Analysis Of Erikson's Stage Of Identity

Register to read the introduction… I started high-school at a small charter high-school where they only accepted select students and were expected to perform at nearly college levels in class. For me, this was a difficult time in deciding where I belonged in terms of school groups. Our class of nearly 100 students was split between those who were considered hard workers by the teachers and those who did not. When I did not complete my homework assignments or tests, I felt that in the eyes of my professors that I was deemed as a student that did not care about succeeding. Only until my sophomore year, when my teachers had a meeting with my mother and suggested there was a problem did they start to look at me differently. I felt that my role up until that point was a student that was not to be taken seriously because I did not do well, but after discovering why I was not doing well, I was able to gain some sort of identity among my peers and my professors. To this day I feel that I am still trying to establish a sense of identity among my peers and professors because of my disability but I feel that it is easier for me now than it was back in high school. According to his theory, Erikson states that in order to understand how we form our identities, we must recognize that it will take us the rest of our lives starting when we hit puberty and that it is not something that will come overnight (Crain, …show more content…
His theory suggests that there are general accomplishments and problems that each of us faces at each important point in our lives (Crain, 2011 p.282). The areas that contributed the most significant amount of analysis to my life are the competence and fidelity stages. I find that this stage, also known as industry versus infidelity, really analyzes my time in high school when I was just learning about my learning disability and how that has affected me until now in terms of school and that fidelity, also known as identity versus role confusion analyzes how my disability made me feel in terms of my peers and my professors. The other stages of the theory like hope and will also successfully analyze my childhood as well. I think Erikson’s stage theory is the more convincing theory because each stage of this theory examines each part of life and I feel that it is accurate when it comes to my childhood and puberty. This theory explains behaviors throughout the life cycle and we can grasp a better understanding of why people are the way they are through this