Erickson Developmental Theory in Practice: Observation
It was believed by Erikson that childhood forms a very significant stage in personality development. He went on accepting many theories that put forward by Freud, including the id and ego. He also accepted infantile sexuality theory that was proposed by Freud. However, Erikson rejected the claims that were made by Freud that personality can only be described on the basis sexuality, according to him, personality continued to develop beyond five years of age.
All the stages in epigamic theory by Erikson are implicitly available during birth, but continue unfolding depending to the innate scheme and one’s up-bring in families that express values of a certain culture, (Doug & Clifton, 2011). Additionally, human traits do come in opposites and there are those who think themselves of being pessimistic or optimistic, dependent or independent, followers or leaders among others.  Erickson developmental theory rests on the following themes; the world always gets bigger as human go along and failing is cumulative. The theorist held the view that human development is dictated by how human body interact, the mind as well as cultural aspects (Arlene, 2009). He then came up with eight stages of development covering human birth to death.
Every stage builds on the one it has succeeded and prepares the way for the next stage that will follow it. Every stage is characterized by a psychological deficiency, whose roots can be traced on psychological development, as well as the pressure inserted on the individual by parents or the society, or in other circumstances both parents and the society. In an ideal world, the deficiency in every stage needs to be resolved by an ego in that particular stage, to enhance proper development proceedings. The results of a particular stage are never permanent, but have an opportunity of being changed by later experiences.
For children between ages 4 to 5 years, the developmental stage they are is termed as play age. Individuals in this stage have a stronger desire to do what their parents/adults around them do or did and they engage in activities to create a playing environment. While in the play ground, children at this age engage in a myriad of activities such as making up stories, toy cars and miniature cars. More importantly, they play out roles in trial universe. They experiment with blue print for things they believe make one to be an adult. Generally speaking, individual in this age bracket start using or questioning word, why to explore what the world has in store for them. According to Erickson, at this developmental stage, individuals tend to actively take part in classic and resolve the struggle via social role identification.
While observing the four children in the play ground, I established that not only were they capable of interacting with others from different family backgrounds but were also capable of clearly depicting their awareness on gender identity. They were able to play with one another. More interesting was one of them recalling parts of a story and tried to narrate to the others. Additionally, while walking, they walked with agile resembling that of adult, were capable while playing run a round obstacles, alternate their feet when climbing stairs that was nearby.
In line with what Erickson brought forth in his theory individuals in I observed when playing sought to explore the world by asking one another why for instance sun rises and then falls, similarly, they were in a position to make a choice, know what they are capable of doing and not making some to ask for assistance from the other.
For the four children I observed, there were a number of normative developmental behaviors that were closely linked with Erickson’s theory. They exhibited sexual behaviors like gender role behaviors and exhibitionism. These young children used to rub against others, touching their genital parts, as well as their friends’. Exhibitionistic behaviors in children included deliberately exposing body parts to other children in the playroom. Gender role reflected sex-typing of interest and behaviors that are seen in children.
Voyeuristic behaviors in real sense forms the variations with sexual interests may be shown in children in children trying to touch glimpses of nude or partially dressed adults or children. It has been shown that, excessive modesty or in other terms, anxiety at displays of affections between either adults or children. In addition, children might be much curious and much open concerning their sexual issues, including interest in opposite sex and interests in mature TV shows as well as videos
The most common normative behavior observed amongst the four children in a play room was sexual behaviors. As explained by Erickson that, at this age, children experience the desire to seek imitating what their parents and other adults who happen to be close to them do. To explain why the children at this age did this; they might have not only seen their parent do what they intent to do but might also be influence by mass media especially in advertisement among others.
Although I observed the mentioned normative behavior on the four children, I also established that there were a number of maladaptive behaviors among them. One boy was particularly very aggressive toward the other children. On the basis of Erickson, the environment (family background) that the child might have been brought up may have exhibited such attributes to the boy. Another serious maladaptive behavior I observed in these children was revenge seeking behavior. Usually, this kind of behavior come into play when one child felt that he was dominated over by the rest and sought to punish which ended up to one being injured (William, N. et al, 1998).
On the same note, there was an incident of display-of-inadequacy behaviors where one of the kids although was present with one of his close friends withdrew himself from the group hence being emotionally absent from the play activities. It is worth noting that all the maladaptive behavior exhibited in the student I observed might have been heavily influenced by over ambitions, failure, competition and pressure.