Assignment II: Final Research
Introduction
The developmental stages play a significant role in an individual’s life and personality. The aim of this reflection paper is to give an understanding of how each developmental stage affects an individual in life (Erikson, 1988). Development is a process which consists of patterns movements as well as changes in a person's life since he or she is born to death.
Every developmental stage is characterized by various features over a given period. Every individual has to go through every stage of life, and failure to achieve in one stage affects an individual later in life. There are eight stages of development which are influenced by living, socioeconomic, spiritual as well as emotional experiences of an individual.
These steps include prenatal stage, infancy 18-24months, early childhood 2-5 years, middle stage, and late childhood 6-11 years, adolescent stage 10-12 to 18 years (Erikson, 1988). Besides, there is early adulthood which starts at the beginning of the 20s to 30s, and then there are middle adulthood 40s to 60s, and finally there are late adulthood 60s t0 70s to death (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008).According to Erik Erikson, the personality of an individual is formed through his interaction with the social environment. His argument is based on the personal interaction within a wide circle of people starting with the mother and the whole society. He believes that development of an individual appears in stages this is determined by the success from one to the other .He based his facts on opposing conflicts, for example, trust vs. mistrust, intimacy, and isolation which happens and affects an individual throughout life.
Every success of the group determines the satisfactory resolution of the previous developmental issues. He asserts that personality is shaped resulting from the crises which leave individuals with strengths and weakness (Gonzalez-Mena, 2008).This paper is a reflection of my life based on the developmental stages.
I am in Stage 6 young adulthood (18-35): intimacy vs. isolation. I am currently 34 years old, and married with one son who is five year old. I got married when I was still in my teens because I had to grow up faster, therefore, I could not experience my teen well as my peer. I had to struggle with my mother to look for a job that could help bring some food home since my mother was struggling as a single mother (Erikson, 1988).
However, I do not feel like I have successfully resolved the teenage crisis since all I did was to work to pay the bills for the rest of my family. However, it has not stopped me from moving into the next stage, but it has had some effects on the current stage in my life where I still feel I missed the teenage almost of the time my husband would tell me I still behave like a teenager. Luckily, according to Erickson’s, the developmental stages do not just occur automatically the way they are supposed to be. He …
