Psych 4B (Erikson)

Midterm

Theodor Homburger

At first, Erikson believed that he was his biological father.

Valdemar Salomonsen

Erik’s mother’s first husband. Left his mother 4 years before Erik was born.

Erik Erikson

He coined the term “identity crisis.”

identity crisis

regarded as a turning point in one’s life that may either strengthen or weaken personality

psychoanalysis

Erikson regarded his post-Freudian theory as an extension of this.

Freudian theory

Erikson used this theory as the foundation for his life-cycle approach to personality.

social and historical

In addition to elaborating on psychosexual stages beyond childhood, Erikson placed more emphasis on both of these influences.

June 15, 1902

Erikson’s date of birth [born in Southern Germany]

Peter Blos

Erikson’s friend who invited him to teach children in a new school in Vienna.

Anna Freud

One of the founders of the school Erikson was invited to teach, who became not only his employer, but his psychoanalyst as well.

searching for the identity of his biological father

While undergoing analytic treatment, Erikson stressed to his psychoanalyst that this was his most difficult problem.

Joan Serson

While in Vienna, Erikson met and married her. A Canadian-born dancer, artist, and teacher who had also undergone psychoanalysis.

Joan Serson

With her psychoanalytic background and her facility with the English language, she became a valuable editor and occasional coauthor of Erikson’s books.

Kai, Jon, Neil, Sue

Four children of the Eriksons

20

the age Neil (son with Down syndrome) died

Childhood and Society

In 1950, Erikson published this book. A book that at first glance appears to be a hodgepodge of unrelated chapters.

1950

the year Childhood and Society was published

Childhood and Society

This book became a classic and gave Erikson an international reputation as an imaginative thinker, remains the finest introduction to his post-Freudian personality theory.

May 12, 1994

date Erikson died [age of 91]

ego

In contrast to what Freud believed, Erikson held that this is a positive force that creates a self-identity, a sense of “I.”

ego

As the center of our personality, this helps us adapt to the various conflicts and crises of life and keeps us from losing our individuality to the leveling forces of society

ego

During childhood, this is weak, pliable, and fragile; but by adolescence it should begin to take form and gain strength.

ego

Throughout our life, it unifies personality and guards against indivisibility.

ego

Erikson saw this as a partially unconscious organizing agency that synthesizes our present experiences with past self-identities and also with anticipated images of self.

ego

Erikson defined this as a person’s ability to unify experiences and actions in an adaptive manner.

body ego

This refers to experiences with our body; a way of seeing our physical self as different for other people. We may be satisfied or dissatisfied with the way our body looks and functions, but we recognize that it is the only body we will ever have.

ego ideal

This represents the image we have of ourselves in comparison with an established ideal; it is responsible for our being satisfied or dissatisfied not only with our physical self but with our entire personal identity.

Ego identity

This is the image we have of ourselves in the variety of social roles we play.

ego

To Erikson, this exists as potential at birth, but it must emerge from within a cultural environment.

breastfeeding

The Sioux place great value on generosity, and Erikson believed that the reassurance resulting from unlimited doing of this lays the foundation for the virtue of generosity.

Yurok

People of this nation set strict regulations concerning elimination of urine and feces, practices that tend to develop “anality,” or compulsive neatness, stubbornness, and miserliness.

orality and anality

In European American societies, these are often considered undesirable traits or neurotic symptoms.

culture

Erikson (1963), however, argued that orality among the Sioux hunters and anality among the Yurok fishermen are adaptive characteristics that help both the individual and this.

pseudospecies

an illusion perpetrated and perpetuated by a particular society that it is somehow chosen to be the human species

epigenetic principle

Erikson believed that the ego develops throughout the various stages of life according to this principle [a term borrowed from embryology].

Epigenetic development

implies a step-by-step growth of fetal organs

epigenetic principle

Erikson (1968) described this principle by saying that “anything that grows has a ground plan, and that out of this ground plan the parts arise, each part having its time of special ascendancy, until all parts have arisen to form a functioning whole.”

Epigenesis

means that one characteristic develops on top of another in space and time

interaction of opposites

a conflict between a syntonic (harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive) element

syntonic

harmonious element

dystonic

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 this.

core pathology

too little basic strength at any one stage results in this for that stage

identity crisis

During each stage, but especially from adolescence forward, personality development is characterized by this crisis. Erikson (1968) called this “a turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential.”

identity crisis

Contrary to popular usage, this crisis is not a catastrophic event but rather an opportunity for either adaptive or maladaptive adjustment.

infancy

The first psychosocial stage — a period encompassing approximately the first year of life and paralleling Freud’s oral phase of development.

infancy

To Erikson (1963, 1989), this stage is a time of incorporation, with infants “taking in” not only through their mouth but through their various sense organs as well.

Infancy

This stage is marked by the oral-sensory psychosexual mode, the psychosocial crisis of basic trust versus basic mistrust, and the basic strength of hope.

oral-sensory

a phrase that includes infants’ principal psychosexual mode of adapting

oral-sensory

This stage is characterized by two modes of incorporation—receiving and accepting what is given.

primary caregiver

Infants’ most significant interpersonal relations are with them, ordinarily their mother.

basic trust

If infants realize that their mother will provide food regularly, then they begin to develop this; if they consistently hear the pleasant, rhythmic voice of their mother, then they develop more of this; if they can rely on an exciting visual environment, then they solidify this even more.

basic trust

In other words, if their pattern of accepting things corresponds with culture’s way of giving things, then infants learn to develop this.

basic mistrust

In contrast, infants develop this if they find no correspondence between their oral-sensory needs and their environment.

basic trust

the syntonic of basic mistrust

basic mistrust

the dystonic of basic trust

hope

The inevitable clash between basic trust and basic mistrust results in people’s first psychosocial crisis. If people successfully solve this crisis, they acquire this first basic strength.

withdrawal

If infants do not develop sufficient hope during infancy, they will demonstrate the antithesis or the opposite of hope. This is the core pathology of infancy.

early childhood

the second psychosocial stage — a period paralleling Freud’s anal stage and encompassing approximately the 2nd and 3rd years of life

anal-urethral-muscular mode

During the 2nd year of life, children’s primary psychosexual adjustment is this mode. At this time, children learn to control their body, especially in relation to cleanliness and mobility.

Early childhood

This stage is a 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.

autonomy

the syntonic quality of early childhood

shame and doubt

the dystonic quality of early childhood

shame and doubt

Conversely, 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 this, setting up a serious psychosocial crisis.

shame

is a feeling of self-consciousness, of being looked at and exposed

doubt

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

will

This basic strength evolves from the resolution of the crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt.

will

Children develop this basic strength only when their environment allows them some self-expression in their control of sphincters and other muscles.

compulsion

the core pathology of early childhood

play age

Erikson’s third stage of development — a period covering the same time as Freud’s phallic phase—roughly ages 3 to 5 years

genital-locomotor

the primary psychosexual mode during the play age

inhibition

core pathology of the play age

purpose

the conflict of initiative versus guilt produces this basic strength

school age

This stage covers development from about age 6 to approximately age 12 or 13 and matches the latency years of Freud’s theory.

school age

At this age, the social world of children is expanding beyond family to include peers, teachers, and other adult models.

latency

This is important because it allows children to divert their energies to learning the technology of their culture and the strategies of their social interactions.

school age

This is a period of little sexual development as it is a time of tremendous social growth.

industry versus inferiority

the psychosocial crisis of school age

Industry

a syntonic quality meaning a willingness to remain busy with something and to finish a job

inferiority

As children learn to do things well, they develop a sense of industry, but if their work is insufficient to accomplish their goals, they acquire this dystonic quality of the school age.

competence

from the conflict of industry versus inferiority, school-age children develop this basic strength

competence

This basic strength is the confidence to use one’s physical and cognitive abilities to solve the problems that accompany school age.

inertia

the antithesis of competence and the core pathology of the school age

Adolescence

The period from puberty to young adulthood, is one of the most crucial developmental stages because, by the end of this period, a person must gain a firm sense of ego identity.

Adolescence

the crisis between identity and identity confusion reaches its ascendance during this stage

fidelity

the basic strength of adolescence

Adolescence

This stage is an adaptive phase of personality development, a period of trial and error.

puberty

defined as genital maturation, plays a relatively minor role in Erikson’s concept of adolescence

identity

According to Erikson (1982), this emerges from two sources: (1) adolescents’ affirmation or repudiation of childhood identifications, and (2) their historical and social contexts, which encourage conformity to certain standards.

identity confusion

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

this is faith in one’s ideology

role repudiation

the pathological counterpart of fidelity — the core pathology of adolescence that blocks one’s ability to synthesize various self-images and values into a workable identity

diffidence

is an extreme lack of self-trust or self-confidence and is expressed as shyness or hesitancy to express oneself

defiance

the act of rebelling against authority

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 at the end.

True genitality

This can develop only during young adulthood when it is distinguished by mutual trust and a stable sharing of sexual satisfactions with a loved person.

True genitality

It is the chief psychosexual accomplishment of young adulthood and exists only in an intimate relationship.

intimacy versus isolation

Young adulthood is marked by this psychosocial crisis.

intimacy

is the ability to fuse one’s identity with that of another person without fear of losing it

isolation

The psychosocial counterpart to intimacy defined as “the incapacity to take chances with one’s identity by sharing true intimacy.”