Application Exercise #1 / Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages (pages 152-153)
According to Erik Erikson, life can be divided into eight stages, and people inevitably face a crisis in each stage that differs from the crises of other stages. When people attempt to deal with a crisis, it builds into their character either a good quality or a not-so-good quality (see the “issue” column in Table 12.2 for the list of character qualities). This exercise requires you to think of a grown friend or acquaintance who has three “not-so-good” qualities that, according to Erikson, developed during earlier stages of life. It is best to use the same person for all three parts below, if possible.
Divide the exercise into three labeled parts, writing grammatically correct sentences in each part
Part A. Mistrust. Describe a specific situation in which the person demonstrated mistrust and was overly suspicious of the good-intentions of other(s).
Part B. Inferiority. Describe a particular situation in which the person underestimated himself or herself and felt that others were superior even when they were not.
Part C. Role confusion. Describe two situations in which the person acted completely differently
