Benchmark – Development Psychology (Erikson/Piaget) Case Study
Part 1: Case Studies
Erikson’s Stage Theory
Case Study 1: Industry vs. Inferiority
Alex is a 10 year age pupil experiencing the industry vs. inferiority crisis. Alex is the 1st born in a family of 3 children. Mr. & Mrs. Pep are the parents of Alex. Alex has been spending most of time with his teachers and parents. Recently, Alex’s behavior has changed with his sense of confidence, feelings of confidence, and commitment to learning drastically dropping. The school in which Alex schools is full of diversity in terms of culture, race, beliefs, and attitudes towards education; and teachers motivate kids to study and compete hard in their studies.
The parents and teachers of Alex have been so concerned with his recent change of behavior. It is clear that Alex has developed an inferiority conduct which could potentially follow him into his adolescence age. In counseling, Alex reports his lack of interest, pride, and commitment into his schoolwork, social activities, family life, and sports. Alex feels inadequate and inferior as he considers himself unable to measure up. Alex mentions that his parents are so privy and do not allow him to interact with peers at home, and this is the behavior he carries to the school.
In a nutshell, the major stressors of Alex include:
- Lack of freedom to interact with peers at home
- Low self-esteem
- Feelings of incompetence
As a counselor, I would plan a group therapy for Alex. In this group therapy, Alex will be free to interact with age mates with the same difficulties. By the end of the group therapy, Alex would have gained competence, self-esteem, and liberty to socialize with peers. Also, I would advise Alex’s parents to give him the freedom to do what makes him happy. Furthermore, the essence of therapy is establishing happiness feelings to the client.
Case Study 2: Industry vs. Role Confusion
Betty is a 15-year old girl experiencing the industry versus role confusion crisis. Recently, the client has been struggling to discover her personal identity, while struggling with social interactions and “fitting in”, and creating a sense of morality. Also in presenting the problem, the clients confesses that she worries over who she is and what she wants to do in her life.
While presenting the problem, the counselor observes that Betty arrived 15 minutes early for the appointment. Betty says this is her first appointment to counseling and has never been in therapy before. The client is anxious, helpless, and full of panic. In the counseling session, the client states that she is an orphan. She is also a form II student in her secondary education. Betty complains that her teachers are so focused on teaching and create little or no time to advice the underprivileged students like her.
Her major stressors include:
- Lack of parental care and supportive teachers
- Feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and panic over her future life
- Life confusion and upheaval
- Unconscious search for identity
My counseling goals in Betty’s case will be imparting hope and identity consciousness, strong sense of identity, focus for future, and restoring happiness. I would adopt the CBT model to first understand the causes of Betty’s change in behavior. Also, I would opt for individual therapy (IT) in which I will counsel Betty on a one-on-one approach. In this approach, I will integrate BBI and IT with other treatment styles including psychoanalysis for I consider Betty’s childhood experiences important to achieving the goals of this therapy in a successful manner. Lastly, I would create a schedule which Betty should follow throughout this counseling session.
Piaget’s Theory of Development
Case Study 3: The Sensorimotor Stage
Doreen is a 2-year old girl whose parents, Mr. & Mrs. Jeffrey, run their own company in New York City and rarely finds time to stay with their only child. Jane is the caregiver of the 2-year daughter, and this is the 1st time she is nursing a young baby. Recently, Mrs. Jeffrey noticed that her baby girl cannot walk by herself, her hands cannot grasp anything, her eyes lack long eyesight, and that she is unable to understand anything spoken to her.
Mrs. Jeffrey finds this unsuitable and not normal of her daughter and thus informs her husband. They decide to take Doreen to an infant caregiver counseling for they consider that Doreen needs early-childhood nurturing care. Mrs. Jeffrey states “Doreen lacks the basic skills that a normal child must possess at her age like waving a bye to the parents”.
The major reasons for infant nurturing care are:
- Inability to know the world through sensations and movements
- Inability to learn the world through listening, grasping, and looking
- Doreen being a separate being from people around her
In counseling Doreen, this would be very interesting for me. The therapy goals will be to impart her with skills of taking first step, waving a bye, smiling to those around her, learning the world through movements, and enhancement of object permanence. I would derive a schedule to last for 3-5 months in which all these goals will be achieved. I will train the client how to walk by herself, grasp objects with her hands, and the basic concepts of spoken works she needs to have known and to be speaking at the moment. Still, I will help Doreen interact with other children’s in the nurturing care until Doreen emotionally and physically becomes supportive and responsive.
Case Study 4: The Preoperational Stage
Charles, a 6-year old boy has been raised up in a diverse community. Charles’ parents, Mr. & Mrs. Hausa are strict, religious, and concerned to nurturing their children into the right conduct, relations, and habit while interacting with their age mates and the older people. Recently, Charles has become too egocentric, uncaring to others, and full of pretense. His parents consider this behavior unworthy and thus the major reason to seek for therapy.
In presenting the problem, Charles seems to struggle with logic and taking viewpoints of other people especially his parents, teachers, and peers. Charles considers himself to be right in every matter, and does not value the opinions and points of view raised by other people. In the school, Charles has been so difficult to deal and cope with by both teachers and classmates.
The major crises disturbing Charles include:
- Struggle with logic
- Inability to take other peoples’ points of view
- Overconfidence even when being taught
- Lack of respect to ideas diversity
As Charles’ counselor, I would first establish a counseling relationship with him. The goals of this counseling would be based on the key attributes and development changes associated with this stage namely to help Charles embrace ideas diversity, enable the client see thinks in concrete terms, and to help Charles transition authentically into the concrete operation stage of life. I will use the cognitive theory (CT) to evaluate Charles’ center of thoughts, behaviors, emotions, and attitudes which make him disregard other peoples’ viewpoints. In case Charles suffers any abnormality or disturbing inaccuracies in his brain, CT would help fix that. Also, I would adopt the humanistic model to help Charles achieve his highest potential; in this case I will be clear to the client that achieving full potential is impossible without viewpoints diversity.
Part 2: Summary
Similarities and Differences between Piaget’s and Erikson’s Theories
Similarities
Both Piaget and Erikson theories examine the development psychology issue by using stages to explain the entire process (Spencer, 2010). Both Erikson and Piaget posit that each phase has different problems in the process of development. Therefore, the successive phases are built upon each other in that failure in the preceding phase precipitates failure in the following stage and vice versa. Also, the two models are built on the idea that personality development occurs across an individual’s lifespan. Thus, people are inspired by the surroundings via the learning process. As a result, cognition influences an individual to leave a mark in the community and enjoy success. Again, the two theories are similar on their emphasis on scientific method of enquiries via controlled experiment of lab investigation (Smart, 2011). Last and not the least, the two theories can be integrated to offer profound answers to educators and psychologists on the right approaches of teaching young children.
Differences
Erikson’s stage theory centers more on the whole development process of life under 8 stages (Smart, 2011). Erikson asserts that the environment interacts with a person to impact the development process. Across all stages, an individual encounters crisis and success is determined by how he or she handles the problems. In contrast, Piaget’s model looks into a person’s thought process by focusing more on the earlier stages below 12-years of age. According to Piaget, cognitive skills get developed from infancy to the operational stage in which abstract thoughts starts making sense (Jack, 2011). Other than the use of phases, the two differ on the aspect of timing; Piaget holds that the 1st phase terminates at 2-years of age while Erikson’s model posits that the 1st stage ends at 1-yeat old. Again, they both differ in their views towards the development process in the late teens. Still, Piaget theorizes the manner in which infants form thoughts while Erikson dwells more on personality development (Spencer, 2010).
References
Jack, S. (2011). Psychology Applied to Teaching. New York: Cengage learning.
Smart, J. (2011). Disability across the Development Life Span. New York: Springer Publishing Company.
Spencer, R. (2010). Childhood and Adolescence: Voyages in Development. New York: Cengage learning.