Analyzing Erikson's Eight Stages

Erikson is a psychosocial theorist who believed individuals develop throughout the lifespan in eight stages (Feldman, 2011). In Erikson’s theory, he argued,” both society and culture challenge and shape us”society, and culture both challenge and shape us (Feldman, 2011). Erikson’s theory suggests that developmental change occurs all throughout our lives between eight different stages. The stages emerge in a fixed pattern and are similar for a majority of people. Each stage presents a “crisis or conflict that the individual must resolve” in order to continue throughout their life (Feldman, 2011). Although no crisis is ever fully resolved, making life increasingly complicated, the individual must at least address the crisis of each stage sufficiently to deal with demands made during the next stage of development (Feldman, 2011). Successful resolutions contribute to healthier development later in life. However, an unsuccessful resolution does not constitute an unhealthy development, it necessarily means their healthy development in life may take longer than someone who has successfully completed the stage. …show more content…
I examined three generations of my family to determine resolutions for each stage. The three generations I observed were my mother, my sister, and myself. Based on the reading I hypothesized that my mother would have a few stages that weren’t completely resolved due to life complications. I hypothesized that my sister will have resolved stages but also may have resolved a few stages ahead of her age group. For myself, I hypothesized that throughout my life I will have a few unresolved stages due to complications in my