chapter 7

• Identity crisis


  A turning point in one's life that may either strengthen or weaken personality
• Erikson's post-Freudian theory


  • Extends Freud's infantile developmental stages into adolescence, adulthood, and old age
  • Suggests that at each stage a specific psychosocial struggle contributes to the formation of personality
• Ego


  • A positive force that creates a self-identity, a sense of "I"
  • Helps us adapt to the various conflicts and crises of life and keeps us from losing our individuality to the leveling forces of society
• Aspects of ego


  • Body ego - experiences with our body
  • Ego ideal - image we have of ourselves in comparison with an established ideal
  • Ego identity - image we have of ourselves in the variety of social roles we play
• Society's influence


  • The ego emerges from and is largely shaped by society
  • Different societies, with their variations in child-rearing practices, tend to shape personalities that fit the needs and values of their culture
• Erikson found that prolonged and permissive nursing of infants of the Sioux nation resulted in "oral" personalities who gain great pleasure through functions of the mouth
• Sioux parents quickly suppress biting, a practice that may contribute to the child's fortitude and ferocity
• Ego


  Emerges from and is largely shaped by society
• Erikson's emphasis on social and historical factors was in contrast with Freud's mostly biological viewpoint
• Ego


  Exists as potential at birth, but it must emerge from within a cultural environment
• Different societies, with their variations in child-rearing practices, tend to shape personalities that fit the needs and values of their culture
• Erikson's findings on child-rearing practices


  • Prolonged and permissive nursing of infants of the Sioux nation (sometimes for as long as 4 or 5 years) resulted in "oral" personalities
  • Strict regulations concerning elimination of urine and feces among the Yurok nation tend to develop "anality"
• Orality and anality are often considered undesirable traits or neurotic symptoms in European American societies, but Erikson argued they are adaptive characteristics that help both the individual and the culture
• Erikson argued that historically all tribes or nations, including the United States, have developed what he called a pseudospecies: an illusion perpetrated and perpetuated by a particular society that it is somehow chosen to be the human species
• Epigenetic principle


  A step-by-step growth of fetal organs, where the embryo does not begin as a completely formed little person, but develops according to a predetermined rate and in a fixed sequence
• The ego follows the path of epigenetic development, with each stage developing at its proper time and building upon the previous stage
• Psychosocial stages


  Stages of personality development that involve an interaction of the individual and society
• Identity crisis


  A turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential for either adaptive or maladaptive adjustment
• Erikson's eight stages of psychosocial development

  • Infancy
  • Early childhood
  • Play age
  • School age
  • Adolescence
  • Young adulthood
  • Adulthood
  • Old age
• Oral-sensory mode


  Infants' principal psychosexual mode of adapting, characterized by receiving and accepting what is given
• Basic trust vs. basic mistrust


  The psychosocial crisis of infancy, where infants learn to either trust or mistrust the outside world
• Hope


  The basic strength that emerges from the conflict between basic trust and basic mistrust
• Anal-urethral-muscular mode


  Children's primary psychosexual adjustment in early childhood, where they learn to control their body and develop a sense of autonomy
• Autonomy vs. shame and doubt


  The psychosocial crisis of early childhood, where children's self-expression and autonomy conflict with shame and doubt instilled by their culture
• Autonomy


  The ability to express oneself and gain control over one's actions
• Shame


  A feeling of self-consciousness, of being looked at and exposed
• Doubt


  The feeling of not being certain, the feeling that something remains hidden and cannot be seen
• Autonomy


  Develops out of basic trust established in infancy
• Lack of basic trust in infancy


  Leads to a strong sense of shame and doubt in early childhood
• Will


  The basic strength that evolves from the resolution of the crisis of autonomy vs shame and doubt
• Willful expression is not limited to toilet training in early childhood
• Too much shame and doubt in early childhood


  Does not adequately develop the basic strength of will
• Compulsion


  The core pathology of early childhood when will is inadequately developed
• Genital-locomotor mode


  The primary psychosexual mode during the play age (ages 3-5)
• Oedipus complex


  A drama played out in the child's imagination, expressing budding understanding of concepts like reproduction, growth, future, and death
• The Oedipus complex produces no harmful effects on later personality development unless provoked by cultural sex play or adult sexual abuse
• Initiative


  The ability to adopt an intrusive head-on mode of approaching the world and selecting/pursuing goals
• Guilt


  The consequence of having to repress or delay taboo or inhibited goals like marrying a parent
• Initiative


  The syntonic quality that should dominate over guilt in the play age
• Purpose


  The basic strength that develops from the conflict of initiative vs guilt in the play age