Age-change Theory (Erik Erikson) And Carl Jung: A Comparative Study

Eric Erikson’s Age theory on Psychological development

1.Describe Age-change theory (Erik Erikson) on Psychosocial Development.

2.Discuss the difference between Age-change theory by Erik Erikson and Carl Jung.

3.Interview Four people whom you know aged between 35 to 55 years to find out how Personality Development occurs in adulthood and how it is done in orderly manner. Present your report.

The psychological development happens which tend to undergo changes with the growth and development of human beings. These changes finally bring a personality change to the mindset of any individual. Many psychologists have done  researches on the development of both psychology and personality (Colarusso & Nemiroff, 2013; Goldstein & Winner, 2012). Erik Erikson worked on eight stages of development, also talked of how the infant developed its characteristics once it start growing till the person reaches the age of sixty five years. Carl Jung, another theorist talked in his theory about the unconscious mindset is the inherited characteristics that a person exhibits when it is necessary. These psychological developments are the suppressed form of characteristics that a human possess. The topic also discusses about the differences between the Erikson and Jung’s theory of human analyzing psychological development in a human being, where the former claimed the different stages of lifestyle, while the latter focused on individuation , which is considered to be as the major contribution in the psychological development (Mcrozek & Little, 2014). The topic concludes by the interviews of five people who all talked about the personality development from the adult hood of life.

The theory propounded by Erikson is based on the psychological development of the individual. Erikson talked of five stages where the development happens till the age of 18 and the next three stages into the circle of adulthood. Erikson particularly focused on the period of adolescence, which was felt that it was an important stage where a person get its own identity. Erikson believes that an individual rather faces crises at every stage of their development and such crises are entwined with the psychological wants of the society. Erikson also pointed out about that such developments give birth to basic virtues in life. Therefore, considering the crises, it is significant to know how the age differences response   to these crises.

Trust versus Mistrust: At the stage of unpredictability, The infant carries a doubt about the world they are going to live in. In order to get riff such uncertainties, the baby always look towards their parents or caregivers for the care and consistency pursued. If the infant feels that the care is sufficient and reliable, the babies would develop trust which will gradually carry forward them in the relationships of understanding the environment surrounding them. These are the basic virtues that a baby must receive from their caregivers or else, the infants would carry the sense of mistrust which would lead them to a stage of hopelessness and fear (Klimstra, 2013; Cherry, 2012).

Drawing line between the Age theories of Eric Erikson and Carl Jung

Shame and Doubt versus Autonomy: In this stage the child start to develop physical maturity and become mobile. During the age of eighteen years, the child starts thinking about their freedom in different spheres of life. In this stage it is the responsibility of the parents to encourage their children to become independent and allowing them to learn to become protective and freedom to take decisions in life through proper guidance. Also, at the same time if in this stage, the children are discouraged or criticized, they would start loosing self- esteem and with time , they will develop doubts (Cherry, 2012).

Initiative versus Guilt: In this particular stage, Children start taking initiatives by interacting with other school children. This is the stage where they are cabaple to take decisions and if they are given opportunity, the children would grow a sense of responsibility and accordingly they would work out their plans. The children start taking initiatives which the parents tend to avoid to protect their children. However, if also, children are criticized poorly for their performance, they will start loosing respect on them and would develop a sense of guilt and too much guilty feeling would lead the child to develop the sense of guilty feeling (Cherry, 2012).

Inferiority versus Industry: It is the stage which develops between five year to twelve years old children. In this stage, children start learning to write and read and also posses freedom to do certain things by their own. It is the stage where the teachers, parents and guardians plan a significant role to guide children to a proper channel. The peer group in general become the source of inspiration for the children to develop in their own life. Accordingly,  if they are encouraged properly, the children become industrious that they develop confidence to achieve goals in life. Failing to encourage them, they would lose hope and develop inferiority complex in their own (Cherry, 2012).

Identity versus Confusion of Role: During the period of adolescence, Children become more independent and start taking initiatives to learn about their future, goals , families and relationships. They always look forward to the society that they want to get adjusted easily. In this stage, through the roles they play in the society, the children gradually start understanding their own identity. Success eventually will lead them to the road of fidelity. Failing to understand their own identity through their proper work, children tend to get confused and suffer from identity crisis (Mc Leod, 2013).

Isolation versus Intimacy: Between the age of 18 and 40, the young generation develops a feeling of getting intimated with the person outside their family members. If they are successful in the commitment, they develop a sense of safety and develop trust in love. Fearing to get intimate with others, would lead to the creation of isolation., depression and loneliness (Mc Leod, 2013).

Stagnation versus Generative: At the age of 40 years to 65 years, individuals establish their careers and later they tend to build up families and start developing a sense of acute responsibilities towards thee own families. The individuals start giving back to the society by being good at work and raising children and also getting engaged in different activities of community or organizations. However, if the individuals fails to achieve this needs, they would develop a stage of stagnation and a sense of being unproductive (Mc Leod, 2013).

Ego versus Despair: It is at this age, the eight stage of Erikson’s theory, where the senior citizens slow down their productiveness and explorations of life as a retired individual. Erikson believes, if the individual start seeing their life as unrpductive in nature, they would start feeling angry and dissatisfied which would further lead to the development of despair. However, if success happens in this stage, the individual would look back and feel the accomplishments and could accept death without any fear (Mc Leod, 2013, Korger, 2014)

Firstly, Erikson focused on the development of psychology in stages where a person learn to develop personalities according to the change in environment and also the personalities developed in them trying to make solve the conflicts in the society by adjusting in the latter. On the hand, Carl Jung focused on saying that people are motivated by the energy of psychology which encouraged them to achieve the sense of self realization.  According to the Carl Jung, the consciousness and unconscious mindset of individual lead to the development of personality.  However, Erikson was quite prominent with his belief in pointing out the separate eight stages of the personality development of an individual but Carl Jung referred to the archetypes which tend to connect ideas and humans seems a little bizarre because the human beings interpret the environment the way they see. Secondly, according to Erikson, the development of the ego takes place when one successfully solves the disputes taking place in the society. This lead to the building of trust in others and also helps the future generation to be successful in life (Kroger, 2014; Mc Leod, 2013). On the other hand, Carl Jung stated that an ego can be represented by one, depends that how that individual is representing itself to the other people (Jung, 2014).

Thirdly, Erik Erikson said that the individuals start developing personality and moral senses as what they were taught in childhood, but Carl Jung on the other hand describes that Man with his conscious and subconscious mind; tend to follow things that they have inherited from their ancestors (Jung, 2014). Fourthly, Carl Jung in his theory he talks of that man has both masculine and feminine sides, same with the woman (Jung, 2014).Archetypes according to Jung, an individual create the themes of the universe and accordingly, persons give their best to attain to become one by following the themes of the universe (Robertson, 2016)., however, on the other hand, Erikson stated that persons life get altered with many types of consequences, depending upon how the individual’s way of dealing with the world. Fifthly, according to Carl Jung with the growth and development, the unconscious mind supports the consciousness of the human being in reality and he tried to relate it with dreams which are the part of one’s unconscious mindset that was imbibed in a person. However, Erik Erikson gave a different opinion stating that the person’s consciousness developed with the experiences and the reality that the child faced. Sixthly, Erikson believes that a child would also try seek protective aura from the mother or the caregiver. It was a mother who would build a protective circle around the child. However, Carl Jung believes that even if the mother is not there to give protection to the child, a child or an infant in mindset develops a fictitious character. The character develops into an archetype. The Imaginary character from a story book, according to Jung becomes an idea figure for the child. Seventhly, according to Erikson, the urge of romantically getting involved and the tendency of a physical intimation develop at the age of 18. However, Carl Jung states that physical intimation is a shadow, it has been derived from a human’s past when the human’s concerns gets limited to reproduction and survival and it determine, self-conscious attitude.  Next, Carl Jung elaborates on the dark side of the ego states by giving examples that an animal is considered to have capability of taking care of its younger ones along with getting involving in killing for food. This highlights the natural instinct of an animal, which human tends to think that animal world is a cruel world. However Erikson says the character of a human being develops when the society tries to teach him. The behavior of the society determines the significant change of character in a human being, it not a part of any unconscious mindset.

The 38 year old woman name Sophie Stella from  California, an engineer,  stated that personality development in adulthood happens, from the experience she faced, stated that in the age of 20 years, this individual got the maximum priority to choose the path which is important in life. The woman got the freedom to choose engineering as passion, in this age according to the view, the person has the right to develop the sense of stability and with time this stability becomes responsibility towards the loved and dear ones.

The 45- year old woman from India name Maria Clara, a Brazilian homemaker, stated that the culture of the country sometimes regulate the development of personality in childhood. The parents generally in India tend to be strict and this in turn limits the choice of the children to choose whatever they do in life. This as a  result,  child develop a suppressed mentality which in later age might the personality development of the child and with age, the child becomes conservative and show the same cultural behavior towards own family. This happens most of the times.

The 50-year-old man name Ahmad Hani, a teacher from Malaysia, said that the personality development in childhood is inevitable. From the person’s experience, the child if not successful in life, tends to become quite guilty in nature as this is the stage where a transition is happening and one need to understand and guide the child in order to be successful in life. However, once the child feel guilty, it tends to become narrow minded and hopelessness which in turn would affect its behavior towards the family.

The 53-year-old woman name Claudia Prongsopon from Thailand, a professor of a reputed college stated, that in the adulthood, if also a child do not get any proper guidance from childhood, the child might become mentally exploited and can ruin its own life by the help of its independent life. They can go to party, make friends and will not follow any family rules, if this is continued, in latter age, would gradually make the child a rage and the man would not be able to guide own children properly.

Conclusion

Thus to conclude, Erik Erikson’s personality development in eight stages tend to make children more responsive towards the change in environment and how the individual reacts to these changes with time and time. The society also plays an important role to guide the children. The comparison drew between Erik son and Carl Jung’s theory of personality development and it is to focus how the individual sees the environment through their own eyes. On the basis of this age theory, four people gave interviews and expressed their thoughts about how personality developed in adulthood in an orderly manner through their experiences. Thus, personality development plays an important role in an individual’s future identification

References

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Goldstein, T. R., & Winner, E. (2012). Enhancing empathy and theory of mind. Journal of Cognition and Development, 13(1), 19-37.

Jung, C. G. (2014). Four archetypes. Routledge.

Jung, C. G. (2014). The archetypes and the collective unconscious. Routledge.

Jung, C. G. (2014). The development of personality. Routledge.

Klimstra, T. (2013). Adolescent personality development and identity formation. Child Development Perspectives, 7(2), 80-84.

Kroger, J. (2014). Discussions on ego identity. Psychology Press.

McLeod, S. (2013). Erik Erikson. Retrieved August, 9, 2013.

Mroczek, D. K., & Little, T. D. (Eds.). (2014). Handbook of personality development. Psychology Press.

Robertson, R. (2016). Jungian archetypes: Jung, Gödel, and the history of archetypes. Open Road Media.

Syed, M., & Seiffge-Krenke, I. (2013). Personality development from adolescence to emerging adulthood: linking trajectories of ego development to the family context and identity formation. Journal of personality and social psychology, 104(2), 371.