Erikson's Theory Of Personality Analysis

Erikson was an expansion of Freud’s psychosocial stages of personality development. He also had different concepts such as identity confusion, and generativity. He shows how cultural, social, and historical forces could have an impact on personality, and emphasized greatly on the ego rather than on the id. Erikson views the ego as an independent party, therefore it is not dependent on the id of the personality. He said that alienation from cultural traditions seemed to be related to the symptoms displayed by others, which resulted in an uncertain self-image or self-identity. His theory of the identity explains that as human beings grow and develop, they experience a series of personal conflicts.
Erikson’s concepts were well explained. Erikson

Generativity, Erikson says, is the feeling individuals get that they need to have intimacy and power; they must be close to someone
For each stage of psychosocial development, Erikson provided basic strengths that go alone with them. What he was saying is that at each stage, individuals have the opportunity to develop their basic strength. He explains basic strengths as the characteristics and beliefs that are motivating and are acquired from the adequate reconciliation of the crisis at each developmental stage (Corey, 2012). These strengths can only surface when there is adequate reconciliation of the crisis, so that the individual is satisfied. Those strengths are: hope, will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom.
Each strength is dependent on the other. Until the strength for the previous stage has been accomplished, the strength in the following stage cannot develop; it needs the strength from the other stage to function properly. The writer somewhat disagrees with Erikson. He says you can’t move from one strength to the other without having accomplished the previous one, however, is he accurate in that saying? The writer disagrees with Erikson to an extent, because Jane can care for Tally without loving her entirely. But how does Tim know when Jane has confirmed loving Tally in order for her to move on to the next

He found gender stereotyping in his research on his theory when he used play therapy, focusing on play construction. Research today still uses gender stereotyping. The writer believes that Erikson’s research was valid as many people supported it. However, there were some other studies that were done which conflicted with some of his beliefs.
In one study it was found that in Erikson’s theory people in the maturity and old age stage of psychosocial development spend time recalling and examining their life, accepting or regretting past choices. Whereas, the study found that younger people engaged in reflection to gain self-insight and find solutions to current problems, while older people used reflection of their past to evaluate their lives and achieve a sense of ego integrity. (Theories)
In another study, it was found that Erikson stated that people suffer with identity crisis from around age 12 and resolve it by age 18. However, the study found that some people don’t find their identity till about age