The purpose of this essay is to apply what you have learned about Erikson’s theory of psychosocial
development. Select one person above the age of seventy to interview.
Your paper should cover all the
following:
1. Please use a pseudonym to protect your subject’s identity. Begin your paper by introducing your subject: age, gender, ethnic or cultural heritage, family, and current living situation. Include anything else that you think would be important to mention (i.e., this person recently emigrated from a nonwestern [collectivist] country) Identify which of Erikson’s stages of life this person is currently experiencing.
Remember that once a person has left childhood the age brackets for Erikson’s stages are a bit fuzzy. For example, the transition from stage seven to eight can begin in the sixties or eighties. You will not be able to determine this until you have completed the interview.
2. An important part of Erikson’s theory is that how well a person functions in each stage is built from how well the issues at the earlier stages were resolved. In your interview you should ask questions about your subject’s childhood to determine the degree to which a “virtue” or “malignancy” may have been added to the personality.
3. Erikson believed that the most important stage was stage five. You should focus on how your subject experienced and resolved this stage. Think about the different paths—identity diffusion, foreclosure, moratorium, achievement—that a person might experience in stage five. Did your subject experience any of them?
4. Erikson did not believe that all of the issues of childhood were ever completely resolved. All of us continue to work through trust, autonomy, initiative and so forth as we move through our life. A major life trauma at any point could put the spotlight back on to one of these earlier issues. For example, a bad relationship break-up at any age could reignite stage one or stage two issues. A career crisis in middle age could send a person back to stages three, four, or five.
5. In your paper you should express to me that you clearly understand the issues that, according to Erikson, should be preoccupying your subject at their current age. Based on your interview, do your findingsupport Erikson’s theory?
Skip to content