PSYCHOSOSIAL THEORY ACCORDING TO ERIK ERIKSON

Meizzatul Chania Putri

Abstract
Erik Erikson's theory of discussing human development is known as the theory of psycho-
social development. This theory of psychosocial development is one of the best theories of
personality in psychology. Vygotsky also believes that learning occurs when students work
on tasks that have not been studied but those tasks are in their "zone of proximal
development"

Eric Eriksons Theory

Erik Erikson's theory of discussing human development is known as the theory of

psycho-social development. This theory of psychosocial development is one of the best
theories of personality in psychology. Like Sigmund Freud, Erikson believed that personality
developed on several levels. One important element of Erikson's psychosocial level theory is
the development of ego equality.

According to Erikson, psychological development results from the interaction between

natural processes or biological needs with the demands of society and social forces faced in
everyday life. The perfect ego, described by Erikson, has three dimensions, factuality,
universality, and actuality:

 Factuality is a collection of facts, data, and methods that can be verified by the current
working method. Ego contains a collection of facts and data resulting from interactions
with the environment.
 Universality relates to awareness of reality (sells of reality) which combines practical
and concrete things with a universal view, similar to Freud's principle of reality.
 Actuality is a new way of relating to one another, strengthening relationships to achieve
common goals. Ego is today's reality, constantly developing new ways of solving life's
problems, which are more effective, prospective, and progressive.

The stages of psychosocial development according to Erik Erikson. The eight stages of
psychosocial development throughout the human life cycle are described as follows:

 Trust vs Mistrust (Trust vs Suspicion)

Infancy is characterized by a trust-mistrust tendency. Baby behavior is based on the

urge to trust or not trust the people around him.

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  Autonomy vs Shame and Doubt

Early childhood is characterized by a tendency to autonomy-shame, doubt.

 Initiative vs Mistake

Preschool Age is marked by a tendency of initiative-guilty.

 Craft vs Inferiority

The School Age is marked by a tendency towards industry-inferiority.

Shaffer (2005) says that many people prefer Erikson's theory to Freud's because they
simply refuse to believe that humans are dominated by their sexual instincts. Erikson
emphasizes the many social conflicts and personal dilemmas that a person or people they
know experience, so they can easily anticipate them. Erikson seems to have captured many of
the central issues in life which he addresses in the eight stages of his psychosocial
development. In addition, the age range stated in Erikson's theory may be the best time to
resolve the crisis at hand, but it is not the only possible time to resolve it (Slavin, 2006).

Besides having advantages, Erikson's theory also has several weaknesses. Here are
some criticisms of Erikson's theory:

 This theory is really only a descriptive view of a person's social and emotional
development without explaining how or why this development occurs (Shaffer, 2005).
 This theory is more appropriate for boys than for girls and more attention is paid to
infancy and children than to adulthood.
 Not everyone experiences the same cases at the same phase and time as suggested by
Erikson in his theory of psychosocial development (Slavin, 2006).

Vygotsky Theory

According to Vygotsky's theory, cognitive function comes from the social interactions
of each individual in the concept of culture. Vygotsky also believes that learning occurs when
students work on tasks that have not been studied but those tasks are in their "zone of
proximal development". The zone of proximal development is the distance between the actual
level of development shown in the ability to solve problems independently and the level of
potential developmental abilities shown in problem-solving abilities under the guidance of
more capable adults or peers.

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 Vygotsky outlined the main implications of his theory of learning. First, requires a
cooperative classroom setting, so that students can interact with each other and come up with
effective problem-solving strategies in each of their zones of proximal development. Second,
Vygotsky's approach to learning emphasizes scaffolding. So Vygotsky's learning theory is
one of the social learning theories so it fits perfectly with the cooperative learning model
because in the cooperative learning model there is social interactive, namely the interaction
between students and students and between students and teachers in an effort to find concepts
and problem solving.

The school of psychology held by Vygotsky refers more to constructivism because it

emphasizes the nature of sociocultural learning. In his analysis, a person's cognitive
development is determined not only by the individual actively, but also by the active social
environment. Therefore, Vygotsky's concept of cognitive development theory dwells on three
things:

 Genetic Law of Development

Every person's ability will grow and develop through two rules, namely the social level
of the environment and the psychological level that is in him.

 Zone of Proximal Development

Although children eventually learn some concepts on their own through everyday
experiences, Vygotsky believes that children will develop much more when they interact with
others.

 Mediation

The mediator who is played by means of signs or symbols is the main key to
understanding social and psychological processes. Hence, if we examine more deeply
Vygotsky's theory of cognitive development will find two types of mediation, namely
metacognitive and cognitive mediation.

Bandura Theory

Bandura's Social Learning Theory is based on the following three concepts.

 Reciprocal determinism

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 An approach that explains human behavior in the form of continuous reciprocal
interactions, between cognitive, behavioral, and environmental. A person will determine or
influence his behavior by controlling the environment, but that person is also controlled by
the forces of the environment.

 Beyond reinforcement

Bandura views that if each complex social response unit must be sorted out to be rebuilt
one by one, then the person may not even learn anything. According to him, reinforcement is
important in determining whether a behavior will be continuous or not, but it is important it is
not the only construct of behavior. People can learn to do something just by observing and
then repeating what one sees,

 Self regulation

Traditional learning theories are often hindered by a person's displeasure or inability to

explain cognitive processes.

There are many implications of social learning theory put forward by Bandura for
classroom learning, including the following.

 Modeling provides an alternative to shaping new behaviors for learning. In promoting

an effective model, a teacher must ensure that four essential conditions must exist,
namely attention, retention, reproductive motor, and motivation.
 Teachers and parents must adopt appropriate modes of behavior and take care so that
learners do not imitate inappropriate behavior
 Describe the consequences of behavior that can effectively increase behavior as
expected and decrease inappropriate behavior.
 Students often learn only by observing the behavior of other people, namely teachers.

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