Erikson’s Theory In Today’s Culture: A Reflection

A somebodys genius directly affects how he conducts himself and ultimately, how he go out live his life. In much ways than atomic number 53, then, somebodyality helps direct a person towards victor. Having said this, it is no wonder that the exploitation of a persons personality has long been the subject of psychological research. Of the many theories in personality and child development, Erik Eriksons is one of those that arouse stood the test of time. Perhaps this is largely due to the fact that unlike most theories, his covers the whole life cycle of man.It also helped that amongst the rather purist concepts of the nature vs. urture phenomenon his recognizes twain the effect of internal development (of the body and the mind) and the influence of the outside public to a persons personality. However adaptive Eriksons psychosocial stages are, though, it is solace important to reexamine it alongside our polish today, in order to venture how effective and accurate it fre e is. On a general viewpoint, the master(prenominal) tenet of Eriksons philosophy that there are specific traits substantial (or lost) in a particular stage in a persons life electrostatic holds even when analyzed alongside our ever-developing culture.This substance that on most counts, contemporary culture has strengthened Eriksons hypothesis not negate or redefine it. For example, that the viewpoint of a person with regard to how trustworthy the world is shaped during the early years is still true (whether that occurs exclusively during infancy is up to now subject to verification) late(a) studies of incidents of suicide show its relation to the formation during the early years of the underlying belief I have earlier mentioned.Likewise, it is still true that a sense of self-sufficiency is developed during the toddler years when we learn to go on our own, and feed and bathe ourselves. The continuous development of our educational system of rules supports the two subseq uent stages play age and school age in Eriksons theory indeed, it is during the time we start going to school and increase our circle that we develop initiative and the value of industry.As for the close stage, adolescence, it still is the case that during these years in our struggle for independence from parents in our cause to develop romantic relationships and strengthen our ties with friends in our quest to find the coiffure to the question Who am I? we develop a deeper sense of our identity. I mentioned that on most counts, Eriksons theory holds. There are several(prenominal) points in his work, however, that are redefined by a change in our culture. integrity of the most glaring changes would be in his stage of young adulthood. magic spell it is true that during this time we seek love and a deeper relationship, more and more of the American youth opt to stay single until their thirties. Whereas before offset a family occurs at this stage, now having kids occurs more in Eriksons next stage middle adulthood. In my opinion, the high incidence of divorce nowadays, and the tempt of leading a life devoid of the immense responsibility get hitched with life entails, instills in us the belief that having a family takes careful be after and thus, takes time.Upon examining Eriksons theory, it is prevalent that he sees his stages as having a linear manner that is, the stages and the development of the traits he singled out for each stage occur one after the other, with each one having a direct effect on the stage it precedes. In simpler terms, then, if a person failed to develop trust in infancy, he will have a hard time cultivating autonomy in the next stage, if he even ever does. Such a pessimistic way of putting things, I believe, is doomed to criticism and negation in itself.How many times have we heard of success stories, of people who roseate above a troubled childhood to find love and success in their adult lives? Erikson, it seems, failed to take into account the strength of the human record to rise above any predicament. If there is one characteristic of our culture and our world today that may hinder us from successfully navigating by means of Eriksons psychosocial stages, it is their being fast-paced.In an environment where success is predominantly measured by what you own, we are driven to lead lives that place personal relationships in the back seat. Given this fact, it is possible that more and more of us will fail to pick a crisis or two in the rightly time, as outlined in Eriksons work. I believe, however, that disdain this fact, in the end we will still tackle the issues inherent in our struggle to form our identity, and we will still be able to resolve them all.