Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson’s theory of Psychosocial Development explores one’s life experiences through stages of development and social interactions to determine one’s identity. This paper will consist of my cultural, religious and life experiences that have shaped my place in the world based on the ideas of Erik Erikson and Kwame Appiah’s theories of development. Erikson describes his fifth stage as Identity Confusion in which takes place during adolescence. Throughout this paper I will focus on experiences and people I have encountered up until my teenage years that shaped my identity. I will also introduce Kwame Appiah’s views regarding racial identity and the importance of cultural differences to get along in society. I will also be describing …show more content…
Due to the clientele that was willing or able to afford for their child to attend a christian preschool, the other students I was surrounded by at my own house were people of typically a caucasian heritage who most often were fairly wealthy and typically consisted of the “farmers kids” of the small town of Madera. It allowed me to grow up without the stigma that majority of the town holds about the rich, white, farmers being stuck up and rude. This experience, much like Kwame’s theory on racial identity, did ultimately play a role in who I am today. I grew up not realizing the difference between my middle class house my parents could barely afford with my hand-sewn overalls and my other friends two story mansions and their fancy brand new outfits for every holiday because all I saw was how much I was loved by my friends and even their families. Although this opened my eyes in one perspective, it was detrimental to my ability to make new friends when I began to get older and I attended public school when the rest of them continued on to private school. My town is a hispanic dominate town and me being one of the fewer white kids gave other students the misconception that I was stuck up or was treated differently than they were. Which ultimately lead me …show more content…
The small red itchy bumps would arise starting around the middle of my stomach and would work its way both up and down my body. Some reactions were worse than others, I went to many many doctors who all ran extensive amounts of tests and observations on me and each one would have a different explanation for my reaction, some of which included, bug bites, allergic reactions, chickenpox, eczema, etc. It was evident that it was so much more than any of that so my family prayed and never stopped trying and eventually we found a doctor that was able to identify it as the very rare disease, Mastocytosis Pigmentosa Urticaria. Mastocytosis is a form of activation disorder within mast cells, usually caused by the presence of too many of those cells. Urticaria Pigmentosa is the most common form of Mastocytosis and presents itself in the form of hives occurring on the skin when irritated. Unfortunately for me, there was no cure and although seems harmless was actually precancerous and as my reactions got worse as I got older, so were my chances of avoiding a vascular