Erik Erikson Stages

UMMI NORKHAIRIAH BINTI KHIR JOHARI
PISMP TESL SEM 1

CHILD DEVELOPMENT
TASK 1 : INDIVIDUAL WRITTEN ESSAY (40%)
Erik Homberger Erikson was born on June 15, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany to his Jewish
mother Karla Abrahamsen and to his biological father, who was an unnamed Danish man.
Eriksons biological father abandoned him before he was born, so his mother went on to marry
Dr. Theodor Homberger, who was Eriksons pediatrician. They then moved to Karlsruhe in
southern Germany (Boeree, 1997).
Erikson proposed a lifespan model of development, taking in five stages up to the age of
18 years and three further stages beyond, well into adulthood. Erikson suggests that there is still
plenty of room for continued growth and development throughout ones life. Erikson puts a great
deal of emphasis on the adolescent period, feeling it was a crucial stage for developing a
persons identity.
Eriksons work suggests three major tasks during the school years which are the
development of initiative, industry and identity. The development of initiative is around age three
and continuing to age five, children assert themselves more often. These are commonly lively,
rapid-developing years in a childs life. Time of vigor of action and of behaviors that the parents
may see as aggressive"(Bee, 1992). At this stage the children will be interacting with other
children and people. The children will get the chance to explore and try new things and will get
the result by their own. They are lone-scientist which will conduct their own experiment and will
conclude it based on their own observations. At this stage, children will begin to plan activities
and initiate activities with their friends. If this opportunity is given by their teachers and parents,
the sense of initiative will be developed and they will feel secure with their talents and abilities.
The next stage is industry or also known as the competency stage. This stage occurs
when the children is at age 5 to 12 years old. They will learn on how to write, to read, to do
mathematics and also on how to solve problems on their own. At this stage, teachers are the
most important role as teachers are the one who will teach them all of the skills needed.
The third stage that is very significant to Eriksons theory is at the identity stage. The
identiy stage occurs at the age of 12 to 18 years old, the years where a child is changing
physically and mentally towards adulthood. The children will become more independent, and
begin to look at the future in terms of jobs, relationships and soul mates, family and also the
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PISMP TESL SEM 1
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
journey that will be faced. The child himself wants to be belonged and loved by the society. This
is one of the important roles or stage in a child life where he needs to know his responsible
when he became an adult. This is also the stage where confusion takes place. The stage where
the child needs to identify and find who she or he really is and want to be in the future. This is
also the stage where children are confused about their gender. According to Bee (1992), what
should happen at the end of this stage is a reintegrated sense of self, of what one wants to do
or be, and of ones appropriate sex role. During this stage the body image of the adolescent
changes.
The stage that gives the most significant shaped and influenced student socio-emotional
development during the school years is during the stage of industry vs inferiority. When they
reach elementary school, children are expected to master many new skills and they soon learn
that they can gain recognition from adults through their academic assignments, athletics
accomplishment, artistic performances and participation in community services. When children
complete projects and are praised for their accomplishment, they demonstrate industry. A
pattern of hard working, gaining mastery in tool use and persisting at lengthy task. But when
children are punished for their efforts or when they felt they cannot meet adults expectations,
they may develop a crisis in their life which is the feeling of inferiority about theirselves and their
own abilities.
Research indicates that children compare their own abilities to those of their peers and
lose confidence when they see themselves coming up short relatives to others in domains that
they value (Harter,2006; W.Wu, West, & Hughes, 2010). At this stage, the children is still in their
middle childhood life, having fun without the need to worry about incomes, financial problems or
even conflicts. Children at this age tend to be what they wanted to be. They do the thing that
they wanted to do. Exploring the things that surround them and at this stage is where they want
to try new things and compete with their friends. One of the example that can be given is when
the child has the passion to play music such as the piano or the guitar. They wanted to be a
rock star or a singer. Parents and teachers are the one that should give the child moral supports
and be there when he needs guidances. When I was around 9, I always wanted to play table
tennis. I watched my seniors play table tennis every evening and when they gone, I will take the
table tennis bat and started to smack the ping pong ball to the table. A teacher saw it and asked
me of I want to join the school team. So my dad bought me my very own ping-pong table and he
was the one that coached me until I reached the national state. The crisis of inferiority can be
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PISMP TESL SEM 1
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
overcome by both the teacher and also the parents. If my teacher and my dad mocked me for
being different instead of giving me moral supports, I think I would not have been making it this
far.
A classroom that teachers can do to help the crisis which is inferiority in children in this
stage is by creating an atmosphere of warmth, acceptance and trust. Children and adolescents
learn most effectively when they experience positives emotions, for instance, when they feel
secure, happy, or excellent about an activity (Bauminger & Kimhi-Kind, 2008, Linnenbrink &
Pintrich, 2004). They are more likely to confide in an adult about troublesome issues if they
know that the adults will continue to respect them no matter what they reveal about themselves
in heart-to-heart conversations. If this situation cannot be done in a classroom, the children will
feel insecure about their potentials and soon the crisis will overtake their talents. As teacher, we
need to give them a feel of trust and acceptance in class. It will ease the children studies and
also the teachers theirselves. For an example, if a child has problems at home, teachers should
never burden the child with other problems that can damage their thinking. Approaching the
child will help to solve the crisis that the child is experiencing.
Next, teachers should consider using a research-based curriculum for fostering
emotional development. To have a significant impact on childrens emotional expressions, adults
can implement a systematic program for educating children about their feelings. One illustration
of a comprehensive emotional education program is the Promoting Alternative Thinking
Strategies (PATHS) curriculum (Dormitrovich, Cortes & Greenbergm, 2007). Second and third
grade students are taught that all feelings are okay, some are comfortable and others
uncomfortable feelings can help the children learn what to do in different situation in life.
Children keep a record of their feelings and using a poster of a traffic light as a guide to regulate
their responses to feelings. Teachers encourage students to refer to the colour of the traffic light
to control the children themselves. For example the colour red on the traffic lights means to
stop or to calm down. The yellow colour is to slow down or to consider thei answer and the
green colour is to lets try something new. Well-designed social-emotional programs show
significant effects in a variety of domains, including in reducing the rate of substance abuse,
anti-social behaviours and misbehaviors at school and improving school attendance and
achievement (Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor & Schellinger , 2011).
Other method that a teacher can do to promote childrens emotional development is
through discussing emotions experienced by character is literature and history. Stories provide
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PISMP TESL SEM 1
CHILD DEVELOPMENT
an occasion to talk about emotional states (Mar & Oatley, 2008). We have found in our own
experience that the children in the elementary education are able to make appropriate
inferences about characters emotional states. For instance, in The Rabbit and The Turtle (Yafit
Yamin, 2008) , where the rabbit is very arrogant about its ability to run very fast while tortoise is
a ver slow moving animal yet he is very confident with himself. When tortoise won the race he
managed to be friend with rabbit and advised him to not be an arrogant animal. The story
provides a forum for discussions about feelings that may arise between friends, such as anger
at being teased or misled (Solomon, Watson, Battistich,Schaps & Delucchi, 1992). Meanwhile,
older children and adolescents might read firsthand accounts of historical events and talk about
how people in various contexts have responded emotionally to hostilities and inequities.
Conclusion, a child experience such basic emotions as happiness, sadness, anger and
fear. The tendency for emotional states to energize particular kinds of responses is also
universal. But substantial diversity is present in how children regulate their emotions (eg : when
trying to onceal their true feelings). Some children are more likely to than others to respond to
situations in positive, upbeat fashion. Children gradually gain the knowledge and skills needed
to asses others emotions by watching facial expressions, listening to tones of voices, and
drawing inferences from behaviors. Children how others express and control emotions. The
emergence of self-conscious emotions (eg: pride, guilt) represents a qualitive change that
reflects a new awareness of social standards. Teachers play important roles on promoting
childrens emotional development and on how to control them.

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UMMI NORKHAIRIAH BINTI KHIR JOHARI

PISMP TESL SEM 1

UMMI NORKHAIRIAH BINTI KHIR JOHARI

UMMI NORKHAIRIAH BINTI KHIR JOHARI

UMMI NORKHAIRIAH BINTI KHIR JOHARI

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