; crisis & # 8217 ; and has reached a declaration.
A figure of surveies have been undertaken utilizing Marcia & # 8217 ; s strategy and one in
peculiar is of great involvement. Meilman ( 1979 ) , performed a cross-sectional survey on
12-24 twelvemonth old males. It was discovered that merely over half of the topics had reached
individuality accomplishment at 24 old ages. Therefore this shows that individuality accomplishment must
travel on into maturity. O & # 8217 ; Connell ( 1976 ) , found similar forms when he carried out
retrospective interviews with married adult females who had school age kids. These
adult females described how their individuality became more apparent to themselves as they
progressed though their life, from acquiring married, to happening a occupation, to holding kids.
These findings suggest that individuality development is non so strongly focused in
adolescence as Erikson believes.
The work on individuality position and it & # 8217 ; s try to trap down Erikson & # 8217 ; s thoughts has
shown some interesting findings but can be criticised on three counts. First, it is non
the instance that adolescents see the moratorium position in different subject countries at
the same clip. It is apparent that at a individual point in clip, one content country ( e.g.
spiritual belief ) , may be stable while another country of life determination ( e.g. gender ) , is in
crisis. Second, a crisis can happen at any point in clip during big life, but individuality
development is rather outstanding in the early grownup old ages ( Cowie and Smith 1996 ) .
Finally, it has been discovered that for most immature people, most of the clip & # 8216 ; alterations
in individuality are gradual & # 8217 ; ( Cowie and Smith 1996 ) , and are non restricted to individual
stage-like experiences. It would hence look that the position classs are non
such a utile tool for adequately measuring individuality as first expected.
In decision, Erikson & # 8217 ; s work is a direct descendant of Freudian theory. He
does non seek to redefine the basicss of depth psychology but alternatively enrich, clear up
and widen it by taking into history the importance of civilization and historical context & # 8217 ; s.
Erikson was besides able to exemplify the nature of their influence on single individuality.
However, this is non without unfavorable judgment, many of which have been mentioned earlier.
Some are comparatively minor, such as the considerable similarities in the context of his
books, but more serious is the possibility of cultural prejudice. Although he recognised that
his conceptualization of individuality and the life rhythm were centred in modern Western
society, he still used them in state of affairss where they may non hold been applicable in the
same manner ( Stevens 1983 ) . So what is it so, that Erikson has produced? It is barely
comparable to the biological and natural scientific disciplines with their demands of preciseness,
replicability and testable hypothesis. Therefore the theory is best regarded, to follow his
ain words, as & # 8216 ; a tool to believe with & # 8217 ; instead than & # 8216 ; a prescription to stay by & # 8217 ; ( Stevens
1983 ) .
Bibliography
Mentions
Cowie. H, & A ; Smith. P. K. ( 1996 ) , & # 8216 ; Understanding Children & # 8217 ; s Development & # 8217 ; ( 2nd Ed ) ,
Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd.
Rice. F. P, ( 1998 ) , & # 8216 ; Title Human development: a life-span attack & # 8217 ; ( 3rd Ed ) ,
London, Hall International.
Santrock. J. W, ( 1992 ) , & # 8216 ; Title Life-span development & # 8217 ; ( 4th Ed ) , Iowa, W.C. Brown.
Sigelman. C. K. & A ; Shaffer. D. R. ( 1991 ) , & # 8216 ; Life-span Human development & # 8217 ; , U.S.A,
Wadsworth, Inc.
Stevens. R, ( 1983 ) , & # 8216 ; Erik Erikson & # 8217 ; , Great Britain, Open University Press.
