PSYCHOLOGIZING (abridged)
I remember when I was in college, I hated Behavioral Psychology so much. That is because you are forced to look at yourself--that is your inner self, and if you don't like what you see, the tendency is you'd hate the course, like I did. One of the theories I met then was Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Development. And now, I met him again in my Life Span Development, but now I have a different attitude towards the theory, hopefully because I have grown a little bit since then. :-)
Reading and studying Erikson’s psychosocial development theory is like submitting oneself for psychoanalysis. One cannot help but relate each stage to oneself and one’s own development, asking if one was able to navigate through the stages victoriously. Compared to, say for example, Piaget’s, I like this theory better in that it provides a more descriptive and true to life’s experiences, prescriptions and descriptions, as well as a birth-to-the-point-of-death stages of a human being’s psychosocial development.
The comprehensibility of the theory results from its normativeness and observability of the outcomes in real, living, breathing individuals. Both the positive and negative outcomes, and the maladaptive or malignant consequences that can result as one navigates each stage is true for most if not all of us human beings. In my limited experience, I have seen maladaptions and malignancies in people, both in myself and in others that have been developed due to unsuccessful navigation of the different stages.
Contrary to my attitude towards developmental psychology in my younger years, I now have an open mind (at least I think, hehe) that in studying Erikson, I was able to understand myself more effectively. There is no doubt that there are stages where I personally failed to negotiate successfully, and therefore in accepting and admitting that fact, I gave myself a chance to go back, not to relive the past but to sincerely give myself a chance to forgive whoever (including myself) needs forgiveness and whatever events in my life that needs acceptance and forgetting.
I was only with my real family for the first nine years of my life; from my tenth year until I finished college, I was a lone wolf. I have been with many kinds of people but practically, I received no specific parental guidance from anybody when I was growing up except for the few weeks in a year that I spent at home. I could say that I was able to negotiate the first three stages as well as the early phase of the fourth stage of my development successfully since I was under the nurture of my parents. But I remember in High School, I was ‘doomed’ to develop inferiority because from the beginning of class until the end, my classmates call me ‘taga-bundok’ and I remember the teacher was no help at all, as she teased me with the students. The lack of friends, homesickness, and feelings of being lost in a scary lowland world contributed to my inability to successfully develop an industry without too much feeling of inferiority. This same feeling drove me to excel academically because that is the only way I know to feel accepted in the school and to be able to attract friends. At a later point, I remember a friend of mine telling me that she does not want to be my friend anymore because according to her, ‘nasobrahan ang fighting spirit mo!” This reaction from my friend reveals a maladaptation on my part in the fourth stage of my psychosocial development. I developed competency alright but without the equilibrating factor of humility. It took God’s love for me to be able to admit that I was using my competency as a cover to hide my feeling of inadequacy and inferiority; and to accept that what I was doing is not a healthy nor godly way of coping.
At the 7th stage, due to my unsuccessful navigation of some of the earlier stages, I know that I will be somewhat a square peg in a round hole when I reach the later phases of stage 7--That is I will be one of those maladapted individuals. :-) As it is, life is not perfect, but thankfully, we can work things out. So my prayer as I come to this early point of stage 7 is that, may I grow old developing a little bit of generativity. My greatest fear even as young girl was to become stagnant.
Lastly, Erikson’s theory can help us understand people in our lives.
Reading and studying Erikson’s psychosocial development theory is like submitting oneself for psychoanalysis. One cannot help but relate each stage to oneself and one’s own development, asking if one was able to navigate through the stages victoriously. Compared to, say for example, Piaget’s, I like this theory better in that it provides a more descriptive and true to life’s experiences, prescriptions and descriptions, as well as a birth-to-the-point-of-death stages of a human being’s psychosocial development.
The comprehensibility of the theory results from its normativeness and observability of the outcomes in real, living, breathing individuals. Both the positive and negative outcomes, and the maladaptive or malignant consequences that can result as one navigates each stage is true for most if not all of us human beings. In my limited experience, I have seen maladaptions and malignancies in people, both in myself and in others that have been developed due to unsuccessful navigation of the different stages.
Contrary to my attitude towards developmental psychology in my younger years, I now have an open mind (at least I think, hehe) that in studying Erikson, I was able to understand myself more effectively. There is no doubt that there are stages where I personally failed to negotiate successfully, and therefore in accepting and admitting that fact, I gave myself a chance to go back, not to relive the past but to sincerely give myself a chance to forgive whoever (including myself) needs forgiveness and whatever events in my life that needs acceptance and forgetting.
I was only with my real family for the first nine years of my life; from my tenth year until I finished college, I was a lone wolf. I have been with many kinds of people but practically, I received no specific parental guidance from anybody when I was growing up except for the few weeks in a year that I spent at home. I could say that I was able to negotiate the first three stages as well as the early phase of the fourth stage of my development successfully since I was under the nurture of my parents. But I remember in High School, I was ‘doomed’ to develop inferiority because from the beginning of class until the end, my classmates call me ‘taga-bundok’ and I remember the teacher was no help at all, as she teased me with the students. The lack of friends, homesickness, and feelings of being lost in a scary lowland world contributed to my inability to successfully develop an industry without too much feeling of inferiority. This same feeling drove me to excel academically because that is the only way I know to feel accepted in the school and to be able to attract friends. At a later point, I remember a friend of mine telling me that she does not want to be my friend anymore because according to her, ‘nasobrahan ang fighting spirit mo!” This reaction from my friend reveals a maladaptation on my part in the fourth stage of my psychosocial development. I developed competency alright but without the equilibrating factor of humility. It took God’s love for me to be able to admit that I was using my competency as a cover to hide my feeling of inadequacy and inferiority; and to accept that what I was doing is not a healthy nor godly way of coping.
At the 7th stage, due to my unsuccessful navigation of some of the earlier stages, I know that I will be somewhat a square peg in a round hole when I reach the later phases of stage 7--That is I will be one of those maladapted individuals. :-) As it is, life is not perfect, but thankfully, we can work things out. So my prayer as I come to this early point of stage 7 is that, may I grow old developing a little bit of generativity. My greatest fear even as young girl was to become stagnant.
Lastly, Erikson’s theory can help us understand people in our lives.
In page 336 of Erikson's book, Childhood and Society, he was talking about Hitler. I quote, “…an extreme and even atypical personal experience fits a universal latent conflict so well that a crisis lifts it to a representative position.” This was about Hitler being a hard-headed, obstinate child that he refused to give in to the disciplines of his father. What Erikson seemed to be saying is that it is actually a crisis that can make or break, educate or dishearten, make a great leader or a worst tyrant, a person. In a positive note, a particular experience takes on significance and meaning when it is used to overcome a conflict or navigate a difficult situation; but an experience also can, as what happened to Hitler, be dug up, given a specific and fitting crisis situation, to awaken the monster in a person. What do you think? I think Erikson is generically correct. There were situations in my life when I thought I'd lose it. It is actually the grace of God that holds me and keeps me from losing it. What holds you? What keeps you..... who?
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