Theory of Erikson | Psychology

Running head: PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author note

1PSYCHOLOGY
Introduction
The psychosocial theory of the development of Erikson elaborates on the effect of the
external factors on the personality of an individual. It talks about the influence of the parents and
the society on the aspect of the personality from the stage of the childhood to the adulthood
(Schultz & Schultz, 2016). This essay discusses about the theory of the personality of Erikson
and its eight stages. The essay also elucidates on the effect of the conflict on the personality
development of the people.
Discussion
The theory of Erikson talks about the fact that a person advances through the eight life
stages that helps in the negotiation of the biological and the socio-cultural forces. There occurs a
psychosocial crisis in each stage and the individual have to reconcile the opposing forces that can
help him in emerging with a considerable amount of the virtue.
The theory of Erikson harps on the fact that a person has to pass through the eight
interrelated stages across the course of the lifecycle. In the first stage of the infancy the main
emphasis is on the nurturing ability of the mother and the father pertaining to the visual contact
and the touch. The second stage is of the toddler when the child gets the opportunity to build the
self-esteem along with the autonomy. In the third stage, the child becomes involved within
classic “Oedipal struggle” and he resolves the struggle with the help of the social role
identification (Syed & McLean, 2017). The fourth stage is known as latency when the children
become capable of learning the new skills and gaining the knowledge. In the stage of the
adolescence, the person has to make the struggle for the discovery of his own identity. In the
stage of the young adult, the people seek for the companionship along with the love. The