Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory
- Erik Erikson was a well known psycho analyst who propounded psycho-social theory of the general development whole life period. Erikson emphasised the importance of social factors for the development of personality. He develoved Erikson’s Stages of Psycho-Social Development the concept of variability of stability and permanance of decided determinants of stages. Like freud Erikson also accepted that the basis of personality development is biological and sexual but he provided a social basis to Freudian list of development. Erikson pointed out eight stages of development in which he emphasised the importance of interaction of social factors and biological factors for the development of personality. According to him psycho-social development is related to culture in two ways. Firstly in all cultures a child passes through similar stages of development but in each culture there are some special ways for directing and enhancing the behaviour of a child. Secondly in each culture there is a special cultural affiliation which changes as time passes. A custom that fulfills the needs of one generation, becomes outdated or unusable for the next generation. Psychosocial development is like epigenetic principle. Erikson has pointed out that both negative and positive results of each stage of development are possible as self dependance versus doubt and shame. Idealy a child develops in desired proportion in which positive aspect is effective on negative aspect. For example if an individual wants to know the need to Trust and Mistrust generally his attitude towards life will be full of confidenc e. The formation of each stage is the outcome of previous stage and this stage in future affect the next stages. According to Erikson the chief aim of life is to keep engaged in establishing basic identify.
- In each stage of development all individuals faces conflicts which can be avoided or removed by accepting changes and adjustment. Erikson identified the effect of three factors body, self and society. According to him the development of personality takes place due to the effect of these factors. In this way this theory emphasises the integration of social, sociological and biological factors in personality. A brief discription of Erikson’s stages of pscho-social development is given here under.
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Important Points of Human Development :-
- Development means proceeding towards more maturity which is not quantitatively measurable but in qualitative change.
- Development in continuous, systematic and sequential.
- In each cell of parents there are 23 chromosoms and these constitute 23 pairs.
- Each choromosom has many genes and each gene determines one or the other trait or characteristic.
- Heredity provides potentialities to develop. These potentialities develop in environment.
- Sigmund Freud propounded psychoanalytic theory and Erikson propounded Psycho social theory which describe the stages of development from birth to adulthood.
Human Development Questions And Answers
1. What is the meaning of heredity?
(A) Sperm and ovam
(B) Chromosomes and genes
(C) Mitosis and Meiosis
(D) DNA and RNA
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Answer :- ( B )
2. Which of the following theory has been propounded by Freud?
(A) Cognitive theory
(B) Psycho-social theory
(C) Stimulus-response theory
(D) Psycho analytic theory
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Answer :- ( D )
3. Who out of the following has propounded psycho-social theory?
(A) Sigmund freud
(B) Erik Erikson
(C) E.B. Hurlock
(D) Not any of these
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Answer :- ( B )