Erik Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory

Erik Erikson

Someone who extended psychoanalytic theory and infused the idea of identity.

Post-Freudian Theory

This theory places more emphasis on both social and historical context/influences.

Ego

It is a positive force that creates self-identity. As a partially unconsious organizing agency that synthesize one’s present experiences with past self-identities and also with anticipated images of the self, it primarily unifies personality and guard against indivisibility.

Ego

It is independent and has power. The ego exists as potential at birth, but it must emerge from within a cultural environment.

Charactersistics of the Ego

Historical, Anticipatory, Presentist

Epigenetic Principle

This implies a step-by-step growth of the fetal organ. It states that one stage emerges from and is built upon a previoys stage, but does not remove or replace the earlier stage.

Pseudospecies

An illusion perpetrated by and perpetuated by a particular society that is somehow chosen to be the human species (e.g. Ethnocentrism)

Syntonic and Dystonic

In every stage of life, their is an interaction of opposites– that is between a ______ (harmonious or positive) and ______ (disruptive) element .

Basic Strength

At each stage, the conflict between the dystonic and syntonic elements produces an ego quality or ego strength, which Erikson referred to as ______

Core Pathology

Too little basic strength at any one stage results in a _______ for that stage

Identity Crisis

“A turning point, a critical period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential”

Infancy

The first stage of psychosocial development (first year of life). This is the time of “incoporation” with infants “taking in” not only orally but through their various sense organs.

Oral-Sensory Mode

This includes infants principal psychosexual mode of adapting.

Receiving and Accepting

Two modes of incorporation in oral-sensory mode

Basic Trust

The syntonic element of infacy where their most significant interpersonal relations are with their primary caregiver or their mother.

Basic Mistrust

The dystonic element in infancy where it is established when infants find no correspondence between their oral-sensory needs and their environment (i.e unsatisfaction).

Hope

The basic strength of infacy that emerges from the conflict between basic trust and basic mistrust

Withdrawal

The core pathology of infancy that occurs when infants failed to develop hope, that will demonstrate the antithesis of hope

Early Childhood

The second stage of psychosocial development (2-3 years old) where young children receive pleasure not only from mastering the sphincter muscle but also from mastering other body functions such as urinating, walking, throwing, holding, etc.

Early Childhood

Time of contradiction, a time of stubborn rebellion and meek compliance, a time of impulsive self-expression and compulsive deviance, a time of loving cooperation and hateful resistance.

Anal-Urethral-Muscular Mode

Children’s primary psychosexual adjustment and during this time, they learn to control their body, especially in relation to cleanliness and mobility.

Autonomy

The syntonic element of early childhood characterized by the period of self-expression. This grows out of basic trust and if basic trust has been established in infancy, children learn to have faith in themselves, and their world remains intact while they experience a mild psychosocial crisis.

Shame and Doubt

The dystonic element of early childhood which grows out of the basic mistrust that was established in infancy. If children do not develop basic trust during infancy, then their attempts to gain control of their anal, urethral, and muscular organs during early childhood will be met with a strong sense of shame and doubt.

Shame

A feeling of self-consciousness, of being looked at and exposed

Doubt

The feeling of not being certain, the feeling that something remains hidden and cannot be seen.

Will

The basic strength of early childhood that evolves from the resolution of the crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt. Children only develop this strength when their environment allows them some self-expression in their control of sphincters and other muscles.

Compulsion

The core pathology of early childhood that occurs when their experiences result in too much shame and doubt

Play Age

The third stage of psychosocial development (3-5 years old) and characterized by the period in which children engage in play not games.

Genital-Locomotor Mode

Play age’s primary psychosexual mode characterized by the Oedipal situation or the prototype “of the lifelong power of human playfulness”

Initiative

The syntonic element of play age. As children begin to move around more easily and vigorously and as their genital interest awakens, they adopt an intrusive head-on mode of approaching the world.

Guilt

The dystonic element of play age characterized by the consequence of the taboo and inhibited goals (i.e. marrying their mother or father or leaving home).

Purpose

The basic strength of play age that arises from the conflict of iniitiative vs guilt. During this period, children now play with purpose (particularly to win) and they are starting to develop a conscience and beginning to attach labels such as right and wrong to their behavior. This strength is also considered as the “cornerstone of morality”.

Inhibition

The core pathology of play age. Unbridled initiative may lead to chaos and a lack of moral principles.

School Age

The fourth stage of psychosocial development (6-13 years old). The wish to know of children this age becomes stronger and is tied to their basic striving for competence.

Latency

This period allows children to divert their energies to learning the technology of their culture and the strategies of their social interactions. They begin to form a picture of themselves as competent or incompetent. These self-images are the origin of ego-identity– that feeling of “I” or “me-ness” that evolves more fully during adolescence.

Industry

The syntonic element of school age characterized by being industrious, staying busy, learning skills, cooperating, and finishing tasks. Here, children experience pleasure by completing projects and feeling productive.

Inferiority

The dystonic element of school age characterized by feeling of inadequacy and incomptencies. If their work is insufficient to accomplish their goals, they acquire a sense of _____.

Competence

The basic strength of play school age characterized by the confidence to use one’s physical and cognitive abilities to solve the problems that accompany this period. This strength lays the foundation for “co-operative participation in productive adult life”.

Inertia

The core pathology of school age where if the struggle between industry and inferiority favors either inferiority or an overabundance of industry, children are likely to give up and regress to an earlier stage of development.

Adolescence

The period from puberty to young adulthood and by the end of this period, a person must gain a firm sense of ego-identity. This is the adaptive phase of a personality development and a period of trial and error

Puberty

Defined as genital maturation. This is important psychologically because it triggers expectations of adult roles yet ahead– roles that are essentially social and can be filled only through a struggle to attain ego identity.

Identity

The syntonic element of adolescence where they look for new roles to help them discover their identities.

Occupational, Ideological, Sexual

Identity domains in adolescence and all of which form the cornerstone of identity development and exploration during adolescence.

Identity Confusion

The dystonic element of adolescence which is a syndrome of problems that includes a divided self-image, an inability to establish intimacy, a sense of time urgency, a lack of concentration on required tasks, and a rejection of family or community standards.

Fidelity

The basic strength of adolescence which is primarily the faith in one’s ideology. After establishing their internal standards of conduct, adolescents are no longer in need of parental guidance but have confidence in their own religious, political, and social ideologies.

Role Repudation

The core pathology of adolescence where it blocks one’s ability to synthesize various self-images and values into a workable identity. This can take the form of either diffidence or defiance.

Young Adulthood

A time from about age 19 to 30– is circumscribed not so much by time as by the acquisition of intimacy at the beginning of the stage and the development of generativity

Genitality

This develops only during young adulthood when it is distinguished by mutual trust and a stable sharing of sexual satisfactions with a loved person. This is the chief psychosexual accomplishment of young adulthood and exists only in an intimate relationship

Intimacy

The syntonic element of young adulthood or the ability to fuse one’s identity with that of another person without fear of losing it.

Isolation

The dystonic element of young adulthood and the “incapacity to take chances with one’s identity by sharing true intimacy”.

Love

The basic strength of yound adulthood which emerges from the crisis of intimacy versus isolation. This is the mature devotion that overcomes the basic difference between men and women.

Exclusivity

The core pathology of young adulthood the person is able to exclude certain people, activities, and ideas in order to develop a strong sense of identity. This becomes pathological when it blocks one’s ability to cooperate, compete, or compromise– all prerequisite ingredients for intimacy and love.

Adulthood

The time when people begin to take their place in society and assume responsibility for whatever society produces. Spanning the years from about age 31 to 60 years old.

Procreativity

Refers to more than genital contact with an intimate partner. It includes assuming responsibility for the care of offspring that result from that sexual contact.

Generativity

The syntonic element of adulthood that is concerned with establishing and guiding next generation, includes the procreation of children, the production of work, and the creation of new things, and ideas that contribute to the building of a better world.

Self-absorption and Stagnation

The dystonic element of adulthood where the generational cycle of productivity and creativity is crippled when people become too absorbed in themselves, too self-indulgent.

Care

The basic strength of adulthood or the “widening commitment to take care of the persons, the products, and the ideas of one has learned to care for”. It is not a duty or obligation but a natural desire emerging from the conflict between generativity and stagnation or self-absorption.

Rejectivity

The core pathology of adulthood characterized by the unwillingness to take care of certain persons or groups. It is manifested as self-centeredness, provincialism, or pseudospeciation.

Old Age

The eighth and final stage of the psychosocial development. Period from about age or 60 to the end of life. It can be a time of joy, playfulness, and wonder but is also a time of senility, depression, and despair.

Generalized Sensuality

It means to take pleasure in a variety of different physical sensations– sight, sounds, tastes, odor, embraces, and perhaps genital stimulation. Include a greater appreciation for the traditional lifestyle of the opposite sex.

Integrity

The syntonic element of old age or the feeling of wholeness and coherence, an ability to hold together one’s sense of “I-ness” despite diminishing physical and intellectual powers.

Despair

The dystonic element of old age which literally means to be without hope.

Wisdom

The basic strength of old age or the “informed and detached concern with life itself in the face of death itself”.

Disdain

The core pathology of old age or the reaction to feeling and seeing others in an increasing state of being finished, confused, and helpless. As such, it is the continuation of rejectivity, the core pathology of adulthood.