06/01/06

Erikson recognized the Freudian theory, but he did not grasp its entirety. He simply agreed with just some of the basic notions and claimed that Sigmund Freud had overlooked some of the important dimensions of the human development. Freud had the tendency to focus more on the Id, while Erikson had a tendency to focus more on the Ego. Freud stated that our personality is shaped by the time that we reach the age of five and when it came to the essential point of what motivates human behavior; Freud believed that it was due to biological instincts of both life and aggression. Erikson elaborated Freud’s Genital stage into Adolescence, and added three stages of adulthood. Erikson also took it a bit further than Freud did by developing eight psychological stages that according to him we come across throughout our life span. These stages are as follows: 1) Trust versus Mistrust, 2) Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt, 3) Initiative versus Guilt, 4) Industry versus Inferiority, 5) Identity versus Role Confusion, 6) Intimacy versus Isolation, 7) Generativity versus Stagnation, and 8) Integrity versus Despair. Erikson also believed that the most imperative force that drives both human behavior and the development of personality was actually social interaction. Many believe that Erikson felt this way because he lacked the knowledge of being trained in both the science of biology and medical sciences as well, contrasting with Freud and many of his contemporaries that he was working with at the time.

            Bingham and Stryker (1995) implied that the development of identity, intimacy, and generativity might receive diverse emphases during adulthood for both women and for men. They then formed the Five Stages of Socioemotional Development of girls that are comparable with some of the stages already developed by Erikson, and they are as follows: 1) Developing the Hardy Personality, 2) Forming a Identity, 3) Skill Building for Self-Esteem, 4) Strategies for Self-Sufficiency, and 5) Satisfaction in Work and Love. A key distinction between Bingham and Stryker and the work of Erikson is that the models take place in the stage of premature adulthood. In the Bingham and Stryker model, the predicament is emotional and financial self-sufficiency. As for the Erikson model, the predicament lies around intimacy versus isolation. Additionally, another way that the two models are different deals with the predicament of adulthood. For Bingham and Stryker, the predicament lies around the satisfaction one has with life when it comes to both relationships and the work environment. For Erikson, the predicament lies around the concern of both ego identity and generativity. The importance of the development of the self or identity as an innovative human being is alike nonetheless in both the Bingham and Stryker model and the Erikson model as well.