Analyzing Erikson's Psychosocial Development

We would like to start by introducing our group which consists of Salome Fregoso, Roxanne Wagstaff, Andrea Lopez, Mehwish Kazi and Angel Mejia, we named our group the Avengers. For our first group assignment we were asked to pick a topic from the three provided on blackboard. We chose option one which is about theories. Our assignments were to interview three parents of children ages 12 months - 5 years and ask them to share some stories about their children and about themselves when they were a child. In this assignment we have three different women and men that were interviewed for the first time. These parents were family members while others were complete strangers who were interviewed at random at a shopping mall. We will be sharing the …show more content…
Cognitive theory can be applied in this situation because Michelle was in the concrete operational phase (6-11 years old) which states that children will begin to use logic to understand and interpret experiences in a rational manner. In this phase children usually need to see, hear, touch and experience things for themselves in order to understand them. Michelle wanted to know everything she could about whatever was in front of her. She was always thirsty for knowledge and needed to know how and why things would happen. The psychosocial theory of development by Erik Erikson suggests that there are eight stages that play an important role in the development of the human mind and that social experiences aided in the development throughout a lifetime. I believe Michelle was in stage four of Erikson’s psychosocial theory. This stage is called industry vs. inferiority. During this time it is thought that children will learn competency and how to be productive with learning new skills or they are left feeling inadequate. Michelle had a huge drive to learn and know as much as possible. I believe because she was always asking questions she wanted to (consciously or possible subconsciously) ensure she didn’t fall short of her own expectations as well as anyone …show more content…
Social learning theory occurs through modeling which people copy what they see others do. Therefore, Michael was modeling what he saw the group of girls do, he watched them put on dresses and also paint their nails, and so since he was observing them, he decided to do the same thing to himself. In this case he was imitating the actions, because it looked like fun, he decided to do that too. In addition, behavior theory which is the study of behavior through actions, and environmental responses. I believe in Michael’s scenario, the environment was different, instead of playing with other boys, he decided to play with the girls, not knowing that dresses, high heels, and nail polish is for “girls only”. It gave him joy doing the same thing as them not caring if other kids were looking at him or