In the course of my life, according to Erikson, I have (and will) go through eight distinct stages of development, each with their own unique attributes and challenges. In each stage, I face different challenges and come to new realizations. In the life I have lived thus far, I have encountered quite a few changes, some good and some bad; with these things in mind, and with counsel from those close to me, I will continue on this path of development. In order to get a reasonably accurate assessment of how my life has and will progress over these eight stages, I must go through them one by one, examine their attributes and see how my life has reflected them.
1. Infancy: Birth to 18 Months
In the first stage of Erikson's cycle of development, from the time we are born to 18 months, we focus primarily on the basic meeting of our needs, and interacting with parents. Here, we learn about our ability to trust or mistrust; whether or not we trust our parents to do what we think they will, or to take care of us, is a vital component to our development. As a child, we largely depend on our mother to comfort us and our father to protect us; failure to do that will lead to us distrusting them (and therefore others).
As a child, I learned to trust fairly easily; my parents, when asked, have told me that I was a very well-behaved child, and they always did their best to make sure they were there for me. Though my mother admits part of it was to make sure I didn't wail very long, they always made sure that I was fed, that they were there to comfort me if I woke up in the middle of the night, and so on. I hardly made a fuss otherwise.
2. Early Childhood: 18 Months to 3 Years
In the Shame vs. Doubt stage, we get past our complete and total dependence on our parents, as we are able to move around on our own. We start to form a little more of a sense of identity, as we start to learn that we are a distinct part of the world, and a person in and of ourselves. We learn more about our surroundings, as well as be able to communicate to our parents what we want. We start to play around with things that interest us, and find our interests altogether. During my part of this stage, I am told by my parents that I started to defy them and hold on to my toys long after I was supposed to put them up. I apparently took very well to reading, and was given many children's books as a child. I would constantly go through them, fascinated by every one - to that end, I learned autonomy and self-sufficiency very quickly. My parents were wise enough to let me have plenty of time alone when I wanted it, though not at the expense of taking care of me.
3. Play Age: 3 to 5 Years
During the Initiative vs. Guilt stage, we start to take more autonomous tasks and start to learn and do things on our own. We learn more about the world and how to interact with it, including moving , falling, navigating and so on. At the same time, we start to feel bad about things without really knowing why; we have to wrestle between wanting to start something and not being able to finish it every time. We become much more independent, as we begin to figure out whether or not it is okay that we do things on our own. For me, I started to do things on my own before the beginning of this stage, as they would leave me alone to read and play with my toys often. However, as I started to have the run of the house, and even take my toys to other rooms and play; my parents would let me know when that was and was not okay, leading me to sometimes feel guilty that I would be in the way of them cooking or cleaning.
4. School Age: 6 to 12 Years
In the Industry vs. Inferiority stage, we start to go out into the world, and focus a bit more on being productive and accomplishing goals instead of strictly being in playtime. We start to want to learn more and more things, and we start to become more aware of things being 'good' or 'bad.' We start to talk back to our parents and authority figures in order to assert our independence, and our levels of self-confidence are established greatly in this stage. Our interests also start to solidify, and we may become jealous or feel inferior to those who do things better than us. As I started school, I became increasingly more focused on what my teachers wanted me to do. They were like my parents, but different, and I saw other kids obeying them, so I thought I should as well. As these years progressed, I did start to smart off to the other kids in my class, trying to assert my independence, and was sent home from school a couple times before I learned better.
5. Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years
In the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage, some of our most important and influential development occurs, as we spend more time with our peers than ever before and learn to deal with the biological changes happening in our bodies. We start to learn who we are as individuals, as sexual beings, and as members of a community and a family. Often, we have a great deal of trouble trying to figure out who we are, and so we go through different phases where we try new things out and see if they fit. After elementary school, I started to have a great deal of trouble with my identity; I started to rebel against my parents quite a bit, as I started to make friends with a few other people at school and would often stay out late hanging out with them. However, I was trying to find myself. I started to have my first romantic relationships during these years, and hitting puberty hard as I did, I did feel a lot of pressure from my peers to act on those hormones.
6. Young Adulthood: 18 to 35
In this stage, in which I currently reside, intimacy and isolation are both explored as important questions. As we start working past our hormones and get into the possibility of lasting, complex romantic relationships, we also attempt to figure out our roles in the college and real world contexts. We start looking to find long-lasting and intimate relationships, while also being afraid of isolating ourselves from others. At the same time, we also sometimes prefer isolation because of our fear of rejection; we stay away from people in order to refrain from taking the chance of being told 'no.' This was very much the case for me; despite having several short relationships in high school and college, I was always afraid of intimacy, and I spent quite a lot of time not pursuing love because I often didn't feel like I was worth it, or I pined after someone I thought might say no to me. Instead, I didn't take the chance, and ended up just protecting myself from these options. However, as time passed, I found myself more comfortable in my own skin, and I have involved myself in a few comfortable and fulfilling long-term romantic relationships since then.
7. Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65
In this stage, we tend to start winding down our energies and focus on the next generation of life; we have had our time as youths, and we continue to live quite actively, but we are much more settled in our ways. As we become middle-aged, we focus much more on creating our own family and turn from individuals, or merely part of a couple, into parents (and grandparents). Our homes and careers are, ideally, established, and we have a predilection toward keeping a certain order and feeling a bit more stagnant with our lives. I have not reached this stage yet, but it is my hope and prediction that I will be fully settled by this point, with a spouse and perhaps one or two children, my own home and a secure, profitable career. While I still hope to maintain my hobbies (reading, writing, sports), I will approach them with a much more casual and less proactive measure - they will not take precedence over my family.
8. Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death
In this stage, we turn from middle age to old age, and our bodies start to fail us as our abilities grow much weaker - we are not able to do as much as quickly as we used to. Typically, we are retired from work, and live much more relaxed lives; those with families likely have grandchildren, and may soon be in a position where their children are tasked with taking care of them. At this point in my life, I hope to remain as active as possible, which is why I maintain a constant desire to exercise and eat healthy regularly; this should increase my chances of not becoming invalid as I grow older. At the same time, I hope to cultivate relationships with my children and grandchildren to the level where they will happily take care of me, and I can feel fulfilled looking back on my life. It is my sincere hope that I can review my accomplishments and goals as I live my life and feel content with what I have done.
References
Zastrow, C., Kirst, Ashman, K.K. (2010). Understanding human behavior and the social
environment. Cengage Learning.
