Analyzing Erikson's Psychosocial Stages Of Development

Nature vs. Nurture
As a child family members including both parents and siblings surrounded David DeNotaris. He was diagnosed at the age of four. Throughout his school age years his parents, especially his father, supported and encouraged him achieve whatever he put his mind to. His parents nurtured him throughout his diagnosis and continuously pushed him to work hard and not allow his diagnosis to a burden. The nature aspects of his situation is how nature took its’ course and his diagnosis aroused from the environment gene mutation, and heredity. With his diagnosis (nature) his father continued to show genuine, unconditional love for him as well as motivated him to be a successful person with a disability (nurture).
Erikson’s Psychosocial

The crisis involved in the diagnosis of Retinitis Pigmentosa helps counselors understand that during certain ages there may be positive outcomes of negative outcomes depending on whether the “crisis” was resolved. For example during the ages of 3-6, a child goes through a crisis of initiative versus guilt. For David, a positive outcome would be developing a sense of purpose. This positive outcome could have aroused because his parents allowed him to continue to do everyday life things such as playing ball, going to school, chores, etc. His father did not stop him from carrying on everyday life; thus, he developed a sense of self and a sense of purpose. Another example would be during young adulthood. David has his own family comprising of a wife and kids. According to Erikson, young adulthood signifies a crisis of intimacy versus isolation. The fact that David was able to find love proves a positive outcome of abilities to love versus the negative outcome of fearing intimacy (Broderick & Blewitt, 2014, p. 12). Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development could help counselor understand how well he resolved possible crisis during his development by his outcomes such as graduation, marriage, awards,

Along with Erikson’s stages of development, Bronfennbrenner theory can be helpful in understanding David’s story and working with him and his family. According to Bronfennbrenner, the environment plays a role in human development. In this case, David’s environment played a role in his diagnosis, his reactions to his diagnosis, his capabilities with the diagnosis, and his perspective of his diagnosis. The environment consists of the microsystem, mesosystem , exosystem, and macrosystem (Broderick & Blewitt, 2014, p. 18). It is very helpful to get an understanding of David’s environmental systems. His father played a huge role in his ability to overcome certain challenges, this signifies the importance of the microsystem. His immediate environment caused him to have many challenges. For instance, there were some school systems that gave in a hard time and did not believe he would be a successful student. Also, this interaction with teachers, principals, and students positively affect with relationship with his parents, especially is father who stood up for him during every challenge. The area in which he grow up, his exosystem, also played roles in his development. It also played a role in which school he would attend. If there were not many school to choose from and the one he chose gave him a hard time, this would have been a tough challenge to overcome. His father’s beliefs in his abilities played a role in David’s