Who who.
Who are you? Hi, my name is Matt and this is Simply Psyc.
(music)
The theorist Erik Erikson proposed a theory
of psychological development that he called psychosocial development.
It emphasizes how the relationships we have with others
influence the development of our personality. Nowhere is this better seen
than in the formation of our identity, who we are.
Let's get into this.
We're talking today about Erick Erickson.
(music)
Erikson's theory of psychosocial development
was important for psychology through the middle to the late 20th century.
This theory of psychosocial development focuses on
different stages in life and the relationships that people have
with other people in each stage. Erikson's theory was the first effort to
understand development throughout the life span
from birth until death. Each stage contained what Erickson called a crisis.
This crisis consisted of interaction with other people and through that interaction
the development of certain attributes, certain virtues.
For instance. the first stage is between trust and mistrust.
A baby through the relationship with mom and dad learns to trust them
and trust the world around them as long as they're consistently providing for
that child's needs.
However, if the child does not receive the consistent attention that's needed for their development
they may learn to mistrust their parents and mistrust the world.
So this crisis between trust and mistrust is very important.
Now what we're talking about today is the crisis of identity
or an identity crisis. An identity crisis is part of the
adolescent stage of Erikson's psychosocial development.
Adolescence begins at puberty, around the age of 12 or thereabouts
and then extends all the way up until autonomous adulthood,
when the person finally feels like they can be
an independent adult. During this stage
a person is trying to discover who they are. The're trying to ufnderstand their place
in society, their role within the people that they interact with.
The most important relationship for an adolescent is
friends, teenagers, peers in high school.
The crisis in the adolescent stage
is the discovery of one's identity or
falling into role confusion. Through the interaction with their friends and their
peers in high school
a person develops an understanding of who they are or
they fall into some sort of role confusion where they're not sure
of who they are. Hopefully this crisis is resolved positively.
But the question remains, how does one develop
a positive identity? How do the relationships that a person has
in high school help them form their identity and discover who they are?
To answer that question, think about high school. The relationships that people
have in high school typically fall into what we call
cliques. You know what cliques are, right? Groups of individuals that
kind of have similar tastes and similar interests.
There are bunches of different cliques. Like, say,
goths or jocks,
and nerds, and cheerleaders, which are kinda like jocks.
Uh, preps, band geeks, and a whole bunch of other ones you can probably remember.
Well, why do these cliques exist? Well, they exist because
we tend to have friends and those friends have similar interests to us.
We tend to congregate with those people who have those similar interests and up pop these cliques
all over the school. Now a question might be are cliques a good thing?
Are they a bad thing? Well, for the purposes of our understanding of psychosocial development,.
they're a good thing. They help us understand who we are, the kind of things
that we like
and have relationships also with people who like the same things.
If you weren't a part of a clique, you probably felt isolated.
You probably felt like you didn't fit in anywhere and then it's much more
difficult to understand your interests
and whether or not these are the things that you want to do as you move on in life.
There were some people that floated between cliques. Maybe they were
a jock and on the football team but then maybe they also were in band and maybe they
did well in school.
This is not a bad thing. It certainly helps in forming one's identity.
But cliques do serve the purpose for most people to discover who they are
through the relationship with their friends and with their peers in high school.
This concept of forming one's identity is a very important part of our life.
We must form a good positive identity, resolve the identity crisis
into knowing who we are so that we can be successful as an adult.
To explore this concept further,I thought it would be interesting to sit down with my assistant Simmons
to find out exactly how he was able to form his identity.
Let's go do that now.
(cheers) Hello everyone. Good ta see ya, good ta see ya.
So, Simmons, tell me. What was high school like for you?
Oh, high school was great! Umm, you know, I, uh,played a lot of sports, had a lotta great classes...
(interrupting) What kind of friends did you hang out with?
Friends, uhh. Right, umm. Most of my friends were good, uhh, ya know, spent a lotta time with them. Uh, I mean, there was this one guy, total jerk, he kept wanting to work on a comic...
(interrupting). What do you think your friends did for you to make you who you are?
Umm, I, I, I guess they were good. Umm,, ya know, they, uh, like I said, we spent time together, uh, worked on a...
(interrupting) It sounds like your friends weren't really good to you.
Well, I mean, most of them...
(interrupting) It sounds like you haven't formed a very positive identity.
Well, I umm, uh...
It sounds like you have some really deep issues that you need to deal with.
Tell me, how does that make you feel?
(crying and sobbing)
Alright folks. That's all we have for today. See ya next time.
Sound of cheers and sobbing)
Tears are good for the soul.
It's important to remember, each experience is unique.
Each experience is different. Your experiences
are going to be unique to you and help you form the identity that you have.
My experiences will be unique to me and help me form my identity.
And the formation of this identity is important for success
later on in life. Let's take a seat.
My mother used to say, "You are the company you keep."
Well, she didn't know how right she was.
Because when it comes to forming one's identity,
Erickson actually agreed with her.
If he only knew the legacy he left.
Till next time...
(music)
(sobbing) The guy's a jerk.
(still sobbing)
My coffee!! (sobbing)