Erikson’s theory serves as guidance to the nurses providing care intervention to paediatric patients and adolescents. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is mainly divided into 8 distinct stages. The first five stages are up to age 18 years and the three further stages move beyond the age of 18 years into adulthood. Studies are of the opinion that each of the individual experiences a psychosocial crisis in their lives. This aspect can have positive or negative outcomes on their personality development (Green et al., 2018). They need to handle each of the conflicts successfully. If the persons are seen to deal with each of the conflicts successfully, they emerge from this stage with the psychological strengths. These psychological strengths will be serving them for the rest of their lives. If they fail in dealing with the conflicts effectively, they might not develop essential skills that are important for a strong sense of self (Malone et al., 2016). The thesis statement is that “parents and caregivers should be knowledgeable about these developmental stages and take actions that would help children to master the stages of psychosocial development effectively”. This assignment would reflect how effective handling of stages by mother Victoria could lead to proper development of skills in life of a child named Julie.
During each of the stage, the crisis is usually of the psychosocial in nature. This is mainly because they involve the psychosocial needs of the individual (psycho) conflicting with the needs of the society (social). The second stage of the psychosocial development mainly takes place during the time of early childhood during the phase of 18 years to that of 3 years of age. This stage is called the Autonomy versus shame stage. In this stage, children are seen to become increasingly independent (Green, Kalvatis & Worster, 2016). They want to gain more control on the different actions that they want to perform, and the ways they accomplish it. Children in this age often feel like performing things in an independent manner. These would include choosing out the different things that they want to wear each day. They want to decide and enjoy putting on their own clothes and take their own decisions on what they want to eat and many others. These aspects might sometimes become frustrating for parents or caregivers but they are significant part in children’s life helping in the development of attribute of self-control as well as personal autonomy. Toddlers who complete this stage in a successful manner are seen to feel confident and secured, while those children who cannot become successful are left with a sense of inadequacy and self-doubt.
In the case study, Julie is of age 2 years and 2 months old and is seen to belong to the stage 2 of psychosocial development. However, she is not toilet trained properly and her mother Victoria is quite concerned about her daughter not developing the skills. Others children of her age had already mastered the skill but she had not mastered it yet. The nursing professional who had attended Julie had told her mother that she is achieving all the developmental milestones successfully and that she should not worry. She had been advised to attend the informal discussion sessions in the community where strategies for development of such skills in children would be discussed. It is extremely important for Victoria to understand the different aspects that tend to act during the development of each stages of her child and how her reactions in each of the situations will determine how Julie would succeed in her future aspirations.
Erikson is of the opinion that successful potty training helps children to develop will power and teaches them the difference between holding on and letting go. His theory puts importance to patience, support as well as encouragement when guiding the toddlers through the fundamental milestones associated with the stage of development of children (Carson et al., 2016). Therefore, in case of Julia as well, toilet training would be serving as the crucial incident that would enable her progression towards independence. This is mainly because it will help Julia to develop the critical skills of self-control. Researchers are of the opinion that response of the child towards toilet training and other accidents should mainly comprise of encouragement as well as support. This determines whether the children would develop as sense of independence or develop shame and doubt. Failure in this stage can make Julie feel an unhealthy sense of self (Erikson, 2018). Therefore, Victoria should provide continuous support and encouragement to Julia to help her gain confidence in herself through mastering of the skill. If she continually exhibits negative reactions to the child, she might feel that she cannot achieve the task and would be filled with doubt for herself or feel ashamed. Therefore, Victoria plays important roles in ensuring a bright future for her child through development of such knowledge of child handling.
A large number of factors also affect the psychosocial development of the children. Researchers are of the opinion that parental interactions with children have large impacts in the negative as well as positive effect on the development of the child. It has been seen that parents who spend most of their time playing as well as teaching their children through reading as well as performing various hands on games and activities can result in positive outcomes of the development of the child (McAdams et al., 2015). Again those children who are ignored or neglected and are not properly interacted in positive ways, they may face hindered health development. In case of Victoria, it is seen that she spends most of her time in her workplace and gets very few time to interact with Julia. It is also not known that attendants at her day care also interact effectively with her or not. Therefore, this aspect might create a barrier for effective psychosocial development of the child.Another important factor is the learning environment (Kagan, 2017). Studies have shown that children who are surrounded both at home as well as day care facilities by strong learning environments that are supportive as well as informative might result in improvement of their development. Poor as well as underprivileged educational environments expose the children of being at higher risk of being negatively affected. It is also not known about Julia’s learning environment but Victoria should try to provide positive learning environment to help her child master different skills.
Proper nutrition, healthy weight gain and maintenance of proper hand hygiene are important for assuring positive impact on development of children. Researchers are also of the opinion that lack of socialisation can lead to issues in childhood development and inability to socialise in a civilised ways (Marsh et al., 2018). Victoria is a single mother and had to work very hard to meet the ends and is seen to live in tight budgets. Although these aspects do not however reveal their socioeconomic conditions but she should be aware of such factor and take necessary modifications for ensuring safe psychosocial developmental chances for her daughter.
The stage 3 of the psychosocial development theory is known as the Initiative versus guilt stage. This continues from 3 to 5 years of age. When children grow they are seen to explore and do things on their own. Children are seen to develop new concepts and practice them in real lives (Capozzi et al., 2018). However, if they fail to achieve such tasks and end up asking for assistance from others and are continuously made to go through negative comments. They develop a sense of guilt. Studies suggest that every of the stages are connected and failure in one stage might affect the mastering of the conflicts in the next stage (Diamond, 2016). If autonomy is not achieved by the children in stage 2, they will not have the confident to take initiative. They might develop fear or suffer from low self-esteem that will create shame and doubt in them. Therefore, they will not be able to perform the tasks well. Therefore, they will develop guilt feeling in the stage 3. Therefore, it is important for Victoria to develop knowledge about all these skills. These would help her to undertake initiatives that will help Julie to master all stages successfully.
From above discussion, it is seen that Julie is around the age of two years who does not have proper toilet training skills. Therefore, according to Erikson; theory she is in the stage of autonomy versus shame and doubts. It is important for her mother to encourage her to develop autonomy and the sense of elf control. If mothers in this stage fail to encourage but shows negative reactions, children might fail to master the skills. Parental interaction, health,learning environment and socioeconomic aspects can affect the psychosocial development. Moreover, failure in stage 2 can lead to failure of the children to master stage 3, which is initiativeversus guilt. It is important for Victoria to develop strategies that help her child to overcome barriers and win the conflicts in life.
References:
Capozzi, F., Manti, F., Di Trani, M., Romani, M., Vigliante, M., & Sogos, C. (2018). Children’s and parent’s psychological profiles in selective mutism and generalized anxiety disorder: a clinical study. European child & adolescent psychiatry, 27(6), 775-783.https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-017-1075-y
Carson, V., Hunter, S., Kuzik, N., Wiebe, S. A., Spence, J. C., Friedman, A., … & Hinkley, T. (2016). Systematic review of physical activity and cognitive development in early childhood. Journal of Science and Medicine in Sport, 19(7), 573-578.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2015.07.011
Diamond, A. D. E. L. E. (2016). Why improving and assessing executive functions early in life is critical. Executive function in preschool-age children: Integrating measurement, neurodevelopment, and translational research, 11-43.https://www.devcogneuro.com/Publications/Diamond_(2016)_Why_improving_and_assessing_executive_functions.pdf
Erikson, E. H. (2018). On the generational cycle—an address. In Is It Too Late? (pp. 141-159). Routledge.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9780429901034/chapters/10.4324%2F9780429476266-10
Green, C., Kalvaitis, D., & Worster, A. (2016). Recontextualizing psychosocial development in young children: a model of environmental identity development. Environmental Education Research, 22(7), 1025-1048.https://doi.org/10.1080/13504622.2015.1072136
Green, M. J., Tzoumakis, S., McIntyre, B., Kariuki, M., Laurens, K. R., Dean, K., … & Carr, V. J. (2018). Childhood maltreatment and early developmental vulnerabilities at age 5 years. Child development, 89(5), 1599-1612.https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12928
Kagan, J. (2017). Structure and process in the human infant: The ontogeny of mental representation. In Psychological development from infancy (pp. 159-182). Routledge.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781351670289/chapters/10.4324%2F9781315163130-7
Malone, J. C., Liu, S. R., Vaillant, G. E., Rentz, D. M., & Waldinger, R. J. (2016). Midlife Eriksonian psychosocial development: Setting the stage for late-life cognitive and emotional health. Developmental psychology, 52(3), 496.https://psycnet.apa.org/buy/2015-50310-001
Marsh, H. W., Pekrun, R., Murayama, K., Arens, A. K., Parker, P. D., Guo, J., & Dicke, T. (2018). An integrated model of academic self-concept development: Academic self-concept, grades, test scores, and tracking over 6 years. Developmental psychology, 54(2), 263.https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/dev0000393
McAdams, D. P., & Zapata-Gietl, C. (2015). Three strands of identity development across the human life course: Reading Erik Erikson in full. The Oxford handbook of identity development, 81-94.https://books.google.co.in/books?hl=en&lr=&id=QXLDBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA81&dq=erikson+psychosocial+development+in+toddlers+of+2+to+5+years&ots=DIcVcBGzOc&sig=3ENwAZlxeeC4iJzi8G-2fCG1cUg#v=onepage&q=erikson%20psychosocial%20development%20in%20toddlers%20of%202%20to%205%20years&f=false
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