Next Step In Erickson's Stage example essay topic

What influences have made me the person I am? It was a Tuesday afternoon and I was just getting to my psychology class and as usual I was chit chatting with my neighbors in class, Cpl Christie and Fausnight about the things that each of us did this weekend. Just when I had finished talking to Kara (Fausnight) about her weekend our psychology teacher Dr. Douglas walks in. As she is walking in I in my peppy self- personality ask how her weekend went. Dr. Douglas then proceeded to tell me that it was "none of my business". ... maybe she was having a bad day or was really stressed out or maybe in fact it was "none of my business". She also told me that there was a certain thing called boundaries and that I needed to find out what that was.

I felt dumbfounded to say the least. I've always been a real social person. Pretty much striking a conversation with anyone. So I was brain storming the other day and I was wondering about what to write my paper about.

Just then the previous scenario came to mind and I figured I could intertwine me and how the influences that I've had throughout my life have influenced me and made me the outgoing, friendly, social person that I am. I'll attempt to do this by using Erickson's stages of development (Myers, 2005). O. k. we will start by looking at the infancy stage. Where an infant learns either to Trust or Mistrust people. I don't know how much is true but in talking to my parents they told me that ever since the day I was born I was such a crybaby. They also told me that I never wanted to be alone or have anyone even go as much as 5 feet from me because I would start crying and throwing a fit. The thing though is that most infants develop a sense of "stranger anxiety", which is the fear of strangers (myers, 2005).

Me on the other hand, I would only cry when I was left alone, I was never really too afraid of strangers. One reason could be that ever since I was born I came into an environment rich with people. My dad was an associate pastor at the church that even now we still attend. So for this reason and the fact that on my dad's side there are 14 brothers and sisters and on my mom side there 9 brothers and sisters I was always going from one person to another being passed around. As Erick Erickson explains I formed a sense of "basic trust" with not only my parents but with my extended family members and members of the church because when I would cry I would always be picked-up or have my needs attended to. I was always ahead of my peers when it came to developing, so it was no surprise that I started walking when I was only 6 months old.

Which brings us to the next stage of development, toddler hood and the issues of Autonomy versus Shame and doubt (myers, 2005). At first my parents say I was a bit apprehensive, and I cried when they put me down and walked away. But I soon learned that if I wanted to go after them... that I could. Or when something interested me and I wanted to explore it that I could do it myself by walking over there. Which was probably worse for my parents because I would often wander off and start playing with different people that I saw in the store or places we would go. At this stage I also learned how to go and use the facilities by myself and not go in my pull-ups.

So in a sense I became a little autonomous and learned to do things for myself. Which is why when it was time for me to go to pre-school and my parents took me to school, my parents cried more than I did. They told me that they took me to my class and that as soon as I saw all the other kids and all the toys I turned around, waved at them and told them that they could leave now. Which brings us to the next step in Erickson's stage, the Preschooler stage in which a child faces the issues of initiative and guilt. In this stage children ages from 3 to 5 years of age learn to either think of something to do and carry it out and learn some independence or they feel guilty and apprehensive about doing things by themselves and becoming somewhat independent... your 3 years old though... how much independence can you have? But like I mentioned before I've always been ahead of the power curve.

So when my teachers told me that I would be placed on a special schedule by going to the 2nd grade for half the day and learn English and language arts and then go to the 3rd grade the other half of the day and learn math and science I didn't feel all that scared. Which brings us to the next stage, elementary school. In the elementary school stage a person faces the issues of competence versus inferiority. In my case I already knew I was smart.

So as far as myself feeling competent about myself, I knew I could do it or id find a way to get it done. But one thing that I did struggle with was where I fit in. I was more advanced than my friends in the second grade as far as my math and science, and got to go to 3rd grade where I could be challenged. But since I only went for half of the day I sort of felt like and outsider even though I was friends with both groups.

This dilemma carried through till I got out in fifth grade. After I went on to junior high I began to hang out with friends that were older than my self so I was introduced to things a little bit earlier than most adolescents are. But hanging out with older people also pushed me into the Adolescent stage of Erickson's theory. In this stage adolescents deal with the issues of finding a role or a sense of self or identity.

They usually look up to other people and draw from them what characteristics that they like or even adopt a whole identity by being a prep, nerd, jock or a surfer. This issue took me awhile to figure out. I was very active and played sports... was I a jock? I also took accelerated classes... was I a nerd? So I dealt with this issue of mine through high school and it was not until my junior year in that I just decided to be myself and just do what I wanted to do. And in the end this proved to be the best situation for me.

Currently I suppose I'm at the early stages of young adulthood where Erickson presents the issues of intimacy and isolation (myers, 2005). The thing that I rely on though to form relationships is my ability to talk to anyone and everyone which I learned from my dad and his tenure as associate pastor and growing up in a church of over 500 people. Anywhere he would go he would always strike-up a conversation with or know a person, or someone would come up to him that knew him. One lesson that he taught me and I saw through my life was that life is all about the relationships that you make with people. He told me that he likes to talk to people because not only does he get to get inside their heads and see things from their point of view. But it also helped him forget about his problems and his worries for a while and focus on the other person and if he could help them even by just giving them some advice... he would.

After all he was an associate pastor so listening and understanding people was not only something he liked to do... it was his duty (he never liked to call it a job). So really it has been my dads influence and teachings as well as the teachings from my church and its members. Not to mention that I come from a huge family, and our culture (Mexican people tend to be more close-up and personal than most people) that have shaped and influenced me to be the open talkative and very much people person that I am today..