There are three pertinent theorists throughout history that have come to shape our cultures and lives in a myriad of ways. The first theorist would be Erik Erikson, who constructed a theory in 1959 based on eight psychosocial stages of development. These stages encompassed “trust, autonomy, initiative, industry, identity, intimacy, generativity, and ego integrity” (McLeod 1). In relation to adulthood, his theory’s description of love, care, and wisdom best exemplify that level of maturity. Based upon his theory of these stages, effective completion of the individual states can conclude in a person developing a strong and healthy personality and allow one to acquire rudimentary virtues. The rudimentary virtues are pertinent because they can enable a person to be able to solve various crises that may arise in life. If a person fails to progressively fulfill a stage, it can conclude in the person having a minimal chance to fulfill other stages and therefore leading to more corrupt personality and sense of one’s own well-being. The issue can arise with someone who is multicultural, for example, from Hawaii, where the Europeans conquered at one time causing the once individualist culture to become extinct. This results in a “new type of person whose orientation and view of the world profoundly transcends his or her indigenous culture is developing from the complex of social, political, economic, and educational interactions of our time” (Adler, 1) These various conceptions have to be taken into account when looking at these eight stages by utilizing a variety of levels or degrees to describe and explain efficacy.
Abraham Maslow is another important theorist of our time best known for his theory entitled the “hierarchy of needs.” His theory focused on a person’s health psychologically, and was founded upon satisfying one’s own innate needs as a human which conclude in self-actualization. In correlation to Hawaiian culture, he believed that “Transpersonal psychology contributes to the more traditional concerns of the discipline an acknowledgement of the spiritual aspect of human experience” (NCMS 3). The ideal of the spiritual human experience has been and always will be an imperative part of Hawaiian culture and Maslow believed that there is room for a level of experience that is defined initially in the literature of a religious nature, which is often thought of as unscientific and more theologically based.
Lastly, Albert Bandura, was a theorist who originally came up with what is known as the “Social Learning Theory.” This theory encompassed that comprehension and learning is a process involving the cognitive ability that usually takes place in a social environment. This can occur through indirect or direct instruction, even without any sort of reinforcement. In correlating with Hawaiian culture, “cultural diversity is the quality of diverse or different cultures as opposed to monoculture. Now that Hawaii has become westernized, the vast majority of its culture has been replaced by American or Western culture.”( Lahey 8). Since Bandura believed that society can learn and comprehend new behavior through observing the societal
factors in the place they reside, his modern theory exhibits a place for this in the eyes of psychology.
Works Cited
Adler, Peter. "Beyond Cultural Identity: Reflections on Multiculturalism." Beyond Cultural
Identity: Reflections on Multiculturalism. 1-3., Nov. 2002. Web. 07 Aug. 2016.
Lahey, Benjamin B. Just the Facts101: Textbook Key Facts: E-study Guide. 9th ed. S.l.: Cram101, 2014. Print.
McLeod, Saul. "Erik Erikson." Simply Psychology. 1-8., 2013. Web. 07 Aug. 2016.
NCMS. "Trance Dance Experience™." Trance Dance. 1-3., 2008. Web. 07 Aug. 2016.
