Cruising through Paediatric Dentistry, I found myself attracted to the subject of Developmental Psychology. One of the theories that I feel that I could relate to is the Psychosocial Theory by Erik Erikson or as it is known for, the '8 Ages Of Man'. The theory, in a nutshell, discusses of the development of emotion as a person grows up which is as follows :
- Basic Trust vs. Basic Mistrust (0-18 months old)
- Autonomy vs. Shame & Doubt (18m-3 years old)
- Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6)
- Industry vs. Inferiority (7-11)
- Identity vs. Role confusion (12-17)
- Intimacy vs. Isolation (Young Adult)
- Generativity vs. Stagnation (Adult)
- Integrity vs. Despair (Late Adult)
To wrap it up in one sentence, this theory says that at a certain age you will develop a specific kind of emotion and if you did not develop the positive kind of emotion, you will tend to develop the latter.
E.g. If you did not develop trust due to maternal deprivation issues when you're a baby, you'll be more likely to develop mistrust.
It is really a dry subject if you don't know what I'm talking about but I do think that Mr. E. Erikson has a point and that, what he proposed was nearly accurate of the general emotional development of the human being.
I think psychology is a very interesting thing to learn since we could relate it to ourselves and understand why we act such and such without feeling bad about ourselves. Psychology makes you realize that at the end of the day, you're just like everybody else and it is perfectly normal to feel such and such.
To be honest, looking at the stages, I found myself baffled by my own negative development. I've developed negatively since I was born and now I get it why I am so negative all the time. I recently taught myself to develop positivity because of this and I convinced myself to think that it is not impossible to change this even if I am now in the young adult stage. Still, I have yet a long way to go but it always began with the first step right?
Bi iznillah.
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