Erik Erikson s Psychosocial Development - 1629 Words

Reflection Paper #4 Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages theory suggests that people pass through eight distinctive developmental stages as they grow and change throughout their lives. Integrity versus despair is the eighth and final stage of Erikson’s stage theory of psychosocial development. This stage begins at approximately age 60 and ends at death. The crisis represented by this last life stage is integrity versus despair. Erikson proposed that this stage begins when the individual experiences a sense of mortality and tries to find meaning in their accomplishments. This may be in response to retirement, the death of a spouse or close friends, the result from changing social roles, worsening health, or other situations that lead to†¦show more content†¦For example, Julie just turned 67 and recently retired from her three-decade long job as a school teacher. As she begins to reflect back on her life both before deciding to retire and after, she finds that she experiences both fee lings of satisfaction as well as a few regrets. In addition to a career as a teacher that spanned multiple decades, she also raised several children and is confident that she has good relationships with all of her children. Her life evaluation most likely occurred slowly before she decided to retire. But after her last day, the actual idea of retired became more real after her last day and reminded her of her growing age. Julie now has time to reflect upon her life while deciding on what do with her new found free time. Upon reflection, Julie realizes that her biggest regret was that she could never afford to pay for her daughter’s college tuition on a single parent income. Julie’s daughter Sarah, now has a child of her own. After evaluating her life and feeling relatively proud with her accomplishments, she decided to follow her creative passions she never had time for like, taking free educational classes in art and creative writing. Julie also decides to help look a fter Sarah’s daughter while she is at work. While Julie realizes that there are some things she might have done differently if she had the chance, Julie feels an overall sense of pride and accomplishment with