Essay On Erikson Stages Of Development

I was truly inspired by our last class; the act of writing on paper who I am really got me thinking and reflecting. And in true inspiration fashion, I ran to discuss this topic with my closest friends. One of which answered with something that I believe is a quote from Erikson. My friend responded “we are what we love” (J. Williams, personal communication, October 13, 2016). At first I thought that response was odd and to me it didn’t make much sense. But, I thought back to Erikson’s stages of development and found that at the root of each stage is a underlying development of love. As one develops and achieves; their love strengths and weakens developing them as a person. Erikson’s first stage of development occurs during the ages of 0 through

Children within this stage begin to connect with nature, art and music. You’ll often hear children expressing their love for certain animals, plants and insects. They develop love for things outside of themselves and others; love is now extended to objects and creation. The next stage in Erikson's theory of development is one that intrigues me greatly, and acts as the center of many recent conversations between my friends and I. This is the stage of adolescents, year 12 to year 19. This is the stage according to Erikson that the conflict of identity and confusion. It is during this stage that the individual asks the infamous question “Who Am I” (T. Stoppa, personal communication, October 12, 2016). The question of “Who Am I” is a difficult one to answer; In fact, when I attempted to answer this question I fell short of a strong answer. To be completely honest I could not think myself of who I am. Every thought that came to my mind in regards to the question, were things others had said about me. It was because of that I thought for a moment I failed a stage of development. I thought to myself I am twenty and am still discovering myself I should have stopped that at