For Assignment #3, please explain Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory, including a careful explanation of the overall structure of the theory and an explanation of EACH STAGE of the theory. Then, draw on your explanation to analyze the Life Story of the person which appears at the end of this assignment. Your assignment should be approximately 600 words long. (Please be sure to include a word count at the top of your assignment.)
To achieve the best possible score on this assignment, be sure to explain Erikson’s theory clearly, completely, accurately and precisely. Also, be sure to include ALL the stages of Erikson’s theory and briefly, but clearly, completely, accurately and precisely, explain each stage. Use the explanation of EACH STAGE to explain the relation of this stage in Erik Erikson’s theory to this woman’s life story. Please note: Erikson did not think it is possible to skip any stage. In addition, Erikson thought that the stages must follow in this fixed order. Thus, it is important, for this assignment,that you include and explain EACH stage of Erikson’s theory in regard to this Life Story. Although this Life Story is based in part on a real person’s Life Story, I have added and changed parts of this story, so that there is information relevant to each of the stages in Erikson’s theory.
This is the Life Story:
This person, who is a female, was born an African-American in the state of Mississippi in the southern part of the United States of America. Thus, she was born an African-American growing up in the deep South of the United States, and she was born before the Civil Rights Movement. As a result, she grew up knowing about the brutal effects of both racism and poverty. She came from a large family, the eighth child of sharecroppers, who are peoplewho work farm land owned by someone else. Her family was quite poor, their total earnings, when she was born, added up to about $300 a year. Although her family was very poor, they were a very close and loving family. Also, since she grew up on a farm, there were many opportunities for her to play outdoors and explore, beginning from the time she was first able to crawl around. As she got to be a little bit older,around 3-6 years old, she was able to create her own playthings using parts of the natural environment around her, things like dolls made out of corn cobs and pies made out of mud. When she was eight years old, her brother shot her in the left eye with a BB gun. By the time her parents were able to get her to a hospital, she was blind in that eye and had also developed a layer of scar tissue in that eye, which she bore for the rest of her life. Despite these challenges, she became aware, as an older child and as she entered adolescence, that she was a very good student. Moreover, she found that she loved to write and was able to create stories that others enjoyed hearing and reading. Although highly regarded by her contemporaries and other people in her immediate community, she never married. However, she did overcome the pain and anger she experienced due to poverty, racism and her injury in later childhood, and was able to write a book about her life and experiences. She was awarded a major literary prize for this book. She continued to write, not only books, but also poetry, essays and short stories. She also became a noted political activist in the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.