Erik Erikson

Development through choicesImage: Creative Commons via Wikipedia

Agenda

• Background– Biography– Timeline

• Contributions– Writing– Theories– Studies

• Impact– Identity– Choices– Adolescent psychological

research

Background: Biography

• Erik Homburger Erikson (1902-1994)

• Heavy influence on our psychological understanding of the young.

• Some identity crises of his own may have sparked his interest in study

• Born June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt am Main, Germany by Danish parents.

• Married in 1930, to Joan Mowat Serson, who studied education, arts and crafts, and writing.

(Boeree, 2006)

Background: Timeline

• Went to the United States to escape Nazis• Harvard Medical School (1934-1935)• Yale School of Medicine (1936-1939)• University of California at Berkeley (1939-1951)• Austen Riggs Center, Stockbridge, Mass. (1951-1960)• Visiting professor at the University of Pittsburgh School

of Medicine (1951-1960)• After US citizenship, took the name Erikson, possibly to

self determine identity.• Studied Hitler, Luther, Gandhi,

(Boeree, 2006)

Contributions: Written Works

• Childhood and Society (1950)• Young Man Luther. A Study in Psychoanalysis and History

(1958) • Insight and Responsibility (1964) A collection of 6 essays• Identity: Youth and Crisis (1968)• Gandhi's Truth: On the Origin of Militant Nonviolence (1969)• Adulthood (edited book, 1978)• Vital Involvement in Old Age (with J.M. Erikson and H.

Kivnick, 1986)• The Life Cycle Completed (with J.M. Erikson, 1987)

(Friedman, 2000)

Contributions: Theories (concept of self)

• Main task of the adolescent is achieve a state of Identity

• Identity is a state towards which one strives• When various aspects of self-concept are in

agreement• In choosing an identity, we repudiate (give up)

other choices

(Thies & Travers, 2005)

Contributions: Theories

• In democratic society, where many choices exist, society plays a role in development

• In adolescence, (a time-out or moratorium) we experiment with many choices, searching for those that suit us, without considering responsibility for any particular one

• Indecision is essential to the moratorium to avoid identity crisis (Erikson)

• Adolescent tolerance of the ambiguity of indecision, and avoiding making too quick a choice of identity leads to a better sense of self, and a stronger development. (Thies & Travers, 2005)

Defining Identity:

• “A sense of individual identity”• “A striving for a continuity of personal

character”• “A criterion for the silent doings of ego

synthesis”• “A maintenance of an inner solidarity with a

group’s ideals and identity”

(Erikson, 1959)

Life Cycle and VirtuesStage (age) Psychosocial crisis Significant relations Psychosocial modalities Psychosocial virtues

Maladaptations & malignancies

I (0-1) infant trust vs mistrust mother

to get, to give in return hope, faith

sensory distortion -- withdrawal

II (2-3) --toddler

autonomy vs shame and doubt parents to hold on, to let go will, determination

impulsivity -- compulsion

III (3-6) --preschooler initiative vs guilt family to go after, to play purpose, courage

ruthlessness -- inhibition

IV (7-12 or so) --school-age child

industry vs inferiority

neighborhood and school

to complete, to make things together competence

narrow virtuosity -- inertia

V (12-18 or so) --adolescence

ego-identity vs role-confusion

peer groups, role models

to be oneself, to share oneself fidelity, loyalty

fanaticism -- repudiation

VI (the 20’s) --young adult intimacy vs isolation partners, friends

to lose and find oneself in another love

promiscuity -- exclusivity

VII (late 20’s to 50’s) -- middle adult

generativity vs self-absorption

household, workmates

to make be, to take care of care

overextension -- rejectivity

VIII (50’s and beyond) -- old adult integrity vs despair

mankind or “my kind”

to be, through having been, to face not being wisdom

presumption -- despair

Chart adapted from Erikson's 1959 Identity and the Life Cycle (Erikson, 1959)

Impact: Identity

• Fully developed sense of the stage approach to development

• Great tools with which to apply theoretical analysis to psychological case studies and social situations

(Boeree, 2006)

Impact: Choices

• By the concept of repudiation of choices we can see how Identity is defined.

• We can apply the theory in situations where an individual seems stuck between stages, or searching to move to earlier or later stages out of sequence.

• If choices have not been fully made, a return to those stages may be predicted.

(Thies & Travers, 2005)

References

• Boeree, C. G. (2006). Erik Erikson. Retrieved June 10, 2009, from http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/erikson.html.

• Erikson, E. H. (1994). Insight and responsibility (p. 256). W. W. Norton & Company.

• Erikson, E. H. (1980). Identity and the life cycle (p. 191). W. W. Norton & Company.

• Friedman, L. J. (2000). Identity's Architect (p. 592). Harvard University Press.

• Thies, K. M., & Travers, J. F. (2005). Handbook of human development for health care professionals (p. 503). Jones & Bartlett Publishers.