Erik Eriksons Concept of Trust vs. Mistrust - Research Paper Example

Erik Erikson’s Concept of Trust vs. Mistrust Arguably, Erik Erikson is one of the theorists, he proposed the theory of psychosocial development, which is one of the most influential theories in the field of psychology, and he believed that individual’s personality develops throughout their lifespan starting from childhood to adulthood. Therefore, he proposed eight stages of development and everyone has to complete the activities at every stagesuccessfully. Trust versus mistrust is the very first stage according to Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, and Erikson argues that this is the most important stage in an individual’s life. Normally, this stage takes place when an individual is between birth and about twelve months old, and it focuses on oral sensory activities, and sleep among others (Adler-Tapia, 2012). Arguably, the basic virtue in this stage is hope; the major question is whether the child can trust the people around, or whether the world is a safer place or it is full of unpredictable events; and the key event-taking place here is feeding. Developing a sense of trust towards social environment is the first challenge that children face in their life (Nevid, 2009). During infancy, children either establish trusting relationships or fail to do so (Pressley and McCormick, 2011). This paper provides a very thoughtful discussion on Erikson’s concept of trust versus mistrust as one of the key stages of development. Infants are very helpless, and they totally depend on others like caregivers to meet their needs, and they are uncertain about the world they are living in, and so to be able to overcome these feelings of uncertainty, their caregivers need to show them consistence care (McLeod, 2008). The main goal of this stage is to develop a social trust and enhance healthy relationships (Adler-Tapia, 2012), and the sole developmental activity for a child during this stage is to have a mentality that the world they are living in is a safer place (Harmening, 2010). At this stage, the infants entirely depend on the people around them and caregivers and so, the quality of care and love they receive from their caregivers plays a very important role in shaping their personality. More so, during this stage, infants learn either to trust people around them or not, and this entirely depends on whether the caregivers responds to their needs or not, especially when they are crying or when they are frightened. Children need for food and care must be met with comforting regularity, and they need to be comforted, given the necessary attention and care. If their needs are consistently met, they develop trust towards the people around them. Therefore, whenever the infant gets consistent, reliable as well as predictable care and attention, they successfully develop a sense of trust which enables them to build relationships with other people and also they feel safe even if they are threatened (McLeod, 2008). However, they equally learn to mistrust the people around them when their needs are not consistently metand if they get little or no attention from their caregivers. For instance, when the caregivers are harsh, inconsistent, unreliable and unpredictable, the children develop a sense of sense of mistrust and so they will possibly have no confidence in the world and the people around them. They as well develop a sense of mistrust to other relationships, and this is likely to cause anxiety and heightened insecurities (McLeod, 2008). Because of developing the sense of mistrust, children may perceive the world as cold and threatening place (Nevid, 2009). Therefore, if children successfully develop trust, they will feel safe and secure with the people around them, but when the caregivers are inconsistent and do not meet the infants’ needs, they significantly contribute to feelings of mistrust in these children. Furthermore, when children fail to develop trust, they end being afraid and they start viewing the world from a negative perspective that is, the world is inconsistent and unpredictable. Arguably, some parents or guardians are reluctant to pay attention to the needs of infants claiming that too much attention would spoil them. However, this is not the case because care giving strengthens the bond between the child and the parent or caregiver. A tight bond is createdbetween parents or guardians and children just by feeding and nurturing (Harmening, 2010). When infants are not fed in a timely manner or soothed when they cry, they begin to conclude that their caregivers are not caring and are unreliable. Moreover, Erikson claimed that it is impossible for children to fully develop a sense of trust or develop a hundred per cent doubt. He believed that a balance drives successful personality development between the two opposing sides, trust and mistrust because absolute trust in a hostile world is undesirable. This way, children learn to acquire hope and develop a positive perspective of the world. Developing trust among children depends on the consistency of meeting their needs, and according to Erikson a positive and successful resolution of trust versus mistrust leads to a foundation for progress to the following stage. Furthermore, Erikson states that successful completion of this stage will lead to the virtue of hope in that, when infants develop a sense of trust, they as well learn to have hope, that in case there is any problem, there will be responsible people around to support them. On the contrary, failure to have the virtue of hope triggers the development of fear (McLeod, 2008). Therefore, children who successfully complete tasks in this stage become calm, content and less frightened especially in the presence of strangers (Harmening, 2010). Concisely, trust versus mistrust is one of the eight stages of Erikson’s psychosocial theory and Erikson argues that this is the most fundamental stage in a person’s life, and it occurs between birth and twelve months. More so, Erikson argues that at this stage, children are uncertain about the world they are living in, and they can only avoid this feeling of uncertainty. During this stage, an infant is helpless and entirely depends on the caregivers and other people around to meet their needs. Children develop a sense of trust when they receive reliable, consistent, and predictable care and their needs are met accordingly, and as a result, they acquire the virtue of hope and extend this trust to other relationships. On the contrary, if the caregivers are unreliable, inconsistent and unpredictable, those children they are taking care of develop a sense of mistrust that they extend to other relations. When an infants’ hunger is not satisfied consistently and in a timely manner, when parents fail to comfort them when frightened, and not touched or consoled regularly especially when they cry, as a result, they feel insecure and unprotected and so, they quickly conclude that the world is not a safe place to be. References Adler-Tapia, R. (2012). Child psychotherapy: Integrating developmental theory into clinical practice.New York: Springer Pub.Co. Harmening, W. M. (2010). The criminal triad: Psychosocial development of the criminal personality type. Springfield: Charles C Thomas Publisher, Ltd. McLeod, S. A. (2008). Erik Erikson | Psychosocial Stages - Simply Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html Nevid, J. S. (2009). Psychology: Concepts and applications. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co. Pressley, M. and McCormick, C. (2011).Child and Adolescent Development for Educators.Guilford Press. Read More