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According to Erikson, when caregivers provide adequate reliability, affection, and care, children develop a sense of trust. Both of my parents provided me with these things, so I learned to trust. According to Piaget, birth to 2 years old is when coordination of sense with motor response grows, as well as a sensory curiosity about the world. Infants use language to demand. This is accurate: at this stage, I was taking in the world around me for the first time, and my language skills developed.
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In this stage, according to Erikson, is a conflict between autonomy vs shame & doubt. This is about age 2-3. Children develop personal control over skills and get some independence. If they are successful, they receive feelings of autonomy, and if not, it results in feelings of shame and doubt. For example, I learned how to use the toilet. I was also taught how to draw within lines, among a lot of other seemingly simple skills. This gave me my first feelings of freedom and control over myself.
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At around age 3-5 years, I started preschool. This was an exciting time in my life, mainly because I was an only child and this was the start of my social life. This stage is highlighted in Piaget and Erikson's work: to Piaget, this is the preoperational stage, when imagination and intuition are strong, but complex thoughts are not. To Erikson, this is the initiative vs. guilt stage, when initiative leads to sense of purpose.
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I began school in Massachusetts at the age of 5. I was focused on always being good and very rarely got into trouble. I feared getting into trouble, and I was a strict rule follower. This reflects Kohlberg's theory of preconventional morality, where I always avoided punishment.
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From around ages 7-13, I moved schools quite frequently. I learned to adapt to all kinds of unique social and academic demands because I was forced to. This reflects Erikson's theory of industry vs inferiority, where essentially success is competence, and failure to adapt results in inferiority. It is very sink or swim, in a way.
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In middle school, my academic success took off. This continued into high school. I began to think critically and logically, and I found trust and confidence in myself to be able to succeed. This aligns with Piaget's cognitive development stage of concrete operational, when knowledge began to solidify for me. This also probably means I was still a rule follower: I believe that those who can follow rules well succeed in school for being a 'good' student to teachers.
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High school developed my sense of self. It brought me to learn more of who I was and what I wanted to be. It pushed me to discover myself. For others, it broke them, and they will regard high school as the climax of their life, instead of the rising action for me. This aligns greatly with Erikson's stage of identity vs role confusion--teens develop their sense of self. Success is their ability to stay true to themselves, while failure leads them to role confusion and not truly knowing themselves
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In this stage of my life, I will hopefully end up with a college degree and marry a person I love dearly. I will start my career, whatever that may be, and maybe even end up with a house in a place I really like. This aligns most with Erikson's stage of intimacy vs isolation, where young adults need to form intimate relationships with others. Success in this stage is literally just being able to have successful relationships, while failure leads to isolation. In a perfect world, I will succeed.
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This stage of life relies greatly on the foundation of the last. This is the stage where I nurture children and get used to the fluid routine of life. I will be mainly focusing on stability for myself and the family I would have likely built from the previous stage. This aligns with Erikson's next stage of generativity vs. stagnation, where success in reproduction and career leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment. Failure results in, well, basically failure in life.
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This is the last stage of my life, which reflects on the rest of my life. If I have had a successful life, I will be proud of what I have accomplished. If I did not, then I will be filled with regret and despair. This also aligns with Erikson's next and final stage of life, integrity vs despair, where success is a sense of fulfillment and failure is, well, a depressing end.
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All of the graphics I found were on google.
