Critical evaluation of whether certain assumptions are present in Erikson's psychosocial development theory and how important these assumptions are in the context of South Africa.

Authors Avatar

Course:        Development Psychology

Essay Topic:        Critical evaluation of whether certain assumptions are present in Erikson’s psychosocial development theory and how important these assumptions are in the context of South Africa.

Word count:        1118 (excluding reference list)

Three assumptions present in developmental theories, as mentioned by Duncan, van Niekerk and Mufumadi (2003) will be described in a concise fashion.  The assumptions, ‘development follows a predictable pattern’, ‘human beings are resilient’, and ‘development is a function of the interaction between innate and environmental functions’, will also be examined insofar as they relate to the issues and concepts of Erikson’s theory.  Furthermore, these assumptions and the theoretical concepts of Erikson’s theory will be discussed in terms of their importance in a South African context.  Interwoven with this, is the argument that although Erikson’s theory has validity in certain instances, it relies on specific assumptions to hold true, and is ultimately convincing and applicable only within a definite societal context.

   

Duncan et al (2003) mention the assumption ‘human development follows a predictable pattern’.  What they mean is physical, cognitive and psychosocial processes of development in humans tend to follow a particular trend.

This assumption is reflected in Erikson’s socioemotional theory, as evidenced by him systematically laying down definite psychosocial stages of development, which are inextricably linked to specific age periods in a lifespan (Santrock, 2003).  Consequently, development follows a predictable pattern.  For example, his second stage occurs in early childhood, from approximately age 2 – 4, and ties in with the natural physical progression during that period.  Erikson posited that human development involved the resolution (in a positive or negative sense) of a crisis (AKA a turning point) in different stages and ages (Hergenhahn, 1994).  For example, in the above stage, the polarities to be resolved were autonomy versus shame and doubt, the positive synthesis of which would be will-power (Louw, van Ede & Louw, 1999).

Join now!

Turning now to South Africa, the structure of this society, in the author’s belief, has been in a state of mutation for the past 50 years, from political, racial and educational oppression, to an uprising, through democracy and reconstruction, onto a society now on the brink of a

catastrophe from AIDS (Freeman, 1993; Erasmus, 2005).   To assess whether human development follows a predictable pattern, these aforementioned factors need to be examined.  However, in terms of the above assumption, only the disease AIDS will be focused upon.  Some of the other factors will be considered further in ...

This is a preview of the whole essay

Here's what a teacher thought of this essay

The essay starts with a good introduction and the writer references the work well. However, there is too little detail in the rest of the work. First of all Erickson's psychosocial development theory needs to be explained more fully by discussing the development of trust, autonomy, independence, shame, fear etc. Although 'assumptions' are mentioned there is no real connection between Erickson's stage theory, assumptions and South Africa. The writer needs to improve this work by making a well structured plan. Score 1 star