|
“We live, we die, and the wheels on the bus
go round and round”
Jack Nicholson as
Edward Cole in the movie The
Bucket List
Developmental theories in
psychology are my favorite. Erik Erickson, a
student of Anna Freud (Sigmund’s daughter)
and an established cornerstone in the field,
contends that psychosocial development
occurs in a series of well-defined stages.
Each stage contains a crucial task; and
success or failure with the task determines
future psychosocial health for the
individual.
Erikson’s work is
distinguished from other popular theories
(Freud’s included) by disputing the
proposition that growth and development
cease with youth; and by proposing the idea
that growth continues throughout the entire
life span, birth to death, or as one crass
author puts it – from the womb to the tomb.
|
Stage |
Basic Conflict |
Important
Events |
Outcome |
|
Infancy (birth to
18 months) |
Trust vs.
Mistrust |
Feeding |
Children develop a sense of
trust when caregivers provide
reliability, care, and
affection. A lack of this will
lead to mistrust. |
Early Childhood
(2 to 3 years) |
Autonomy vs.
Shame and Doubt |
Toilet Training |
Children need to develop a sense
of personal control over
physical skills and a sense of
independence. Success leads to
feelings of autonomy, failure
results in feelings of shame and
doubt. |
Preschool
(3 to 5 years) |
Initiative vs.
Guilt |
Exploration |
Children need to
begin asserting control and
power over the environment.
Success in this stage leads to a
sense of purpose. Children who
try to exert too much power
experience disapproval,
resulting in a sense of guilt. |
School Age
(6 to 11 years) |
Industry vs.
Inferiority |
School |
Children need to cope with new
social and academic demands.
Success leads to a sense of
competence, while failure
results in feelings of
inferiority. |
Adolescence
(12 to 18 years) |
Identity vs. Role
Confusion |
Social
Relationships |
Teens need to develop a sense
of self and personal identity.
Success leads to an ability to
stay true to yourself, while
failure leads to role confusion
and a weak sense of self. |
Young Adulthood
(19 to 40 years) |
Intimacy vs.
Isolation |
Relationships |
Young adults need to form
intimate, loving relationships
with other people. Success leads
to strong relationships, while
failure results in loneliness
and isolation. |
|
Middle Adulthood
(40 to 65 years)
|
Generativity vs.
Stagnation |
Work and
Parenthood |
Adults need to create or nurture
things that will outlast them,
often by having children or
creating a positive change that
benefits other people. Success
leads to feelings of usefulness
and accomplishment, while
failure results in shallow
involvement in the world. |
Maturity
(65 to death) |
Ego Integrity vs.
Despair |
Reflection on
Life |
Older adults need to look back
on life and feel a sense of
fulfillment. Success at this
stage leads to feelings of
wisdom, while failure results in
regret, bitterness, and despair.
|
|
http://psychology.about.com/library/bl_psychosocial_summary.htm |
As reflected in the
casual discussions of daily talk and news
shows, clinical and popular arenas have an
unquestionable
infatuation
with developmental theory as reflected in
frequent discussions of :
|
~ |
the terrible
two’s
(possibly true),
|
|
~ |
the torrid teens
(probably not true for the
majority of teens though
definitely true for some),
|
|
~ |
the Quarter-Life
Crisis
(new and fascinating research on
the crisis of
“the twenty-somethings”,
and
validated by my related twenty-
something expert
(daughter) :-), as fairly
accurate for the challenges of
her group),
|
|
~ |
the midlife
crisis
(true to some degree for many
people and rallied in books,
movies and grocery store
conversations as explanation for
all sorts of life-craziness),
|
|
~ |
the trials of
aging, senility, and Alzheimer’s
(that have generally touched us
all),
|
|
~ |
and the
developmental finality of death
and dying
(accompanied by Kubla -Ross’
well know
five stages of grief.) |
….and for contemporary moviegoers Morgan
Freeman and
Jack Nicholson entertainingly
illustrate this endearing infatuation in
their recent movie The Bucket List.
Right out of the developmental
literature, the story of The Bucket List
presents an unlikely pair of friends -
terminally ill, facing life’s final
developmental stage, (addressing Erikson’s
final developmental task: “Reflection on
Life”) - and finding themselves without
the desired Eriksonian “sense of
fulfillment.” Thus the need for the
Bucket List! A last fling effort to set
things straight and a term coined by
Freeman’s character to mean
“A list of all the things I want to do
before I kick the bucket!”
I haven’t seen the movie but I’m told it’s very good and
I plan to rent the DVD. I have, however, seen
the list and it's fun. Even
though the bucket list in the movie is a
final life stage task, I think it can be
fun in any stage of life and I may even create my
own.
According to online list-makers, most lists contain
humanitarian gifts, risky adrenaline -
pumping behaviors, expensive taste
indulgences and visits to ultimate travel
destinations. Hmmmm, very inspiring. If I
do make a list, I’ll post it in the next
column. If you write one, send it to me with
a brief bio (dr.bradford@yahoo.com)
and I’ll post yours along with mine. It will
be interesting to see how our lists compare
with the movie list.
So, it seems, whether in the movies, on the
six o’clock news, at dinner table or in the
grocery store, hardly a day goes by without
a discussional reference to psychosocial
developmental psychology. With its far
reaching impact, you can easily see why it’s
my favorite. It’s a fascinating and complex
field of study, yes? Yet, in the movie
Carter seems to have simplified it fairly
easily ….
“We live, we die,
and the wheels on the bus go round and
round”
Cheers and Good psychology to you. Dr. B |
