ERIK ERIKSON
Descriptions, metaphors, ideas about how to introduce these theories to students.
Introduce Topic
Recommended Resources
Course Assignments
INTRODUCE TOPIC
I discuss identity diffusion and describe how adolescents put signs on their doors saying 'enter at your own risk.'
Jerome S. Blackman, M.D.
Adjunct Professor of Psychology
Virginia Wesleyan College
Jsbmd1@cox.net
jblackmanmd@aol.com
*****
I cover Erikson pretty comprehensively in Child Development. (Please click here for Dr. Westra's notes). I use Newman & Newman's 'Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach', update to address that Erikson did not view his stages as universal or stagnant, but that they should change as the culture changes. I use the example of the age of marriage of their parents/grandparents vs. what is typical today.
I also cover sources of our developmental pattern: Nature, Nurture, Self & Culture and how each of these overlaps and influences each other. I discuss Stages Developmental Tasks Crises (situational vs. developmental) Coping Behavior Central Process for resolving the crisis Prime Adaptive Ego Qualities Core Pathologies. We discuss cumulative effects of crisis resolution leading to success or failure identities and how that identity defines and guides the person. In the resolution of crisis, I introduce that it is a continuum rather than either/or outcome. This introduces some complexity for students, but they come to grasp it with some examples.
I tell the story of Trust in one of my kids who, at about age 3 or 4, was at a swim party. As the adults were slowly stripping down to swimsuits, he quickly got the street clothes off and jumped in the pool - before we could get the flotation devices on his arms (swimming muscles, we called them). He sunk to the bottom, and was surprised that he didn't just pop back up to the surface. He had total trust in the situation, which had always been safe and fun, and would have died. A healthy degree of mistrust keeps us alive.
Matthew Westra
Psychology Coordinator
MCC-Longview
Matthew.westra@mcckc.edu
http://www.mcckc.edu/~westra/WESTRA.HTML
RECOMMENDED RESOURCES
Newman, B. & Newman, P. (2005). Development Through Life: A Psychosocial Approach. New York: Wadsworth.
Matthew Westra
Psychology Coordinator
MCC-Longview
Matthew.westra@mcckc.edu
http://www.mcckc.edu/~westra/WESTRA.HTML
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COURSE ASSIGNMENTS
Please contribute your ideas, resources, or assignments to our website!