My Psychosocial Stage of Development Essay

My Psychosocial Stage of Development S. Pulliam April, 2011 First I would like to define psychosocial development; this is the development of the personality or the acquisition of social attitude and skill from infancy through maturity. Based on the charting from Erickson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development, I fall into two separate categories based on my age. From the beliefs of Erickson, he believed that the achievements and failures of earlier stages influence later stages, whereas later stages modify and transform earlier ones (Erickson, 1980). The first is Young Adulthood and the second is Middle Adulthood. In the two stages from the chart the information is based on (Young adulthood) Intimacy v/s Isolation and the second one (Middle Adulthood) is based on Generativity v/s Stagnation Work and Parenthood Adults. Although there are two separate stages in the psychosocial stages that I fall under, I feel that I am at the midpoint for each and I have decided to consider both aspects in doing my psychosocial stages of development. To explain how the two stages correlate to my life, I decided in the last year to settle down and get married this is based on my young adulthood information from Erickson’s chart. The reason there is a correlation to my life based on Erickson’s chart under middle adulthood id because my life had children prior to the marriage but I am taking a more active role in being involved with activities and school when it comes to my children. In looking at my current psychosocial stage of development influence on my behavior and relationship, I find that I am a calm, and not hard to get along with even under pressure situations that has occurred with us based on my jealous tendencies and insecure ways because of previous relationship and not being with the father of my children. The influence that I see in young adulthood over my relationship is that there is a need for intimacy but not a major desire to have it on a regular basis. The isolation comes from not being so open and friendly to other males in my life or surrounding because of my relationship with my husband. I have male friends that I am social with but I do not allow the intimacy line to be crossed because of my relationship with my husband. The influence that I see in middle adulthood is the need to have a nurturing relationship with my children and creating a positive change to benefit my children lives. In looking at this I made changes in the way I approached my children and how I would not shelter them from the truth when they would ask me questions but give them true answer to their question. As small children I did not feel the need to give much explanation to my children’s questions but now I try to explain everything to them without being untruthful to them or give them false ideas about what is going on around them. To explain the positive and negative outcomes to psychosocial stages of development, I would have to say that there are many positive and negative but the few that stand out to me the most are. First negative outcome, getting over insecurities I had about the intimacy relationship that I chose to take on after breaking off a 10 year relationship with my children’s father. The second negative outcome was getting over the trust issues I had before going into the current marriage that I am in right now. The third negative outcome was getting pass the change of personality and ways I had to endure going into the marriage and getting use to a new personality and making the changes on both parts to make our marriage work to the best of our ability. Based on this information I feel that the positive outcomes to the psychosocial stages of Erickson were in a good way and I can see the difference in my life and marriage. First positive outcome was that I am able to trust again within my relationship with my husband. The second positive outcome was that I made a strong bond with my children and I have not only been a mother to my children but I am the friend that my children confide in when they have feeling they want to express. The third positive outcome I see is that I am calm and stress free with the way I deal with problem within my relationship and I am able to compromise with my spouse when we do not agree on things. In evaluating how other developmental issues have influenced my personality, I would have to say that during my early childhood life I dealt with a few attachment issues with my mother. I feel that during this stage I did not bond with my mother like most children tend to do when the mother is present because she was pre-occupied with her career as a teacher and coaching. So during this age I was in close relationship with my father and I never felt the true connection with myself and my mother like so many girls or women tend to have with a mother. Most of my time I spent with my father and aunts when I was in my early childhood age so I did not really know that much about my mother other than she coached and taught physical education. I admired what she did so I took on the quest of becoming a physical education teacher as well. In School age time I had to bare a lot of pressure in participating in sports and in my school work because the expectation was so high on me to achieve my education and athletic abilities because of what my mother represented in our community. At the same time I was pressured by other students because they felt that the only reason I made the team was because of my mother not because of my own ability. Once I graduated my goals with education were so different. I felt more of the need to help others in crisis situation so I went back to school to get my degree in mental health and social work and that is still my drive today. So from this experience I feel that I have a very strong personality in spite of the way so many tried to bring me down and I am a true fighter for what I believe in deep within my heart. My personality from what I can see is a driving force of who I am and I refuse to be compared to my mother in my quest to achieve greater feats in my life and the way I live my life. It is okay to be compared to her but I know that I could never be my mother or even like her because my drive and ambition is so different from the way she handles things. References http://www. support4change. com/stages/cycles/Erikson. html Erikson E. , 1980. Identity and the Life Cycle. Norton, New York http://currentnursing. com/nursing_theory/theory_of_psychosocial_development. html