Erik Erikson-Week of September 11
Choose one of Erikson's stages and post an overview along with your reflections on how this stage is navigated in today's society. Do you think that the developmental tasks of this stage are easier or more difficult to achieve than previous generations? For instance, during adolesence identity used to be achieved by the early twenties. Now identity formation is being pushed into the late twenties.
12 comments:
I would like to comment on stage 6 of Erikson's stage's of development the Young Adult stage (18-40). Erikson tries to show the comparison between Intimacy and Isolation. The two somewhat inter-mingle so to speak in the sense that we cannot find true love with having isolation. We all long for that close intimacy with other people weather it is friends, family or even a future spouse. But according to Erikson it is through the time of Isolation that we can come to know what true love really is. Because lets face it. Most of us never marry our first loves. Even though some people do that number is still small. Most people have felt hurt and rejection by other people and it has caused them to be isolated because of the possiblity of being rejected or hurt again. This is what I feel Erikson is trying get across is that that we long for that intimacy, but the problem is we search for it the wrong way I think.
I picked this stage by Erickson because it is the stage that I am in in my own development. Most Youth my age are looking for the "one", the person that we can share the rest of out lives with, but like so many people they try and go and fill that intimacy need with the wrong things. I have found that when I have been rejected in life, weather it be by friends, family, or significant others, I find my self Isolated as Erikson said. But it's in that Isolation that I find true love in the sense that I find God, Who is love and is willing to fill that need for intimacy in my life. I feel that alot of people never have that feeling of knowing true love because the havn't found what true love is and that is in God.
Brian,
You made some good points here about intimacy. Young adulthood is a time when this "developmental task" is usually acheived, however, it seems today many young adults are waiting-postponing marriage. I have heard from some that they are afraid of making the same mistakes of their parents. You are also right to point out the in God there is true intimacy. Also, in Christian community this is concretized. Today people are lacking community and lacking true intimacy. What does the internet do to the quest for intimacy? How does it re-configure community? Is this healthy? "Facebook," blogs (such as this one), and other forms of internet connection do facilitate communication. Does it however, facilitate community?
What do the rest of you think on this?
By the way, I need all of the class to respond to my posting on Erikson.
Cheryl Johns
The eighth of Erikson’s identified stages of the life cycle is old age. This late life period is identified with psychological crises of Integrity vs Despair while the basic strength is wisdom. When Erikson married the life expectancy for a U.S. male was 58 years; today it is nearly 77 years with 12% of the U.S. population 65 or older (sources: US DHS, US Census). The extension of life expectancy is largely attributable to improved health care.
This final stage builds upon all the experiences of the former stages. The psychosexual stage is described as generalization of sensual modes. The perspective from this advanced age makes the radius of significant relations twofold: mankind and my kind. Philosophical is the binding ritualization, while dogmatism is the ritualism marking old age. The core pathology is identified as disdain.
With the increasing number of people in the U.S. within this age span, there is much attention and funding dedicated to improving life quality to a later age and making the senior body and appearance more societally acceptable and common. At the same time, there is signficant media attention on the importance of youth, creating a great pull to the despair that marks the phase. Generally, the increasing number of elderly people with the improvements in lifestyle and acceptability should lead to later realization of the depths of despair and disdain, allowing a greater evidence of the more positive attributes of this period.
Dr. John,
In response to your question about the internet, I believe it can be a vehicle to building community or creating more isolation.
On the one hand, social networking sites can facilitate shallow relationships with little meaningful interaction - but as you point out, we can do that in church as well!
My daughter and her friends seem to use their facebook sites to maintain their sense of community and connectedness even though they are too geographically separate. So that is refreshing.
I agree that we all need, and most of us long for, those deeper more meaningful relationships and a sense of commitment to one another. This should be a part of our Christian experience... they will know we are Christians by our love one toward another.
The seventh stage is what I am writing about due to it being where I feel I am at in my stages. I have seen myself move maybe a little early as I am only 34 but I can see myself as a minister craving the need to pour into others the information that was poured into me as an adolescent. I find myself seeking to leave a meaningful legacy that is conducive to helping others. Though this where I am as a person I am not so sure that this is the case with today’s society, at least this is for the first half of the age group. It seems to me that this group started everything later than our previous counter parts.
The nature of stagnation is very apparent in my life this seems to be the cognitive definition for a midlife crisis. I see this very thing in myself lately as I spend a lot of time reminiscing on my past glories, (I.E, Glory days, Bruce Springsteen). The search for past things seems to me to be that of whatever year we see ourselves at our best, whatever year in life that is we want to relive. I’m not so sure that most get to this point as quickly because most are not even settled now until they are at least thirty.
Rejectivity is one that I read twice to get sense of what was being said and I can truly see this happening this stage of life for many. The generations of people today are doing this very thing with family members. It seems that they are more willing to send them to homes rather than take them into their own home. Sometimes this has to do this out of necessity but many times I find people are into their own worlds and lack the capacity to care for others.
The ritualistic view is seems to be closely related to rejectivity in the sense that everyone wants to take this role of extending values, love, judgment to the next generation but at what cost to the next generation. I think we have lost this in our western society of the United States as we are so individualistic and selfish. This has to do with a greater rejectivity and not wanting to spend the time needed to pour into the next generation.
In the final analysis of the seven stage, my stage I would say that all the areas presented are present and account for but have been somewhat skewed by our society that has a Me-Me attitude, it is all about me. I believe that these development tasks are more difficult to process due to the late move to the latter stages of adolescence. What seems to me is causing so many to reach stages later and in turn causing the natural move from one to the other to be retarded.
Erikson’s adolescence stage is concerned with identity vs. identity confusion. During this stage, the community recognizes them in a new way and begins to trust them as the individuals that they have become. In the same way, the adolescent can choose to accept this recognition and do likewise for their community. Erikson further explains the role of the community in the form of leadership and mentorship, whether it is implicit or explicit. These various factors help an adolescent to begin to form their identity.
The community specifically includes their peer relationships and friends. I have found through working with today’s youth that they often value the communality that they receive from peers more than the mentorship roles that Erikson speaks of. I think this is due in part to the fact that the leadership that young people have received in past generations is either missing or lacking in a lot of communities. Adolescents are looking to one another for their identities, which results in prolonged identity confusion. Young teens are having children and starting to raise families before they have fully figured out who they are. The fading away of the role the community plays in the lives of adolescents today has most definitely had a negative impact on their ability to identify themselves. In addition, society is not portraying a consistent or healthy standard by which young people can engage in self-discovery. Perhaps this is part of the reason that identity formation is being delayed until the late twenties.
I think Facebook, the internet, blogs and other forms of indirect communication, although not bad can be detrimental when it comes to our development. These things create a false sense of community and intimacy. It is only communal on a superficial level, and true intimacy cannot be achieved over the internet. It includes more than just sharing your thoughts. In conjunction with personal interaction, such as is the case with this course, these things can foster growth, but I think we are relying far too much on the fact that we do not have to be too personal or intimate if we do not want to. Even though intimacy involves risk and pain, it is what helps us to discover who we are, and we have community to help guide us through and interpret this self-discovery. Perhaps the lack of these things is part of the reason that adolescents today are having such a hard time finding themselves.
I'm looking at early childhood. This is an area that concerns me greatly. Erikson sub-divides this period into his first stage being 2-3 year old age which he labels autonomy vs. shame and doubt, and his second stage being 4-6 year old age labeled initiative vs. guilt.
In this stage of development the baby becomes a child, desires independence, and in the process of differentiating self from others and relating to others in community (as awareness of a greater numbers of "others" is realized) begins to compare her/him self to the adults and siblings of his/her world. Piaget talks about the use and development of language making this socialization possible. Per Kolberg this is the time that moral reasoning begins to develop as the child begins to construct and coordinate the points of view of self and others. Erikson describes the two phases of early childhood in which one begins to move or develop from a definitely egocentric, dependent stage to becoming aware of difference and sameness as self comes to be seen in relation to others. In this growing awareness one's identity begins to form. During these years the child begins to imitate others with whom identity is shared. Erikson talks about the child's "sense of" not in a vagueness, but relating to the child's developing awareness of self and world in a surface and depth, consciousness and the unconscious. The child is developing ways of "experiencing," ways of "behaving," and unconscious "inner states."
My concern about today's children at this stage of development has to do with the lack of proper, "hands on" attention and training while these very basic and formative developments are steadily progressing. Vast numbers of chilren are left to entertain themselves at the computer or TV. Often children at this age are more computer able than many adults, but while they are picking up great technical skills, they are not getting guidance toward proper identity and relatedness in their human world. The ability to relate to others and to see one's self in a "cause and effect" dynamic develops in this stage, and if it does not develop here, it may not develop fully, and in some cases not at all. These children grow up to be frustrated because they do not know how to form relationships, and often are found in juvenile court. The effect of underdevelopment at this stage of life is a life long handicap.
Janet would like to comment on the first stage, the “Genesis stage”, of Erikson namely “trust vs. mistrust”. The time span ranges from birth to 1-year-old. The task of this stage is, for the infant, to develop a trust, love bond with the maternal person in a safe environment. It’s the most fundamental significant developmental stage on which all other sequential stage build upon. Joan Erikson calls it “the oral-sensory stage” dominated by incorporation. I believe other senses are included, such as touch, smell, tone of voice, visual and taste, even spiritual intuition. It’s self-centered receiving and giving process through the interacting with infant’s first social contact with mother figure “other”. When the immediate demands of the infant are met according to his or her desire, he or she develops a sense of “this is a good world, I am a good boy or girl” and it results in a sense of trust, bond or attach relationship with the mother- the representative of the world. If unfortunately the infant’s demands/needs are not met, or not met on time, mistrust resulted in him or her. That’s why the comment goes, “to love a child is not enough, you have to love him or her early enough” in case of some adapted orphans struggle in their later stages of life having problem to trust.
With the increasing population of single moms and higher devoice rate, infants are having harder time to achieve this task of developing trust than previous generations. If the mother is struggling to have food, or undergoing marital problem, having no family support herself, how can a desperately depending infant have his or her needs met, how can mom mirroring a secured, loving bond for her infant to develop trust in this vulnerable first stage.
Dr. Johns, in response to your question “What does the internet do to the quest for intimacy?” I believe internet enable a person to avoid real intimacy in sense of facing self and the “others”. Relational human being is created by God with five senses, but internet is utilizing the visual, only one out of five senses to communicate, it’s far way short of what God original designed and equip us to do. I heard in crisis situation like death, if the pastor “just being there” for the family, the presence is all the family need or all the pastor can do in some cases. Who want to face your loved one death by receiving an email for comforting? In fact, internet is just one of the means of communication, what it facilitating is the mean through which intimacy may be achieved. Internet does not facilitate the community it’s self. When a person spend all the time and energy in the world of “internet” community in place of real person, it is not healthy. In this sense, internet provides false intimacy.
The stage of adolescence and school age.
It is difficult in the sense that nowadays we have a lot of singles parents and parents that both work, so in that case it is more difficult for an adolescent to identify themselves with a person, in my case my mom was a housewife, I have the maternal figure at home then my dad will come home after work and spend time with us, I am not saying that I had the perfect family but I have the support of my family. Also, we have the media, peer pressure at school, etc; it just a bunch of a group of kids looking for attention, and they all do it in different ways, like the bully this is his way of looking for identity, the loner, the popular one, etc.
It is sad that when I talk with my students, they do not know what they would like to be as an adult but they have already live an adult life, they are having sex; some are taking care of their siblings because parents are at work, etc. The sad things is that this is a problem that is going to continue growing because we are so busy to noticed the need in this little person and the worst, we don’t take serious the emotional needs, one day somebody told me, “he is just kid” for me that was hurtful, because kids are also people with emotions, and they have needs like an adult.
I have several teenagers at home, and I still feel like a teenager at heart, so those stages of life (Adolescence and Young Adulthood)intrigued me the most. I don't have a psychology background so I honestly didn't understand a lot of the terminology that was used, but being a mom and intuitive (thank God) I got the gist of his points.... I think! During adolescence, peer groups are VERY influential. Too much so in today's society I think. In the days when Erikson was doing his research and writing, the parents played a much more active role in the lives of their children and exerter much more influence than in our society today. In Erikson's day, typically the father worked and the mother was taking care of the home and kids. That's not the norm today, and I feel it really impacts the growth and development of our children on every level. In addition, technology and mass media have played a much more important role in people's lives today than in years past, so teenagers get their image of what is acceptable and what they ought to be and look like from TV and movies. Hollywood and the media are interested in the bottom line profit they will make; not the moral fiber of the people that watch their broadcasts. I personally believe that the media plays much more of a role in the development of our children than they are entitled to or have earned. They portray 20-somethings as high schoolers, giving the image that a 16-year old should look and behave much older than their physical maturity or mental capacity provides for. We don't want our kids growing up as fast as our grandparents did, or as TV portrays, and it is not considered acceptable for an adolescent to behave as an adult... yet that is what they see on TV, and that's how their friends act... and mom & dad are not there coz they're off working to provide the necessities and luxuries of life.
On the other hand, the move to the cities has had both a positive and detrimental effect on our kids. It may have provided more income (or social) opportunities, but it has also cost so much more than we bargined for in the long run in the way of family, morals and personal relationships. When my grandmother was a child, her parents died when she was 9 & 11, which left her older sisters and brothers to raise her, and she married my grandpaw at age 16. They were happily married the rest of their lives. My mother was expected to help take care of the house, garden and her younger brothers growing up, and she was given responsibility that today would be considered "slavery" and not right... but that was the way most kids were raised back then. HELPING THE FAMILY OUT. Taking care of each other and doing their part. They didn't have the same luxuries (sports, ballet class, band, school clubs, etc) and modern conveniences of today and they just accepted the responsibilities as part of their lives... and it was what they were expected to do. They grew up much earlier and helped the family with chores, earning income for the family, taking care of younger siblings, etc. "Kids" married and started their own families MUCH earlier than today; back then by the age of 18 or 20 if a girl wasn't married she was typically considered rebellious, of "loose" morals, or undesirable as a wife, mother, and homemaker. Education was not so critical to earning a good living. Men stuck with their families and stood by their word and responsibilities. It was a time of personal integrity and much more community (family) oriented than in today's society, especially in larger towns and cities.
Today if a young girl wants to marry at 16 or 18, society frowns on her thinking she's too young and immature to marry or have children. Her education is not complete and her ability to earn a living on her own is significantly hindered... but her physiology and heart are ready for what God created her for... creating a family. We've promoted intellect and self preservation or indulgence over matters of the heart and family; and yet we still expect our kids to "wait till they're married" to have sex. No wonder there's so many single or divorced parents; kids from broken homes.
In today's society, I think we've become so immersed in "making a living" (or having material wealth and status) that we are not enjoying our lives... or our families. Whereas today our material wealth and job position determines whether we are successful or not... in the days of Erikson's research, our families and integrity (moral reputation) in the community was much more important. People were more focused on each other and the family then...now it's much more self-centered (as several of you have so skillfully pointed out) and focused on educating oneself before starting a family. People don't rely on each other because they've learned from experience that they can't... and I believe that has contributed to the post-ponement of identity and marriage in our day. And I'm NOT SAYING THAT EDUCATION or wealth IS A BAD THING... please don't interpret what I've said that way. It's just the combination of extending our educational time, accumulation of material wealth, and lack of interpersonal relationships due to the mass media and separation of families from one another (parents as well as grandparents, cousins, aunts & uncles, etc) has not given our kids the roots or mirrors they used to rely on for self-image. So they turn to what is most predominant in their lives... their friends or television. Most of the parents are at work now (both mother and dad) out of necessity so who else is there for them? We were created for relationships. And we need them in every stage of our lives to be all that God desires us to be as a reflection of His love. I've probably talked WAY TOO MUCH here!
The object relations theory informs our ministry, in my case, as a counselor or teacher at this point of my life is trying to be as healthy as possible myself. This is the best way to help our “kinds” (where it’s an adult kind or a chronically kind) with their “difficulties” with God. We can not do anything good for them before we become someone relate to them in crisis moments to reshape their “distorted” God. Among “know, be, do”, “be” processes “know” or “do”. When we mirror God for our kinds, in Rizzuto’s word, “if the God we present is too discordant with the experience we offer them, our words will confuse, frighten, or even make them close their ears.” We try not to do harm to our kinds. Retracing in their [ministers’] own lives the sources and vicissitudes of their God representation is helpful, as Rizzuto suggested.
To minister to other kinds of God is to emanate life and representing God. The ultimate resource of life is God Himself. Our journey of reshaping our representation of God is a life-long process. I heartedly agree with Rizzuto that Continuous reshaping of the God representation for others is a delicate art which requires respect for the child’s adaptive or defensive activities. Work with God in his timing and direction, respect every one all the time.
The case study of ”God, the Enigma” troubles me the most. Unlike absent God in Benadine Fisher’s case, Daniel Miller got a negative picture of God. It require erase before it become a “blank” shift for Daniel to reshape God’s image in his mind. Congruence was lacking in the developmental chain of Daniel’s image of God.
Janet said again (10/02/08)
The object relations theory informs our ministry, in my case, as a counselor or teacher at this point of my life is trying to be as healthy as possible myself. This is the best way to help our “kinds” (where it’s an adult kind or a chronically kind) with their “difficulties” with God. We cannot do anything good for them before we become someone relate to them in crisis moments to reshape their “distorted” God. Among “know, be, do”, “be” processes “know” or “do”. When we mirror God for our kinds, in Rizzuto’s word, “if the God we present is too discordant with the experience we offer them, our words will confuse, frighten, or even make them close their ears.” We try not to do harm to our kinds. Retracing in their [ministers’] own lives the sources and vicissitudes of their God representation is helpful, as Rizzuto suggested.
To minister to other kinds of God is to emanate life and representing God. The ultimate resource of life is God Himself. Our journey of reshaping our representation of God is a life-long process. I heartedly agree with Rizzuto that Continuous reshaping of the God representation for others is a delicate art which requires respect for the child’s adaptive or defensive activities. Work with God in his timing and direction, respect everyone all the time.
The case study of Benadine Fisher impacts me the most. There are some infantile parent(s) there and leave their child struggling with “borderline” personality all her life. Only God knows who and when the “window opportunity” comes, it’s likely to be Benadine’s crisis moment to intervene and reshape her image of God. Change her way of seeing herself and the others, and the world around her. From Benadine’s parents I learn how much permanently it will impact significant others, it would be my counselees too, if I remain immature. On the other hand, I see society taking responsibility to take care God’s gift of kinds, in case of Benadine, social worker would step in, the court may judge it’s to the kind’s best interest to terminate Benadine’s parents’ right to be her guardian. This allows adoptive parents to help with the development of God’s image in Benadine’s heart from this point on. This will change every aspect of Benadine’s life, and her next generation too.
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