PSYCHOLOGIZING (complete version)
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. :-)
Erikson came up with eight stages of psychosocial development which starts from infancy up to the point of death. His stages include 1) Infancy, 2) Early Childhoood, 3) Play Age, 4) School Age, 5) Adolescence, 6) Young Adulthood, 7) Middle Adulthood, and finally, 8) Late Adulthood.
In the Infancy Stage which is from birth to eighteen months, an infant is to develop Trust to his caregivers if his experience is positive, if not, the infant will develop Mistrust, meaning he will have a feeling that the world cannot be trusted, hence the major ego development outcome in this stage is called Trust vs. Mistrust. The basic strength developed in this stage is a drive to live, and a hope that life is worth living. The developmental outcome should find a balance between the ability to trust people but not to the point of being gullible.
In the Early Childhood stage which is from eighteen months to two years, the child starts to learn to develop skills that will make him independent in the long run. Here, depending on his experience, the child may build self-esteem and independence as he learns to control his own body and environment. The major ego development outcome is Autonomy vs. Shame; that is the child develops autonomy given the right and positive experience and support from his immediate and wider environment. But if the child's experiences are more on the negative during this stage in his development--if he is shamed or not given enough space to learn and acquire the needed skills, the child will develop unhealthy shame. (I said unhealthy because in my culture, there is a positive aspect to shame.) The child, when he develops shame more than autonomy, he will doubt his capabilities to do things right and be independent. In this stage therefore, the parents or any immediate significant others of the child should be able to provide opportunities for the child to develop a healthy, balanced self-esteem.
The third stage is the Play Age from three to five years. The child should be able to develop initiative and not too much of guilt. This is the age where children wants to find answers to their WHY questions and start to initiate situations where they can play roles and pretend to be acting like adults.
The fourth stage is the School Age or Latency stage which is from six to twelve years. The development outcome here is Industry vs. Inferiority. Industry should be developed so as to foster competence to do things and not feel inferior to others, but not to be over-developed in competence that the child wrongly thinks of himself as the only best. The individual should develop here a healthy self esteem and an equilibrated awareness of self-worth. These are developed through the fostering of good learning experiences from parents, the neighborhood, peers, and the teacher.
The fifth stage is Adolescence which is from 13 to 18 years old. Here the individual should be able to find out his identity or else he will be confused as to what role he is to play in his society; hence the developmental outcome of this stage—Identity vs. Role Confusion. The individual should be able to negotiate this stage so as to be able to come out with a developed and healthy devotion and fidelity. This is the stage where, because of lack of experience, the individual sets his mind on ideals which are oftentimes unrealistic. The most significant and influential relationship of individuals in this stage is their friends or peers
The sixth stage is the Young Adulthood which is from 18 to 35 years old. This stage is where individuals try to find lasting relationships both for friendship and for marriage; hence this stage’s developmental outcome is Intimacy vs. Isolation. Individuals who successfully navigate this stage develop healthy affiliations and lasting love. Individuals who are unsuccessful in this stage often isolate themselves and then as a defense mechanism for their aloneness and loneliness, they try to make up by a feeling of superiority over others.
The seventh stage is the Middle Adulthood which is from 35-65 years old. The developmental outcome is Generativity vs. Stagnation. Generativity is developed when an individual produces and cares. Production in the sense of work and family, and care in the sense of taking care of family members and other members of the society and being able to transmit values and culture to those who are under his/her charge or care. Stagnation results when the individual, especially at a later point in this stage when he/she no longer have a family to care for, the individual becomes self-absorbed, kind of lost—thus the term mid-life crisis, and therefore his development as a social being stagnates.
The eighth stage is the Late Adulthood which is from 65 (or 55) to the point of Death. The developmental outcome is Integrity vs. Despair. Integrity is present when the individual is able to share his wisdom with people around him, not only his immediate family but to the society in general. These are people who look back at their life and feel contentment at what they were able to accomplish in their life, marvel at the lessons they’ve learned, and are able to smile when they think about their mistakes and shortcomings. Despair results when an individual who reached this stage looks back at his life and finds so much discontent, unhappiness, feeling of being unable to do more than he was able to do, and other negative feelings that makes the individual feel that his life's journey has not been worth it. An elderly person with feelings of worthlessness or regrets such as these usually fears death. On the other hand, despair can also result when a person at this stage thinks that only his life’s view, his life’s philosophy is the one and only correct and effective way.
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.
Erikson came up with eight stages of psychosocial development which starts from infancy up to the point of death. His stages include 1) Infancy, 2) Early Childhoood, 3) Play Age, 4) School Age, 5) Adolescence, 6) Young Adulthood, 7) Middle Adulthood, and finally, 8) Late Adulthood.
In the Infancy Stage which is from birth to eighteen months, an infant is to develop Trust to his caregivers if his experience is positive, if not, the infant will develop Mistrust, meaning he will have a feeling that the world cannot be trusted, hence the major ego development outcome in this stage is called Trust vs. Mistrust. The basic strength developed in this stage is a drive to live, and a hope that life is worth living. The developmental outcome should find a balance between the ability to trust people but not to the point of being gullible.
In the Early Childhood stage which is from eighteen months to two years, the child starts to learn to develop skills that will make him independent in the long run. Here, depending on his experience, the child may build self-esteem and independence as he learns to control his own body and environment. The major ego development outcome is Autonomy vs. Shame; that is the child develops autonomy given the right and positive experience and support from his immediate and wider environment. But if the child's experiences are more on the negative during this stage in his development--if he is shamed or not given enough space to learn and acquire the needed skills, the child will develop unhealthy shame. (I said unhealthy because in my culture, there is a positive aspect to shame.) The child, when he develops shame more than autonomy, he will doubt his capabilities to do things right and be independent. In this stage therefore, the parents or any immediate significant others of the child should be able to provide opportunities for the child to develop a healthy, balanced self-esteem.
The third stage is the Play Age from three to five years. The child should be able to develop initiative and not too much of guilt. This is the age where children wants to find answers to their WHY questions and start to initiate situations where they can play roles and pretend to be acting like adults.
The fourth stage is the School Age or Latency stage which is from six to twelve years. The development outcome here is Industry vs. Inferiority. Industry should be developed so as to foster competence to do things and not feel inferior to others, but not to be over-developed in competence that the child wrongly thinks of himself as the only best. The individual should develop here a healthy self esteem and an equilibrated awareness of self-worth. These are developed through the fostering of good learning experiences from parents, the neighborhood, peers, and the teacher.
The fifth stage is Adolescence which is from 13 to 18 years old. Here the individual should be able to find out his identity or else he will be confused as to what role he is to play in his society; hence the developmental outcome of this stage—Identity vs. Role Confusion. The individual should be able to negotiate this stage so as to be able to come out with a developed and healthy devotion and fidelity. This is the stage where, because of lack of experience, the individual sets his mind on ideals which are oftentimes unrealistic. The most significant and influential relationship of individuals in this stage is their friends or peers
The sixth stage is the Young Adulthood which is from 18 to 35 years old. This stage is where individuals try to find lasting relationships both for friendship and for marriage; hence this stage’s developmental outcome is Intimacy vs. Isolation. Individuals who successfully navigate this stage develop healthy affiliations and lasting love. Individuals who are unsuccessful in this stage often isolate themselves and then as a defense mechanism for their aloneness and loneliness, they try to make up by a feeling of superiority over others.
The seventh stage is the Middle Adulthood which is from 35-65 years old. The developmental outcome is Generativity vs. Stagnation. Generativity is developed when an individual produces and cares. Production in the sense of work and family, and care in the sense of taking care of family members and other members of the society and being able to transmit values and culture to those who are under his/her charge or care. Stagnation results when the individual, especially at a later point in this stage when he/she no longer have a family to care for, the individual becomes self-absorbed, kind of lost—thus the term mid-life crisis, and therefore his development as a social being stagnates.
The eighth stage is the Late Adulthood which is from 65 (or 55) to the point of Death. The developmental outcome is Integrity vs. Despair. Integrity is present when the individual is able to share his wisdom with people around him, not only his immediate family but to the society in general. These are people who look back at their life and feel contentment at what they were able to accomplish in their life, marvel at the lessons they’ve learned, and are able to smile when they think about their mistakes and shortcomings. Despair results when an individual who reached this stage looks back at his life and finds so much discontent, unhappiness, feeling of being unable to do more than he was able to do, and other negative feelings that makes the individual feel that his life's journey has not been worth it. An elderly person with feelings of worthlessness or regrets such as these usually fears death. On the other hand, despair can also result when a person at this stage thinks that only his life’s view, his life’s philosophy is the one and only correct and effective way.
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?
Sources Consulted
Erikson, Erik H. Childhood and Society. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
Santrock, John W. Life Span Development. 6th Edition. Brown and Benchmark Publishers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erik_Erikson
http://www.muskingum.edu/~psych/psycweb/history/erikson.htm
http://www.businessballs.com/erik_erikson_psychosocial_theory.htm
Comments
In your case, sis, you seem to be going down the right road :D By God's grace, paabante tayo! God bless you.
seriously, I liked Psychology in an intellectual kind of way but not in a personal sense. I had so much emotional hang ups then that disabled me to really practicalize psychological principles in my life during my teenage years pero buti na lang, awa ng Dios, lumaki at lumago tayo ng konti.. hehe