Erikson Case Study

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1) What are the issues facing Dean at this point in his development?
Being that Dean is in Erikson’s psychosocial developmental stage of Identity vs. Role Confusion and with the information provided about Dean in the case study, it would be accurate to say he is facing concerns of who he is, who he is to be, and what other’s think of him (p. 303). Dean as a teenager is faced with the task of moving from an innocent, dependent child to a young adult (p. 282). During such a child-to-adult metamorphosis Dean is faced with the issue of relying on his relative mastery of earlier tasks by which he must rethink, evaluate, and reconstruct with new and more cognitively and emotionally mature aspects of his self-system (p. 282, 283). Being that Dean
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238). Such issues described as being commonly associated with the process of sexual maturation are also further explained in the case study when it describes Dean as becoming emotionally more and more morose, behaviorally participating in risky actions such as heavily drinking and driving while intoxicated, physically becoming concerned as to why he is not aroused by the same thing his peers are, and socially finding it difficult to be around kids at school (p. 283, 319). It is during this time in development that Dean is growing both outwardly and inwardly and is met with the notorious “storm and stress” of adolescence which commonly includes rapid and extreme swings in emotional tone, moodiness, intense reactions, risk behaviors, and negative affect (p. 285, 286). Undoubtedly such emotional and behavioral tendencies can and often do contribute to the violation of social norms and conflict with parents, which can be seen as contributing factors in Dean’s parents …show more content…
I should keep in the forefront of my understandings that growth and change of self-representation take place throughout the lifespan, in addition to noticing that adolescents makes impressive strides towards developing the essential core of who they will become as an adult (p. 303). It would serve me well to understand Marcia’s 4 identity status categories and be able to share them with Dean and his supports (p. 303). With this, I believe I would assess Dean’s situation as falling within the moratorium status category in which he is undergoing exploration and the anxiety and exhilaration that accompanies active experimentation (p. 304). Although I do assess Dean as approaching foreclosure in which a conferred identity is present rather than a constructed one, as he seems to have subject himself to his father’s desires rather than fully exploring all the options available to him (p. 304). For the most part, I assess Dean’s situation as relatively common for that of youth. Although he might perceive his questions of sexuality as uncommon, his lack of sexual attraction towards females isn’t necessarily bazar as many boys are late-maturing and become affected by stress and storm by way of social awkwardness, variable in mood, and insecurity (p. 287). Furthermore, Dean’s fears

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