Reflective account lifespan theory.
Erick Erickson’s Life Span Theory is known as the 8 ages of development as he defines 8 major life crisis’s which he says are significant in terms of human growth and development. During each stage Erickson believes that there is a life crisis which we need to work through. There are 2 outcomes one positive and one negative, which will have implications for the development of our identity. We will develop a mixture of both outcomes from each stage. If the positive outweighs the negative then ego strength will emerge. This means we have a stronger sense of who we are, we move through these stages as we grow older.
I work with Service AC whom I have been working with for almost 3 years. AC is a young female Service User aged 22 who suffers from a borderline personality disorder, and is a recovering self-harmer and anorexic. AC experienced a traumatic childhood due to abuse within the family unit which therefore led to AC being removed from the care of her family and placed into foster care. AC appeared to find it difficult to adjust; this was shown through her self-damaging behaviors. Due this AC was placed into various institutions to try and overcome these behaviors.
The first stage of Erickson’s life span theory is infancy.
The infant will develop a healthy balance between trust and mistrust if fed and cared for and not over-indulged or over-protected. Abuse or neglect or cruelty will destroy trust and foster mistrust. Mistrust increases a person's resistance to risk-exposure and exploration. On the other hand, if the infant is insulated from all and any feelings of surprise and normality, or unfailingly indulged, this will create a false sense of trust amounting to sensory distortion, in other words a failure to appreciate reality. Infants who grow up to trust are more able to hope and have faith that 'things will generally be okay'.
The second stage is toddlerhood.
The child is developing physically and becoming more mobile. Between the ages of
I work with Service AC whom I have been working with for almost 3 years. AC is a young female Service User aged 22 who suffers from a borderline personality disorder, and is a recovering self-harmer and anorexic. AC experienced a traumatic childhood due to abuse within the family unit which therefore led to AC being removed from the care of her family and placed into foster care. AC appeared to find it difficult to adjust; this was shown through her self-damaging behaviors. Due this AC was placed into various institutions to try and overcome these behaviors.
The first stage of Erickson’s life span theory is infancy.
The infant will develop a healthy balance between trust and mistrust if fed and cared for and not over-indulged or over-protected. Abuse or neglect or cruelty will destroy trust and foster mistrust. Mistrust increases a person's resistance to risk-exposure and exploration. On the other hand, if the infant is insulated from all and any feelings of surprise and normality, or unfailingly indulged, this will create a false sense of trust amounting to sensory distortion, in other words a failure to appreciate reality. Infants who grow up to trust are more able to hope and have faith that 'things will generally be okay'.
The second stage is toddlerhood.
The child is developing physically and becoming more mobile. Between the ages of