Checking your developmental tasks using Erikson's theory: How to protect your mental health
- Erikson believed that people go through eight stages of psychosocial crisis throughout their lives.
- If you check the tasks at your current stage, you can turn your vague anxiety into a concrete task.
- Taking care of relationships, daily life, and asking for help together is the basis for maintaining mental health.
Contents
Ericson's psychosocial development theory is a theory that a person goes through eight stages from birth to old age, and that each stage has crises and tasks that must be solved in relationships with society. By using this framework, I can check which stage of the task my current concerns are connected to.
Keeping in mind the 'self-level analysis' task that frequently appears in human behavior, social environment, and mental health classes, I organized the inspection methods and mental health measures in order.
What are the Erikson development stages?
The eight stages are trust versus distrust, autonomy versus shame, initiative versus guilt, diligence versus inferiority, identity versus identity confusion, intimacy versus isolation, productivity versus stagnation, and ego integration versus despair. Each stage is expressed as a tension between two poles, and I believe that the more positive the balance is, the more healthily we can face the next stage. The virtues and times for each stage are It is summarized in the Erikson Psychosocial Development Theory Wiki document.
The important thing is that missing a step is not the end; it remains a task that can be tackled later in life.
How do I check my current stage?
First, find the appropriate stage based on your age, but instead of deciding based on age alone, write down the topic you are most concerned about these days. If you are a college student, you are usually in the intimacy versus isolation stage, but if your career path or values are still shaky, you may still be faced with the challenges of the identity stage. Then, if you write down the positive and negative aspects of that stage side by side and indicate in detail which side your recent actions are closer to, the inspection will become clearer.
The biggest advantage of this inspection is that if I write it down by scene like this, my vague anxiety can be organized into a few tasks that I can handle.
다 쓴 글은 소리 내어 읽어 보면 어색한 문장이 바로 걸리더라고요. 친구와 서로 읽어 주기를 해 본 게 저한테는 꽤 도움이 됐어요.
What signs do you see when a task falters?
Being overly dependent on others' evaluations, feeling very lonely while avoiding close relationships, or constantly feeling like you don't know what you want to do can be signs that identity and intimacy work is still in progress. It is better to accept these signals not as evidence of failure, but as indicators of tasks that need to be addressed now. However, if depression or anxiety persists for a long time and makes daily life difficult, it is better to seek help from a counseling center or expert rather than interpreting it based on theory.
How can we protect the mental health of modern people?
Rather than writing the checklist once and finishing it, it is better to take it out again a month or two later and compare the same items. You can see changes just by looking at whether the same scene has decreased or increased, and it helps to see a gradual improvement rather than pushing yourself. This process itself can be an experience of revisiting the tasks that Erikson mentioned.
The hint from Erikson's theory is that mental health is not something that can be achieved alone, but rather grows in relationships. On an individual level, the basics are to lead a regular life, accumulate small achievements, and have honest conversations with people you can trust. At the societal level, there are many claims that education that informs people about the developmental characteristics of each stage of life and counseling services that are easily available are needed. Erikson's 8 stages are organized based on age and task, and the college student author explains the level of task performance at each stage and ways to improve the mental health of modern people in on page 7. href="https://campusdown.com/product/Erikson%EC%9D%98%EC%8B%AC%EB%A6%AC%EC%82%AC%ED%9A%8C%EC%A0%81%E B%B0%9C%EB%8B%AC%EB%8B%A8%EA%B3%84%EC%99%80%ED%98%84%EC%9E%AC%EC%9E%90%EC%8B%A0%EC%9D%B4%EC%86%8D%ED% 95%9C%EB%8B%A8%EA%B3%84%EC%9D%98%EA%B3%BC%EC%97%85%EC%88%98%ED%96%89%EC%A0%95%EB%8F%84,%ED%98%84%EB%8 C%80%EC%9D%B8%EC%9D%98%EC%A0%95%EC%8B%A0%EA%B1%B4%EA%B0%95%ED%96%A5%EC%83%81%EB%B0%A9%EC%95%88-25956" rel="noopener">Campus Down Ericsson Development Stage Self-Analysis Material can be a reference for the flow of the narrative for those who need to write theory and self-analysis together. At the conclusion of the assignment, if you briefly summarize the inspection results and future actions in two or three, the reader can easily follow the flow.
Related wiki: Expressed emotions
FAQ
What are Erikson’s stages of development?
There are eight stages in total, from trust versus distrust to ego integration versus despair.
What stage do college students usually fall into?
It usually corresponds to the intimacy versus isolation stage of early adulthood, but there are many cases where the challenges of the identity stage remain as well.
What happens if I don't pass the previous steps well?
Ericsson believed that unfinished tasks can reappear at a later stage and can be addressed at a later stage.
What should I pay attention to during self-analysis tasks?
Rather than determining the stage based on age alone, it is better to write it based on a specific scene and add a recommendation to seek professional help if the difficult situation continues for a long time.