Erik Erickson Middle Childhood Summary

Erik Erikson viewed middle childhood as a time for learning with devoted attention and perseverance when children face the crisis of industry versus inferiority. As children strive to develop competence, they correspondingly come to view themselves as either productive and industrious or inadequate and inferior. From observing Haylee and how she feels about herself and her ability to do well in school, Jerica has sensed both feelings of inferiority and industry from Haylee. Many times, Jerica has observed Haylee’s lack of confidence in herself. For example, when faced with a homework problem, Haylee often times shows signs of frustration and even says “I can’t do this. This is too hard for me.” She also often times attributes her difficulties to being held back twice and sometimes says because she’s been held back twice, there is no way she is smart enough to do a particular task. This is a clear example of feelings of inferiority. Haylee also displays a feeling of inferiority when she refuses to read in a room where other students are working …show more content…
Based off of the five general categories of peer acceptance that Jerica learned in her Youth Development course, Haylee would be classified as a rejected-withdraw child, as she shows signs of passiveness, being socially awkward, and holding negative expectations about peer interactions due to fears of being scorned. An example of this is when Haylee refuses to read in front of her peers, as she has experienced being made fun of because of her reading difficulties. One day one of Haylee’s peers asked if she would like to read with her and Haylee refused. When Jerica asked her why she refused, Haylee said she did so because her peer would probably make fun of her when she wasn’t able to read a word or had to choose a book on a lower grade