PSYCHOLOGY OF TEACHING AND LEARNING :: ERIKSON's SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT.

                               "An Educator's Journey Through Social Development"

We are always comparing; from our very childhood we are taught comparison. Somebody else’s child is cuter, more beautiful and more intelligent; somebody else’s child is more obedient, and you are not.

All educational systems depend on comparison: somebody comes first, and somebody is the last in the class; somebody passes, somebody fails. Teachers appreciate students who are obedient; they hate students, they punish students who are not obedient in every way.

The whole structure of society is continuously comparing, and the very idea of comparison is absolutely false.

Each individual is unique because there is nobody else like him. Comparison would have been right if all individuals were alike; they are not. Even twins are not absolutely alike; it is impossible to find another man who is exactly like you. So, we are comparing unique people — which creates the whole trouble.

Every person has his or her own unique identity. This identity is composed of the different personality traits that can be considered positive or negative. These personality traits can also be innate or acquired, and they vary from one person to another based on the degree of influence that the environment has on the individual. Everybody has some uniqueness. Education should be organised in such a way that that uniqueness comes over, and becomes an actuality.

Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development emphasizes the sociocultural determinants of development and presents them as eight stages of psychosocial conflicts (often known as Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development) that all individuals must overcome or resolve successfully in order to adjust well to the environment.

According to Erik Erikson’s theory, we all encounter a certain crisis that contributes to our psychosocial growth at each of Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development. Whenever we experience such crisis, we are left with no choice but to face it and think of ways to resolve it. Failure to overcome such crisis may lead to significant impact on our psychosocial development.

Stage One – Trust vs Mistrust

The first stage, infancy or the oral-sensory stage is approximately the first year or year and a half of life. The task is to develop trust without completely eliminating the capacity for mistrust.

This first stage of the Erikson stages starts from infant to about 18 months. At this stage, infants must learn how to trust others, particularly those who care for their basic needs. They should feel that they are being cared for and that all their needs are met.

Small babies are new to this world and may view the outside world as threatening. Depending on how they are treated by people around them, the sense of threat can be replaced by trust. When this happens, they gain a sense of security and begin to learn to trust people around them.

The first and most important person to teach an infant about trust is usually the parents. Parents are expected to take good care of their children and attend to their needs. For example, the parents of a baby provide him with food, shelter, sustenance and make him feel very comfortable and secure.

Stage Two – Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt

The second stage is the anal-muscular stage of early childhood, from about eighteen months to three or four years old. The task is to achieve a degree of autonomy while minimizing shame and doubt.

At stage two of the Erikson stages, children should be taught the basic ways of taking care of themselves, including changing their clothes and feeding themselves. If a child can’t take care of his own basic needs and continue to rely on others to take care of him, he may feel shameful when he sees that other kids of his own age are able to perform tasks such as feeding themselves.

Stage Three – Initiative vs Guilt

Stage three is the genital-locomotor stage or play age. From three or four to five or six, the task confronting every child is to learn initiative without too much guilt.

As children continue to grow up, they like to explore and do things on their own. At stage three of the Erikson stages, children can learn new concepts introduced in school and are expected to practice these lessons in real life. They know that they can accomplish these tasks on their own, but if they fail to do so and end up asking for assistance from others, they may feel a sense of guilt.

Stage Four – Industry vs Inferiority

Stage four is the latency stage, or the school-age child from about six to twelve. The task is to develop a capacity for industry while avoiding an excessive sense of inferiority. Children must "tame the imagination" and dedicate themselves to education and to learning the social skills their society requires of them.

At Erikson’s psychosocial stage four, children mature and their level of self-awareness increases. They understand logical reasoning, scientific facts, and other matters that are typically taught in school.

Children also become more competitive during this Erikson stage of development. They want to do things that other children of the same age can do. When they make the effort to perform a task and succeed, they develop self-confidence. However, if they fail, they tend to feel that they are inferior to others.

Stage Five – Identity vs Role Confusion

Stage five is adolescence, beginning with puberty and ending around 18 or 20 years old. The task during adolescence is to achieve ego identity and avoid role confusion. It was adolescence that interested Erikson first and most, and the patterns he saw here were the bases for his thinking about all the other stages.

During adolescence, young people are expected to develop their sexual identity. This is gained through the discovery of oneself and in the course of finding meaning to their personhood. They may also experience identity crisis as a result of the transition from childhood to adulthood.

Some adolescents may feel confused and are unsure whether an activity is age-appropriate for them. Crisis at this stage may also be brought about by expectations from themselves and from people around them, e.g. their parents.

Stage Six – Intimacy vs Isolation

If you have made it this far, you are in the stage of young adulthood, which lasts from about 18 to about 30. The ages in the adult stages are much fuzzier than in the childhood stages, and people may differ dramatically. The task is to achieve some degree of intimacy, as opposed to remaining in isolation.

Stage six of the Erikson stages is very apparent for young adults who are in their 30s. People at this stage become worried about finding the right partner and fear that if they fail to do so, they may have to spend the rest of their lives alone.

Young adults are most vulnerable to feel intimacy and loneliness because they interact with a lot of people in this phase of their lives. It’s not always a success story for every young adult to find someone with whom they can share a lifelong commitment. Some may choose to spend the rest of their lives as singles.

Stage Seven – Generativity versus Stagnation

The seventh stage is that of middle adulthood. It is hard to pin a time to it, but it would include the period during which we are actively involved in raising children. For most people in our society, this would put it somewhere between the middle twenties and the late fifties. The task here is to cultivate the proper balance of generativity and stagnation.

Adults who are in their 40s and 50s tend to find meaning in their work. They feel like at this point in their lives, they should be able to contribute something meaningful to the society and leave a legacy. If they fail to achieve this, they feel like they have been an unproductive member of the society.

Stage Eight – Ego Integrity vs Despair

This last stage, referred to delicately as late adulthood or maturity, or less delicately as old age, begins sometime around retirement, after the kids have gone, say somewhere around 60. Some older folks will protest and say it only starts when you feel old and so on, but that's an effect of our youth-worshipping culture, which has even old people avoiding any acknowledgement of age. In Erikson's theory, reaching this stage is a good thing, and not reaching it suggests that earlier problems retarded your development!

At the last stage of the Erikson stages, people are in their 60s or older who are typically retirees. It is important for them to feel a sense of fulfillment knowing that they have done something significant during their younger years. When they look back in their life, they feel content, as they believe that they have lived their life to the fullest. If they feel that they haven’t done much during their life, it’s likely that they will experience a sense of despair.