Main content
MCAT
Course: MCAT > Unit 12
Lesson 1: Self-identity- Self identity questions
- Self concept, self identity, and social identity
- Self esteem, self efficacy, and locus of control
- Overview of theories of development
- Freud's psychosexual development
- Erikson's psychosocial development
- Vygotsky sociocultural development
- Kohlberg moral development
- Social influences
- George Herbert Mead- The I and the Me
- Charles Cooley- Looking glass self
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Erikson's psychosocial development
Created by Shreena Desai.
Want to join the conversation?
- does the volume fluctuate for anyone else?(48 votes)
- yes, the volume do fluctuate because it has to get higher and increase its limits in-order to get what it needs.(0 votes)
- Do we have to memorize all of these stages for the mcat?(17 votes)
- I have taken a few practice MCATs and on each there were like 2-3 questions on development stages. So it's up to you if you want to memorize them or not. Would be helpful just for understanding the content and terms if they come up.(18 votes)
- "erik eriksons pycho SEXUAL development" ... that was a real freudian slip(6 votes)
- How is stage 3 different from stage 4? How is wanting to take initiative different than wanting to gain industry in oneself?(5 votes)
- How is the conflict of autonomy shame? Self-doubt maybe, but I'm not understanding the shame link. Will someone bring this together for me?(2 votes)
- A parent's reaction to a child's struggle with learning bowel control, for example, contributes much to how the child internalizes the experience. Erikson wrote a great deal about positive and negative resolutions as an overall feature of his developmental theory; at one-to-three-years-of-age, children's self construct is still tied to her or his parents and their reactions. A mild disapproval may lead to doubt but an over-reactive parent may instill a sense of shame in the child.(7 votes)
- Does failure at one stage mean you cant move on? Other sources like kaplan say otherwise. I think it shoudnt prevent one from moving on sense each virtue is independent of one another.(3 votes)
- I'm a bit confused. Fidelity does not mean seeing one's self as unique. It means devotion/commitment to a cause.(2 votes)
- I think it means fidelity to yourself. Staying true to who you are as a person or to your identity. Self-Fidelity may be a better description to use.(2 votes)
- The idea of initiative being conflicted with guilt also isn't coming together for me . . . someone help(2 votes)
- This is how I see it:
At age 3-5, you reach a level of confidence where you will raise your hand in kindergarten to answer questions, or you will speak up and ask questions when curious. But if you don't reach that level of confidence and independence, you will feel bad if you ask a question, like everyone is staring at you, like they think you're annoying, and so you feel guilty for annoying them with your question or opinion. The virtue you have to develop is a sense of purpose, that you matter and that you have the right to voice your opinions and take initiative. If you don't develop this, you'll always feel like you're questions and opinions are not good enough (i.e. they're inadequate).(2 votes)
- I wonder how this adapts to other cultures...(2 votes)
- what are the major difference between erik erikson first four developmental stages and the last four developmental stages?(2 votes)
Video transcript
Voiceover: Now it's time to take a look at Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial
development. So if you remember he was the second, theorist I had mentioned in the overview
video. So here's Erik Erikson and his theory was
actually. Greatly influenced by Freud's theory, but
he emphasized the role of culture and
society. So culture and society played a role in his theory. And another key difference between his
theory, theory and Freud's theory is that he suggested that there was plenty of room for growth and personality throughout
one's life. So this personality development spans an
entire life and not just childhood which is what Freud
emphasized. So Erikson assumed that a crisis can occur
at each stage of development. And that. These conflicts involve differences
between an individual and the needs of society. So those are where needs were competing. And successful completion of each of these
eight stages. This is an eight stage theory. Successful completion at each of these
stages can result in a healthy personality and acquisition of these basic virtues in
this column, which I'll also go through. So, these basic virtues are basically
characteristics strengths which the eagle can use to resolve future
conflicts. And failure to actually complete. Complete a certain stage can result in the
reduced ability to move along to further stages, and can lead to a more
unhealthy personality and sense of self. So let's go straight into the first theory
of Erikson's, first stage of Erikson's theory, so it's
just simply stage 1. And it occurs during the first year of
life. So,. This crisis, this stage the crisis that it
focuses on is the idea of trust versus mistrust. So, what do I mean by trust versus
mistrust? So during this stage, a baby a 1 year old is pretty uncertain about the world
they live in. So in order to resolve these feelings of
uncertainty the baby looks toward their primary caregiver or their
parents for consistent care and stability. And if the child receives this consistency
of care. They are going to start developing trust
and a sense of security. So this theory is the hallmark of his theory of the virtue is the virtue of
hope. Because when you develop a sense of trust,
the infant can have hope that when new crises arise there is a possibility that
people will be there as a source of support. And failing to acquire this virtue can
lead to the development of suspicion or fear
and mistrust. So, that's the negative outcome. Fear and suspicion. So, as you can see this, according to Erikson, this develops within the first
year of life. So, moving on to the second. Second stage. This occurs in the second year of life. And this crisis that characterizes this
stage is autonomy versus shame or doubt. So what is autonomy? Autonomy is independence and then we have
doubt or shame. So around 18 months to the age of 3,
children begin asserting their independence by
walking away from their mother, learning how to pick up which toy they wanna play
with, making choices about what they wanna wear, what
they wanna eat etc. So obviously, the child is gaining a sense
of independence and autonomy. And Erikson says it's critical that
parents allow children to do this. It's critical that children are able to
explore their limits. Of their abilities within an encouraging
environment, obviously. And, rather than putting on the child's
clothes, a parent should be supportive and have
patience. And allow the child to do it on their own. And keep on trying until they succeed. Learning, teaching the child how to ask
for help, when they need it. So parents need to encourage their child
to be independent. But, at the same time, protect the child
so failure is avoided. So, the hallmark of this stage, the virtue
achieved is a sense of independence or own personal
will. And a negative outcome that can occur if
the child is overly criticized or overly controlled, is that they start to feel inadequately in their ability to
survive. So they can start lacking, self esteem and start feeling shame or doubt in their
abilities. So those have been negative outcomes. Now the third stage is, occurs between the
age of 3 to 5 years. So in this stage, children assert
themselves even more, more frequently. So the crisis here that is taken a look at
is, initiative versus guilt. So during this period, the primary feature
involves, the child regularly interacting with other
kids at school. So obviously play is central to this
stage. Children are playing, they're learning how
to explore interpersonal skills, they're learning how to initiate
and plan activities. So, they're starting to feel more secure
in their ability to lead others and make
decisions. So, Erikson said at this stage, a kid will
ask a lot more questions. And so here they're. Virtue that they're gonna reach is
purpose. They feel they have a sense of purpose in what they do and the choices and decisions
they make. And if this tendency to ask questions and
have curiosity is squelched. So if a teacher or a parent. Overly criticizes and controls the child
they start to develop guilt. So the child may feel as if they are
annoying to other people and they'll start to act more as a follower versus having that self initiative and drive and
purpose. So too much guilt can make the child actually really slow in interacting
with others. And it can. Kind of inhibit their creativity. But obviously, this comes with a caveat,
because some guilt is necessary; otherwise, the child
wouldn't know how to have self-control. So they need to have limits. That is that's important in this third
stage. So, negative outcome Of this having a
sense of guilt or feeling inadequacy. I think I spelled that wrong, inadequacy,
there we go, okay. Moving on to the fourth stage. The fourth stage occurs around the ages of
6 to 12, so around School age to puberty. So here, this is where teachers take an important role according to Erikson in a
child's life. So they're going to start teaching
specific skills, and the child is going to work towards competence so the major
crisis that's looked at here is industry versus
inferiority. So at this stage the child will gain
greater significance and greater self esteem, and
they're gonna actually try starting to win approval from others, from
teachers, from authorities, by demonstrating specific competencies
that they think are valued in. Society, so they're gonna start developing
this sense of pride in their accomplishments, so that is the
virtue competence, or pride. Just change my color there, there we go. So that's the main virtue at this stage. And if the children or the child is
encouraged, and their initiatives are reinforced,
they're gonna start feeling industrious. And confidence, gaining confidence to
achieve their goals. Now, if this initiative is not encouraged,
or if it's restricted, then the child's gonna start
feeling inferior or doubting their own abilities, and they may even not be
able to reach their full potential, so that is the
negative outcome is inferiority as a result of not feeling like they have competence. That society is demanding. Again, at this stage, some failure may be necessary so the child can develop
modesty. So like I said earlier up here, there has
to be some sense of guilt for the child to have
control in their actions. So say one's age four, there has to be a
little bit of some failure, within limits,. So the child develops modesty and they
don't feel over-competent. So there has to be a good balance. Now moving onto the fifth stage. This occurs between the ages of 12 to 18,
so in adolescence. So this is the transition from childhood to
adulthood, and this is probably one of the most important
roles. In Erikson's personality Psychosocial
Development theory. So, here, the child or teenager now, is
actually becoming more independent. And they're trying to look at their future
in terms of career, relationships. His families, whatever. So they wanna start feeling as if they
belong to society and if they fit in. So this is a major crisis looked at here
is identity versus role confusion. Now in this stage. The child has to learn the rules he'll
occupy as an adult. So, he may or she may actually reexamine
their identity to try to figure out who they
really are. And body image plays a huge role in this
because the body is const, changing during this
time of age. They explore possibilities. And more, based upon outcomes and they start to form this identity as a result of this
exploration. Now failure to do so can, result in things
that the child may say, like, I don't know what I want to be
when I grow up. And this can lead to role confusion. So, the positive virtue that first comes
out of this ss fidelity, or the ability to see oneself as unique
and an integrated person as we're trying to identify who we are. Now, the negative outcome of this results
in more confusion, obviously. And it can also result in, confusion of
who one is. It could cause rebellion, and feelings of
unhappiness. So those are the hallmarks of a negative
outcome at stage 5. Now stage 6, we're moving into young
adulthood. So around age 18 to about 40, young
adulthood to adulthood. So here are the crisis. That's being looked at is intimacy versus
isolation. And I will assume that in one second. So in younger we begin to share ourselves more intimately with other people we're
trying to find love so we explore relationships
leading to longer term commitments and completion of
this stage. Can lead to comfortable relationships in a
sense of commitment, safety, and care. avoiding. Intimacy avoiding this stage can lead to
negative outcomes such as isolation or loneliness
or even depression. So here we're forming close personal relationships, and this is characterized
by love. And the negative outcomes can form to an
inability to. It'll form relationships that could lead
to, obviously, isolation and unhappiness. The seventh stage occurs in middle
adulthood. It says it's around ages 40 to probably
retirement. And here. Adults begin to establish, or they already
have an established career. So, they begin to settle down in their
relationship, begin, make families the center of their lives, and they develop
of, being a part of this bigger picture. So here are the crisis is generation or
generativity, so having to deal with the generation
versus stagnation. So stagnation means feeling stuck as if your not progressing. So usually adults, they feel as if they
give back to society through raising their children
or being productive at work. Becoming involved in community activities. Activities and organizations. So here they begin to develop a sense of
care for others. They're looking out for the welfare of
others. And the negative outcome that can occur if
they fail to achieve those objectives is that they start to
feel stagnate, they feel unproductive. All right and the last stage of Erikson theory occurs from ages 65 and older,
until death. So here we're senior citizens. Citizens and we tend to slow down our
perfect productivity. We've accomplished a lot in life that
we've wanted to or we may not have which could lead to negative
outcomes as we'll see. But now we're exploring life as a retired
person. So here the major crisis is integrity
versus despair. So obviously an older age where more wise during this time we contemplate back on
our lives reminisce and people at this age start to
realize if their lives are productive or they
maybe unproductive. So they may feel guilt about their past or
realize that they didn't accomplish something that they
wanted to, certain regrets, or feel dissatisfied. so, first the main virtue is having that
sense of wisdom. But if we feel as if we haven't
accomplished what we wanted to in life and we feel unproductive and that can lead to
despair and dissatisfaction upon death. So success in this stage will lead to
wisdom and wisdom is what enables the person to
look back on their life with a sense of closure and
completeness and to also be able to accept death
without fear. So this is Erikson's map of our stages of
psychosocial development throughout life. And if you, if you think about it each of
these stages involves the culture and society of which we develop in
and it occurs throughout our life