erik erikson: crisis #1-as infants
trust vs. mistrust
-whether we form close attachments as babies impacts our ability to form close relationships as adults
according to erik erikson, what is life like?
life is like an obstacle course
- in order to achieve happiness and sucess people must overcome a series of challenges
- the challenges are in 8 stages in life, each of them has a crisis that needs to be solved.
erik erikson: crisis#2- as toddlers
autonomy vs. shame/doubt
- whether we develop independence from our caregivers with confidence, determines how independent we will be able to be as adults
erik erikson: crisis #3-as a preschooler
initiative vs. guilt
-whether people get a balence between their mental and physical skills, and are able to control inappropriate behaviour determines wether their talents are expressed or hidden
erik erikson: crisis #4- school age kids
competence/industry vs. inferiority
- becoming sucessful as an adult depends on the achievement of critical intellectual (reading etc.) and social skills (sharing, standing up for oneself etc.) as a child
erik erikson: crisis #5- as adolescents
identity vs. role confusion
-whether you find out who you are and who you want to be determines whether you are happy and productive as an adult ( the identity crisis)
erik erikson: crisis #6- young adults
intimacy vs. isolation
-whether you commit to relationships, and create good friendships determines whether your adult life will be socially and romantically fulfilling
erik erikson: crisis #7- middle age
generativety vs. self absorption
-will you succeed in life, by keeping yourself busy, and enjoying things, and living life, despite the passing youth, or will you become bitter and selfish
erik erikson: crisis#8- in old age
ego integrity vs. despair
-will you fear death, and regret life, or can you accept death and feel ok about life
what can be said about erikson’s “crisis”s
they are a good list of life’s challenges, but people don’t necessarily meet these challenges in this order
the significance of life transitions: and some socially-defined life transitions
in part, one’s own live is evaluated relative to one’s peers.
-license, grad, university, marriage, kids, homeowner, grandkids, etc.
the significance of life transitions: marriage
a few decades ago people married at about 18, now its more like 25, if at all.
the significance of life transitions: middle age
- the mid life crisis, or the empty nest syndrome-for most, 35-65 are the happiest and most productive people
- menopause- uncomfortable physical symptoms, but emotionalle, 97% of women view menopause positively or dont care
old age: mental functions that decline with age
formal reasoning perception speed memory fluid intelligence (ability to solve problems, and get more knowledge) etc.
old age: mental functions that don’t decline
verbal ability
math
crystallized intelligence (knowledge and skills that were previously acquired)
how people think, in relation to how developed they are
the way that people’s minds work sometimes depends on their age
jean piaget (1896-1980)
the ability to have more complex and abstract thought increases when children have more experiences, these changes can be seen as stages of development
stages of development: learning about the world, and progression through the stages.
occurs in 2 processes: assimilation and accommodation
- assimilation: fitting new experiences into what you already know about the world (cognitive schemas)
- accommodation: altering your understanding of the world (cognitive schemas) in order to make it consistent with new experiences
stages of development: Stage 1
Sensorimotor stage (birth-2)
- the motor reflexes are tied to babies’ thought (there is a coordination of sensory input and motor responses)
- they learn by what effect their movements have on the environment
- babies think that if they cant sense something it doesnt exist for them
stages of development: stage 1- major accomplishment of this stage
this is the sensorimotor stage from birth to age 2
- major accomplishment is object permanence
- this is when (at about 6 months) the child will search for an object if they want it, so that indicates that they can now not only know of things that they are sensing, but also represent the object without experiencing it directly
stages of development: stage 2
pre-operational stage (2-7)
- tend to focus on one aspect of situations and neglect other ones
- they understand irreversibility
- there is an increase of the ability to reason symbolically, this means that the child can pretend things
- in this stage children still cant perform mental operations involved in reasoning with steps of logic ( so many-step math problems)
- kids are egocentric in this stage and cant see things from another person’s point of view
- they dont understand the conservation of matter ( the idea that the amount changes if the physical shape does)
stages of development: stage 3
concrete operations stage (7-12)
- thought processes are tied to concrete experiences, without capacity for abstract thought (they need to be able to link things to personal experience)
- they get an understanding of classifying things in order of rank
- they develop understanding of conservation of matter
- they can perform mental operations (mulit-step math probs)
stages of development: stage 4
formal operations stage (12- adult)
- can do abstract reasoning (so they can imagine things that they may not have experienced)
- they can do logical systematic thinking
problems with piaget’s approach (5)
- cognitive abilities do not develop in discrete stages- it depends on the circumstances
- cognitive abilities progress faster than piaget thought- kids learn the things sooner than she says
- egocentrism emerges earlier than she thought- 4yr olds talk to 2yr olds differnt than they talk to adults, they also know that other people have different feelings and beliefs
- cognitive development depends on education and culture, not just progression through the stages-language and culture effects it
- some people never develop the capacity for abstract thought that is a charactaristic of the formal operations stage
