Understand a person better using Psychology - Part 3

Welcome to the Part 3 of Understanding a person better using Psychology. In the previous 2 parts, I talked about Id, ego and superego, and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.

Today, I am going to share on Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Development.

There is a total of 8 stages in his Psychosocial Development. He believes that each stage of life is marked by a specific crisis or conflict and that individuals can continue to develop in a normal, healthy manner only if they resolve each crisis successfully.

No.	Crisis	Description
1	Trust vs. Mistrust	Infants learn to trust the environment (if needs are met) or to mistrust it.
2	Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt	Toddlers acquire self-confidence if they learn to regulate their bodies and act independently. If they fail or are labelled as inadequate, they experience shame and doubt.
3	Initiative vs. Guilt	Preschoolers (3-5) acquire new physical and mental skills but must also learn to control their impulses. Unless a good balance is struck, they become either too unruly or too inhibited.
4	Industry vs. Inferiority	Children (6-11) acquire many skills and competencies. If they take pride in these, they acquire high self-esteem. If they compare themselves unfavourably with others, they may develop low self-esteem.
5	Identity vs. Role Confusion	Adolescents must integrate various roles into a consistent self-identity. If they fail to do so, they may experience confusion over who they are.
6	Intimacy vs. Isolation	Young adults must develop the ability to form deep, intimate relationships with others. If they do not, they may become socially or emotionally isolated.
7	Generativity vs. Stagnation	Adults must take an active interest in helping and guiding younger persons. If they do not, they become preoccupied with purely selfish needs.
8	Integrity vs. Despair	In the closing decades of life, individuals ask themselves whether their lives had any meaning. If they can answer yes, they attain a sense of integrity. If they answer no, they experience despair.

Some elaboration extracted From Wikipedia:

Trust and Mistrust

"Erik Erikson proposed that the concept of trust versus mistrust is present throughout an individual's entire life. Therefore if the concept is not addressed, taught and handled properly during infancy (when it is first introduced), the individual may be negatively affected and never fully immerse themselves in the world. For example, a person may hide themselves from the outside world and be unable to form healthy and long-lasting relationships with others, or even themselves. If an individual does not learn to trust themselves, others and the world around them then they may lose the virtue of hope, which is directly linked to this concept. If a person loses their belief in hope they will struggle with overcoming hard times and failures in their lives, and may never fully recover from them. This would prevent them from learning and maturing into a fully-developed person if the concept of trust versus mistrust was improperly learned, understood and used in all aspects of their lives."


Intimacy vs. Isolation
"According to Erik Erikson the young adult stage, Intimacy vs. Isolation, is emphasized around the ages of 19 to 34. At the start of the Intimacy vs. Isolation stage, identity vs. role confusion is coming to an end and it still lingers at the foundation of the stage (Erikson 1950). Young adults are still eager to blend their identities with friends. They want to fit in. When we arrive at stage six we should be prepared for intimacy, a close personal relationship, and isolation, the fact of being alone and separated from others. A balance between intimacy and isolation makes love possible as we must know how to be alone in order to learn to truly love. Having a balanced stage 6 will help tremendously later in the coming stages when unwelcome or unexpected isolation surfaces, for example, the death of a spouse or a loved one (Erikson, Erikson, Kivnick 1986). In stage six, one is ready for commitments, is able to handle real relationships to a certain extent (Erikson 1950), after all, establishing a real relationship takes practice and many of us do not marry our first love. Our ego should also be prepared for rejection, the challenge of break-ups, and isolation, being alone. Erikson believes we are sometimes isolated due to the above. We are afraid of rejection; being turned down, our partners breaking up with us. We are familiar with pain and to some of us rejection is painful, our egos cannot bear the pain. Erikson also argues that "Intimacy has a counterpart: Distantiation: the readiness to isolate and if necessary, to destroy those forces and people whose essence seems dangerous to our own, and whose territory seems to encroach on the extent of one's intimate relations" (1950)."


Thus, using this theory, when we know of someone who is unable to trust people, it could be that the crisis was not resolved when he/she was an infant. And when someone is not able to be intimate with others, could be that his/her role identity was not resolved and he/she has some identity confusion.

Have you know a person better now? =)