Psychosocial Development Theory by Erikson

Running head: Sociology
Sociology
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Sociology
Adults continue to develop as a result of series of transitions and stable period. According
to the Erik Erikson stages of psychosocial development, the personality of an individual is
developed through series of stages. The theory describes the effect of social experiences across
the entire life span and how social interactions and relationships play a role towards the
development and the growth of human beings in late adulthood (Syed & McLean, 2017).
Towards analyzing factors influencing emotional and social development in late adulthood, the
psychosocial stage 8 is focused over reflecting back on life of an individual. This stage namely
integrity versus despair revolves around the development of social and emotional factors like
increase rate of dependency, connection and loneliness and confrontation of death. However
according to levinson's stages of adulthood , the continuity of life embarks the never-ending
opportunities as well as no but enough for the development in an adult life.
The psychodynamic and psychosocial theory by Erik Erikson highlighted the final stage
that is the late adulthood as the older adults stage which targeted ego integrity versus despair.
During the late adulthood, individual finds their relationships changing in most of the cases with
children’s and grandchildren or with spouses. According to Taylor et al., (2015), the death of a
spouse in the late adulthood has been targeted as one of the most disruptive experiences
influencing the social and emotional development of an individual.
According to the five factor model of personality, the five major factors that tend to have
consistent patterns of feelings, thoughts and behaviors over the entire lifespan of a human being
includes neuroticism, extraversion, openness to experience, agreeableness and conscientiousness.
According to the research studies, loneliness can be highlighted as the discrepancy among the
social contract of a person and the desire of a person (Pose et al. , 2013). During the stage of late
adulthood, this can result from emotional or social isolation. According to the psychosocial