The Concept of Eriksons Psychosocial Theory - Case Study Example

College: Human Growth and Development Case Study Section One William an eight years old boy is a pupil in one of the children’s schools in America. A psychosexual development theory by Sigmund Freud describes how a person develops during childhood. Freud theorized this theory by coming up with the five stages a child goes through before becoming an adult. The five stages include: the oral stage; it is a stage of ages zero to one year, this is the stage where Freud suggests that the sexual energy that every human being is born with is more associate with mouth. The child at this point just drives everything to the mouth (Honig 72). Anal stage; is a stage of ages one year to three years where the energy is now focused more on the anal area. This is a stage where the child learns how to use a toilet. Phallic stage; this is a stage of ages three years to six years. This is a stage where the sexual energy becomes concentrated around the genital. It is that stage where the child gets to comprehend the dissimilarities female and between males. Honig states that this is the phase where the boy child feels the urge to posses the mother and replace the father while the girl child feels the urge to posses the father and replace the mother (73-74). Latent stage; this is a period of ages six years to puberty. At this stage the libido gets redirected to other activities especially interactions with other children in school and education pursuits. Genital phase is the last stage of psychosexual development usually between puberty stage and death. This is the stage where a person develops a lot of urge and interest to persons of the opposite sex. This urge lasts till death. Nevertheless, psychosexual theory has had its strengths and weaknesses. It is one of the most significant theories of all time that gives adequate explanation to the development of humans throughout the human life. However, it tends to focus more on males than females and also the fact that we cannot be able to test the theory scientifically. It is hard to measure concepts such as libido in a person. Erikson’s psychosocial theory involves eight different stages articulated with the entire human development process. Just like Freud, Erikson also assesses and assumes that there is at least a crisis occurring in the different stages of a human life (Shin & Cooney 410-411). The eight stages include: trust versus mistrust stage; this is the first stage of psychosocial development process. It is the stage of ages zero years to one and a half years. This is where the child engages in accepting and receiving that is given. Though this the child develops trust o mistrusts (Shin & Cooney 410). Autonomy versus shame; it is a stage of ages eighteen months to three years. In this stage the child discovers skills and starts walking away from the mother to play on their own. Initiative versus guilt; this is the stage of ages three to five years. During this stage, the child plays a lot and interacts with other children in schools. This is where the child takes initiatives when the parents try to stop him or her from some acts. Competence versus inferiority stage; it is a stage of ages between five and twelve years. In this stage, the teachers play a vital role in the life of the child by shaping their initiatives. This way, a child may feel either inferior or superior depending on how he or she reacts to the measures put in place by the teacher and the parents. Identity versus confusion of role stage; this is a stage of ages of twelve to eighteen years. This is the transition of a person from childhood to adulthood. This is where an individual learns the roles he or she is going to undertake and also seeks further to find out who he is or she is. Intimacy versus isolation; is a stage of ages between eighteen to forty years. In this stage, individuals explore themselves intimately with others who are not necessarily family members leading to establishment of relationships. Failure to explore intimate relationships may result in isolation and depression to some individuals. Generativity versus stagnation stage; is a stage of ages between forty and sixty five years. This is where different individuals establish careers and fully settle down with a family to raise children. Egoism integrity versus despair stage; is the last stage of psychosocial development. It is a stage of ages sixty five and above. This is where productivity of the individuals gets slowed down and the different individual’s starts enjoying life as retired men and women of the society. This is where individuals reflect on their past achievements of life. Nevertheless, this theory has strengths and weaknesses; the theory is quite broad and integrative of the social development concepts and at the same time covering all structures of cognitive. On the other hand, it fails to explain how an individual move from one stage to another and also it fails to elaborate how culture impact development needs of different persons. Freud vs. Erikson The two theories differ from one another in that Freud and Erikson theories have different views on actually what causes the human development in the different stages of life and also the fact that Freud’s theory focuses on basic needs of different persons and the biological forces of different individuals while Erikson’s theory focuses on social factors and environmental factors of different individuals and also the fact that Erikson’s theory expands more to later days in life of a person (Roundy 1-5). William according to the psychosexual theory is in the latent stage where he is engaged in developing his education capabilities as well as hobbies since he really loves playing football and during free time, he plays in the compound with the neighboring friends. According to psychosocial theory of development, William eight years old boy is in the competence versus inferiority stage where he is trying to master his skills. He plays a lot with friends and also he has been punished severally by the teacher for extending playful acts to the classroom. Section Two Cephalocaudal principle explains development to occur from up to bottom; from the head down to legs. Proximodistral principle describes development to start at the center of a body and then moves outwards. Orthogenetic principle on the other hand, indicates development to move from quite diffuse and undifferentiated points to enhanced specializations and eventually coordinated integration (Enns et.al 41-42). Children at the age of eight years are likely to have health problems such as stomachaches, fever and even skin rashes. However, William in this case does not fall sick often and he does not have any major health problems. At eight years, as a result of the biological development taking place, the parent has to effectively monitor the behaviors of the child and try to eliminate or encourage different behaviors in a child. In a new born child, there are common reflexes observed. These reflexes include; Moro reflex that is responsible for the child crying a lot, stepping reflex responsible for the child attempting to walk, rooting reflex responsible for a child turning the head to direct something to the mouth and sucking reflex that enables children suck anything that approaches their mouth ( Myklebust & Gottlieb 1037-1045). Great motor skills are the kind of skills that a child acquires in early childhood. These are the skills that enable the child to walk or even run thereafter. Activities such as posture development which involves a child control of his or her head to adequately trace moving objects and also the acts of a child learning how to walk by learning how to adequately control and switch the legs during the walking process are great constituents of any child’s great motor skills. On the other hand, fine motor skills are the skills that enable a child control movement of small muscles. Such activities would involve the child coordinating movement of hands and fingers. In a nutshell, William has not yet gone through puberty stage since he is only eight years old. Section Three Piaget’s cognitive development theory involves four stages (1) sensorimotor stage; is the stage of ages zero years to two years. During this stage the child learns the surrounding environment through actions by trial and error methods. (2) Preoperational stage; is the stage of ages of two to seven years. During this stage the child learns how to represent the events or objects in their minds by use of symbols. (3) Concrete Operational stage; is the stage between ages of seven to eleven years. During the stage the child is able to reason and make necessary judgments. (4) Formal Operational stage; is the stage of ages eleven and above. During the stage, the child is able to perform mind manipulation of ideas. William is at the last stage of cognitive development; formal operational stage. He is able to do some mathematical calculations alone and also perform relevant inferences from an English passage in class. Vygotsky’s theory of cognitive development indicates that things such as culture, adults or even peers do influence the cognitive development of a child. He further argued that there is a difference when a child tries to do something and when an adult guides the child through the process of doing that particular thing. This is what is referred to as ‘Zone of Proximal Development’ (John-Steiner & Mahn 191-206). William is unable to perform addition of numbers in the mathematics class. The teacher has been recently guiding William on how to go about the addition and he has remarkably improved. Section Four Bowlby defined attachment as the psychological connections established between individuals and what lasts for a very long period of time. The components of attachment according to Bowlby’s definition include; the aspect of an urge to be near the loved ones, the aspect of one getting back to the attached figure whenever one needs comfort, the aspect of feeling secure whenever around the attached figure and the aspect of distress whenever there is a separation. Factors such as the infant’s behavior, temperament as well as cognitive ability speed up the process of formation of an attachment between the child and the mother or the primary caregiver. The parent or a caregiver is maternally bonded to the child through natural hormones- oxytocin. Therefore, hormone-oxytocin is responsible for the maternal bond established between the mother and the child during birth or during pregnancy. Quality of caregiver’s attachment help the child to be able to control both the intensity and the duration of emotions developed in later stages of life. Internal working model is how we view others, ourselves or even the world and how we believe such views and aspects of life. In conclusion, first, whenever William is threatened to be beaten by the neighboring kids, he runs back to the mother for safety. Secondly, William appeared stressed up in the first day at school after being dropped by the mother. He kept on wanting to go back home. Lastly, the boy can do anything to anybody as long as the mother is around. Work Cited Enns, James, T., Burack, Jacob A., Iarocci, Grace and Randolph, Beth. The Orthogenetic Principle in the Perception of ‘‘Forests’’ and ‘‘Trees’’? Journal of Adult Development, 7.1(2000): 41-48. Honig, Sterling, Alice. Psychosexual Development in Infants and Young Children: Implications For care givers. (2000): 70-75. http://smccd.edu/accounts/franciscoe/ece201/Psychosexual-Development.pdf (Accessed October 8, 2014) John-Steiner,vera & Mahn, Holbrook. Sociocultural Approaches to Learning and Development a Vygotskian Framework. Education Psychologist, 31(3/4), 191-206 Myklebust, Barbara, M. & Gottlieb, Gerald, L. Development of the Stretch in the Newborn: Reciprocal Excitation and Reflex Irradidiation. (2002): 1037-1045. http://www.andrews.edu/~rbailey/Chapter%20five/infant/9312014224.pdf (Accessed October 8, 2014). Roundy, Lisa. Differences between Freud and Eriksons Approaches to Psychoanalytic Theory: Differences & Analysis. (2013):1-5. http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/differences-between-freud-and-eriksons-approaches-to-psychoanalytic-theory-differences-analysis.html#lesson (Accessed October 8, 2014). Shin, An, Jeong and Teresa, Cooney M. Psychological well-being in mid to late life: The role of generativity development and parent–child relationships across the lifespan. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 30.5(2006): 410–421 Read More