on the characteristics of a Practice Theory
NCM_100 Lesson 5
Local Conceptual Models
CASAGRA TRANSFORMATIVE
LEADERSHIP MODEL- Sr. Carol
Agravante
• The CASAGRA Transformative Leadership
Model: Servant – Leader Formula & the
Nursing Faculty’s Transformative Leadership
Behavior.
• The theory “CASAGRA Transformative
Leadership” is a psycho-spiritual model. It is
coined after the name of the investigator: Sr.
CArolina S. AGRAvante
The model is a Three-Fold Transformation
Leadership Concept rolled
into one, comprising of the following elements:
1. Servant-Leader Spirituality;
-I.The Servant-Leadership Spirituality here is
prescribed to run parallel to the generic
elements of the transformative leadership
model.
- This formula consists of a spiritual exercise,
the determination of the vitality of the care
complex in the personality of an individual and
finally a seminar workshop on transformative
teaching.
-The servant-leader formula prescription
includes a spiritual retreat that goes through
the process of awareness, contemplation, story
telling, reflection, and finally commitment to
become servant-leaders in the footsteps of
Jesus.
2. Self-Mastery expressed in a vibrant care
complex;
- II. The Self-Mastery consists of a vibrant care
complex possessed to a certain degree by all
who have been through formal studies in a care
giving profession such as nursing.
3. Special Expertise level in the nursing field
one is engaged in.
- is shown in a creative, caring, critical,
contemplative and collegial teaching of the
nurse faculty who is directly involved with the
formation of the nursing.
• The CASAGRA Transformative Leadership
Theory is classified as a Practice Theory basing
stated by McEwen (2007), which are the
following:
a. Complexity / Abstractness, Scope -
Focuses on a narrow view of reality,
simple and straightforward;
b. Generalizibility /Specificity - Linked
to a special populations or an identified
field of practice;
c. Characteristic of Scope – Single,
concrete concept that is operationalized;
d. Characteristic of Proposition –
Propositions defined;
e. Testability – Goals or outcomes
defined and testable;
f. Source of Development – Derived
from practice or deduced from middle
range theory or grand theory
MAIN PROPOSITIONS
- CASAGRA Transformative Leadership is a
psycho-spiritual model, and is an effective
means for faculty to become better teachers and
servant-leaders.
- Care complex is a structure in the personality
of the caregiver that is significantly related to
leadership behavior.
- The CASAGRA servant-leadership formula is
an effective modality in enhancing the nursing
faculty’s servant-leadership behavior.
- The Vitality of Care Complex of the nursing
faculty is directly related to leadership
behavior.
Key Concepts
The CASAGRA Transformative Leadership
Model has concepts of leadership from a
psycho-spiritual point of view, designed to lead
to radical change from apathy or indifference to
a spiritual person.
-Servant-leadership behavior refers to the
perceived behavior of nursing faculty
manifested through the ability to model the
servant leadership qualities to students, ability
to bring out the best in students, competence in
nursing skills, commitment to the nursing
profession, and sense of collegiality with the
school, other health professionals, and local
community.
- Nursing leadership is the force within the
nursing profession that sets the vision for its
practitioners, lays down the roles and
functions, and influences the direction toward
which the profession should go.
PREPARE ME (Holistic Nursing
Interventions) - CARMENCITA
ABAQUIN
- “PREPARE ME” Interventions and the
Quality of Life Advance Progressive Cancer
Patients.
- PREPARE ME (Holistic Nursing
Interventions) are the nursing interventions
provided to address the multi-dimensional
problems of cancer patients that can be given in
any setting where patients choose to be
confined.
- This program emphasizes a holistic approach
to nursing care. PREPARE ME has the
following components:
•Presence – being with another person during
the times of need. This includes therapeutic
communication, active listening, and touch.
•Reminisce Therapy – recall of past
experiences, feelings and thoughts to facilitate
adaptation to present circumstances.
• Prayer
•Relaxation-Breathing – techniques to
encourage and elicit relaxation for the purpose
of decreasing undesirable signs and symptoms
such as pain, muscle tension, and anxiety.
•Meditation – encourages an elicit form of
relaxation for the purpose of altering a patient's
level of awareness by focusing on an image or
thought to facilitate inner sight which helps
establish connection and relationship with God.
It may be done through the use of music and
other relaxation techniques.
•Values Clarification – assisting another
individual to clarify his own values about health
and illness in order to facilitate effective
decision making skills. Through this, the
patient develops an open mind that will
facilitate acceptance of disease state or may
help deepen or enhance values. The process of
values clarification helps one become internally
consistent by achieving closer between what we
do and what we feel.
RETIREMENT AND ROLE
DISCONTINUITIES (SISTER LETTY G.
KUAN)
CONCEPTUAL MODEL (as studied and
researched by the author)
• Retirement – is an inevitable change in
one’s life.
It is evident in the increasing statistics of the
aging population accompanied by related
disabilities and increased dependence.
- this developmental stage, even at a later part
of life, must be considered desirable and
satisfying through the determination of factors
that will help the person enjoy his remaining
years of life.
• It is of primary importance to prepare early in
life by cultivating other role options at age
50-60 in order to have a rewarding retirement
period even amidst the presence of role
discontinuities experienced by this age group.
BASIC ASSUMPTIONS AND CONCEPTS
• Physiological Age- is the endurance of
cells and tissues to withstand the
wear-and-tear phenomenon of the human
body.
-some individuals are gifted with the strong
genetic affinity to stay young for a long time
period.
• Role – Refers to the set of shared
expectations focused upon a particular
position. These may include beliefs about what
goals or values the position incumbent is to
pursue and the norms that will govern his
behavior.
• Change of Life - is the period
between near retirement and post-retirement
years. In medico-physiological terms, this
equates with the climacteric period of
adjustment and re- adjustment to another
tempo of life.
• Retiree – is an individual who has left the
position occupied for the past years of
productive life because he/she has reached the
prescribed retirement age or has completed the
required years of service.
• Role Discontinuity - is the interruption
in the line of status enjoyed or performed.
The interruption may be brought about by an
accident, emergency, and change of position or
retirement.
• Coping Approaches- Refer to the
interventions or measures applied to solve a
problematic situation or state in order to
restore or maintain equilibrium and normal
functioning.
“I have grown and sown and now I can reap
the reward and blessing of a life lived in joy
and love, for I too have made others grow. ”
Categorization of Nursing Activities as
Observed in Bedical-Surgical Ward Units
in Selected Government and Private
Hospitals in Metro Manila", January-June
87 (CECILIA M. LAURENTE)
In this Theory you’ll learn
• Nurse’s Caring behavior that affects patient
anxiety.
1. PRESENCE- person to person contact
between the client and the nurses
2. CONCERN- development in the time
through mutual trust between nurse and the
patient.
3. STIMULATION- nurse stimulation through
words tops the powerful resources of energy of
a person for healing.
Predisposing factors
• Age
• Sex
• Civil Status
• Educational Background
• Length of work
• Experience
Enhancing factors
• One’s caring experience Beliefs and attitude.
• Feeling good about work
• Learning caring at school
• What patients tell about the nurse coping
mechanism to problems encountered.
THEORY OF NURSING PRACTICE AND
CAREER
- In the recent study of Laurente she states that
the–another entry point of helping the patient
is though the family, when nurses can be of
great assistance to prevent at the very
beginning serious complications.
Theories Relevant to Nursing Practice
1.Maslow’s Human Needs Theory
2.Sullivan’s Transactional Analysis
3.Von Bertalanffy’s general Systems Theory
4.Lewin’s Change Theory
5.Erickson’s Psychosocial development
6.Kohlberg’s Moral Development
Maslow's Theory of Human Motivation
and Hierarchy of Needs
Maslow’s hierarchy is a perceptive and
constructive schema for organizing and
prioritizing aspects of the human condition. It
provides a meaningful lens through which to
view the differences between the adaptive needs
of different cultures. According to Maslow, the
objective of human adaptation is to rise
through the pyramid ultimately achieving self-
actualization.
Maslow (1943, 1954) stated that people are
motivated to achieve certain needs and that
some needs take precedence over others. Our
most basic need is for physical survival, and
this will be the first thing that motivates our
behavior. Once that level is fulfilled the next
level up is what motivates us, and so on.
1. Physiological needs - (these are biological
requirements for human survival, e.g. air, food,
drink, shelter, clothing, warmth, sex, sleep.)
- If these needs are not satisfied the human
body cannot function optimally. Maslow
considered physiological needs the most
important as all the other needs become
secondary until these needs are met.
2. Safety needs - Once an individual’s
physiological needs are satisfied, the needs for
security and safety become salient. People want
to experience order, predictability and control
in their lives. These needs can be fulfilled by the
family and society (e.g. police, schools, business
and medical care).
- For example, emotional security, financial
security (e.g. employment, social welfare), law
and order, freedom from fear, social stability,
property, health and wellbeing (e.g. safety
against accidents and injury).
3. Love and belongingness needs - after
physiological and safety needs have been
fulfilled, the third level of human needs is social
and involves feelings of belongingness. The
need for interpersonal relationships motivates
behavior.
- Examples include friendship, intimacy, trust,
and acceptance, receiving and giving affection
and love. Affiliating, being part of a group
(family, friends, work).
4. Esteem- which Maslow classified into two
categories: (i) esteem for oneself (dignity,
achievement, mastery, independence) and (ii)
the desire for reputation or respect from others
(e.g., status, prestige).
- Maslow indicated that the need for respect or
reputation is most important for children and
adolescents and precedes real self-esteem or
dignity.
5. Self-actualization needs- are the highest
level in Maslow's hierarchy, and refer to the
realization of a person's potential,
self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and
peak experiences. Maslow (1943) describes this
level as the desire to accomplish everything that
one can, to become the most that one can be.
Individuals may perceive or focus on this need
very specifically.
- For example, one individual may have a
strong desire to become an ideal parent. In
another, the desire may be expressed
economically, academically or athletically. For
others, it may be expressed creatively, in
paintings, pictures, or inventions.
Hierarchy of needs summary
(a) human beings are motivated by a hierarchy
of needs.
(b) needs are organized in a hierarchy of
prepotency in which more basic needs must be
more or less met (rather than all or none) prior
to higher needs.
(c) the order of needs is not rigid but instead
may be flexible based on external
circumstances or individual differences.
(d) most behavior is multi-motivated, that is,
simultaneously determined by more than one
basic need.
INTERPERSONAL THEORY (Harry
Stack Sullivan 1892-1948)
Respond Efficiently to Different Behavior
MALEVOLENCE
• wishing evil to others
• Disjunctive destructive patterns behavior
related to malevolence
● Feeling of living among one’s enemy
● Arises around 2 or 3 Caused by pa
rejection rental neglect
INTIMACY DYNAMISM
• Conjunctive beneficial patterns of behavior
such as intimacy and the self- system.
● Grows out of early needs for
tenderness
● Emerges in the “chumship”
● Prepubescent best friend relationship
with a peer of equal status
● Decreases anxiety and loneliness
ISOLATING DYNAMISM
• Isolating patterns of behavior that are
unrelated to interpersonal behavior (e.g., lust).
● Self-centered needs
● Based largely on sexual gratification
PERSONIFICATIONS
• Representations of self and other
• Mental images that we acquire during
development to help us understand ourselves
and the world
- A cognitive approach to understanding
personality.
• Personifications help maintain emotional
equilibrium and reduce anxiety.
- Separation of the good vs. bad
SELF PERSONIFICATIONS - Personality continues to evolve from
1. THE BAD ME infancy through adulthood
2. THE GOOD ME A. INFANCY
3. THE NOT ME • Tenderness from mothering one
• Learns anxiety from the mother through
THE BAD ME
B. CHILDHOOD
• grows from experiences of punishment and
• Imaginary playmate
disapproval
• Safe, secure relationships to practice with no
• Represents those aspects of the self that are
threat of negative consequences
considered negative and hidden from others
and possibly the self. C. JUVENILE ERA
• Anxiety results from recognition of the bad • Need for peers of equal status
me - Children learn how to compete,
- Recalling an embarrassing compromise, and cooperate.
- nGuoi mlt about a past action
D. PREADOLESCENCE
THE GOOD ME
• results from experiences with reward and E. EARLY ADOLESCENCE
approval
- Experiences associated with F. LATE ADOLESCENCE
tenderness and intimacy • Feel both intimacy and lust toward the same
• Everything we like about ourselves person
• The part of us we share with others and prefer - Learn how to live in the adult world
to focus on because it produces no anxiety - Discovery of self
- Persona G. ADULTHOOD• Person establishes a stable
THE NOT ME relationship with a significant other.
• anxiety provoking experiences that invoke
security operations may become dissociated ABNORMALITY
from self to form the not-me. MENTAL DISORDERS
- Security operations = Sullivan’s • All mental disorders have an interpersonal
concept of defense mechanisms origin and can be understood only with
• Experiences that are denied reference to the person’ s social environment.
• Experiences that are kept out of awareness • Interpersonal theories emerge in 1980’s
and repressed and 1990’s
- Acknowledging not-me experiences
creates high anxiety/ negative PSYCHOTHERAPY
emotion. • Promoted Interpersonal Psychotherapy
• Pioneered the notion of the therapist as a
STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT participant observer.
7 Developmental Stages • Originated Group Psychotherapy
● Infancy
● Childhood - Sullivan saw personality as being largely
● Juvenile Era formed from interpersonal relations.
● Preadolescence ● Insisted that humans have no
● Early Adolescence existence outside the interpersonal
● Late Adolescence situation.
● Adulthood
Theory emphasizes:
• Each stage involves specific interpersonal ● social influences over biological ones
challenges or tasks, and specific types of ● Rates high on unconscious
interpersonal relationships determinants,
- Personality change is most likely ● average on free choice, optimism, and
during the transitions between stages causality,
● and low on uniqueness

MODEL OF CHANGE (KURT LEWIN)
- Recognized as “Founder of social
psychology”
- One of the first to study group dynamics
and organizational development
- Fantastic model for understanding basics
- For explaining planned change
FIELD FORCE ANALYSIS (Diagram)
3 STAGE MODEL of CHANGE
UNFREEZING
- Opening up of economy
- Beginning of LPG era
- Various reforms introduced
- Sudden change for people
- Small steps in various fields
CHANGE
- Initially bewildered the businessmen
- Gradually people started understanding
- Encouragement to Pvt investments
- Disinvestment in PSUs
- Delicensing
- Accepting foreign capital
- Modified organizational structure
REFREEZING
- Supportive actions
- Less restrictions
- Formulated laws
- Reduced recession momentum
- Encouraging policies
- Speed-up of the economy
- Make in India
CONCLUSION
- Initially chaotic situation
- Assessment of the scenario
- Understanding the need of the hour
- Empowering people by creating awareness
- Taking firm steps
- Solid decisions backed-up by logical reasons
- Successful implementation of the plan
- Timely execution of the policies
- Delighting the economy
GENERAL SYSTEM THEORY (LUDWIG
VON BERTALANFFY )
• An Austrian-born biologist
• Proponent of the General System Theory
CONCEPTS
• A system is a set of components or units
interacting with each other within a boundary
that filters the kind of rate of flow of inputs and
outputs to and from the system.
• The system can be open or closed
• Open systems move in the direction of higher
organization
• Closed systems move toward disorder, illness
and death.
• Man, having biological and social systems, has
subsystems interacting
• Man as an open system is continually
interacting with and being influenced by other
systems in his environment.
• The interrelatedness of all parts of the system
is the basis of the holistic approach of the
nurse.
APPLICATION TO NURSING

• A person who is constantly receiving positive
inputs from the environment (e.g. balanced
diet, warmth, social acceptance) and giving
appropriate outputs (e.g. energy, products of
elimination and social response) is more likely
to achieve and maintain health.
• People interact with the environment by
adjusting themselves to it or adjusting it to
themselves.
• The nurse looks at environmental factors
influencing the patient's health.
STAGE OF PSYCHOSOCIAL
STAGE 1: ORAL SENSORY
Age : Birth to 18 months
Conflict: Trust v/s Mistrust
• Feeling of trust from external support
• Fear and concern regarding others
STAGE 2: MUSCULAR ANAL
Age: 18 – 3 years
Conflict: Autonomy v/s Shame and Doubt
• Focuses on self-control and self-confidence
• Experiences shame, self-doubt, and
unhappiness
STAGE 3: LOCOMOTOR GENITAL
Ages: 3 – 6 years
Conflict: Initiative v/s Guilt
• Discovery of ways to initiate actions
• Guilt from actions and thoughts if criticized
STAGE 4: LATENCY
Ages: 6 – 12 years
Conflict: Industry v/s Inferiority
• Development of sense of competence
• Feelings of inferiority, no sense of mastery
STAGE 5: ADOLESCENCE
Ages: 12 – 18 years
Conflict: Identity v/s Role Confusion
• Establishes self-identity
• Inability to identify oneself result in identity
crisis and role confusion
STAGE 6: YOUNG ADULTHOOD
Ages: 19 – 40 years
Conflict: Intimacy v/s Isolation
• Develops close positive relationship with
others
• Failure to establish intimacy lead to isolation
STAGE 7: MIDDLE ADULTHOOD
Ages: 40 – 65 years
Conflict: Generativity v/s Stagnation
• Sense of contribution to continuity of life
• Become stagnant and unproductive
STAGE 8: MATURITY
Ages: 65 to death
Conflict: Ego integrity v/s Despair
• Sense of utility in life’s accomplishments
• Regret over lost opportunities of life
EDUCATIONAL IMPLICATIONS
• Encourage initiative in children
• Promote industry in elementary school
children
• Stimulate identity exploration in adolescents
IDENTITY CRISIS
• Psychological state or condition of
disorientation
• Occurs especially in adolescents
• Result- conflict of internal & external
experiences, pressures, expectations, and
anxiety
• Need for every individual to establish one’s
own identity
• Failure of this creates confusion and anxiety
in the individual which is called Identity Crisis
CONCLUSION
In the process of development of each stage,
individuals face conflicts that are resolved by
accepting and adapting to the changes. In
general, Erikson’s Theory of Human
Development is widely accepted and plays a
major role in all human and psychological
development studies and theories. The best
advice is to use the theory as a framework or
map for understanding and identifying what
issues/conflicts unresolved lead to current
behavior and preparing for the stages to come.
SIX STAGES OF MORAL
DEVELOPMENT (KHOLBERG)
Level I. Preconventional Morality
STAGE 1: Obedience and Punishment
Orientation
- The View is "It's against the law," or "It's bad
to steal," as if this were all there was to it.
When asked to elaborate, the child usually
responds in terms of the consequences
involved, explaining that stealing is bad
"because you'll get punished" (Kohlberg,
1958b).
STAGE 2: Individualism and Exchange
- This stage children recognize that there is not
just one right view that is handed down by the
authorities. Different individuals have different
viewpoints.
- At stage 1 punishment is tied up in the child's
mind with wrongness; punishment "proves"
that disobedience is wrong. At stage 2, in
contrast, punishment is simply a risk that one
naturally wants to avoid.
Level II. Conventional Morality
STAGE 3: Good Interpersonal
Relationships
- At this stage children--who are by now
usually entering their teens--see morality as
more than simple deals. They believe that
people should live up to the expectations of the
family and community and behave in "good"
ways. Good behavior means having good
motives and interpersonal feelings such as
love, empathy, trust, and concern for others.
STAGE 4: Maintaining the Social Order
- Stage 3 reasoning works best in two-person
relationships with family members or close
friends, where one can make a real effort to get
to know the other's feelings and needs and try
to help. At stage 4, in contrast, the respondent
becomes more broadly concerned with society
as a whole.
Level III. Postconventional Morality
STAGE 5: Social Contract and Individual
Rights.
- At stage 5, people begin to ask, "What makes
for a good society?" They begin to think about
society in a very theoretical way, stepping back
from their own society and considering the
rights and values that a society ought to uphold.
They then evaluate existing societies in terms of
these prior considerations. They are said to take
a "prior-to-society" perspective (Colby and
Kohlberg, 1983, p. 22).
STAGE 6: Universal Principles
- Kohlberg believes that there must be a higher
stage-- stage 6--which defines the principles by
which we achieve justice. Kohlberg's
conception of justice follows that of the
philosophers Kant and Rawls, as well as great
moral leaders such as Gandhi and Martin
Luther King. According to these people, the
principles of justice require us to treat the
claims of all parties in an impartial manner,
respecting the basic dignity of all people as
individuals.
KOHLBERG: SUMMARY
• At stage 1 children think of what is right as
that which authority says is right. Doing the
right thing is obeying authority and avoiding
punishment.
• At stage 2, children are no longer so
impressed by any single authority; they see
that there are different sides to any issue. Since
everything is relative, one is free to pursue one's
own interests, although it is often useful to
make deals and exchange favors with others.
- At stages 3 and 4, young people think as
members of the conventional society with its
values, norms, and expectations.
• At stage 3, they emphasize being a good
person, which basically means having helpful
motives toward people close to one
• At stage 4, the concern shifts toward obeying
laws to maintain society as a whole.
- At stages 5 and 6 people are less concerned
with maintaining society for its own sake, and
more concerned with the principles and values
that make for a good society.
• At stage 5 they emphasize basic rights and
the democratic processes that give everyone a
say,
• and at stage 6 they define the principles by
which agreement will be most just.
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT: Erik
Erikson
- Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development
focus on the resolution of different crises to
become a successful, complete person.
- Erik Erikson (1902–1994) was a stage theorist
who took Freud’s controversial theory of
psychosexual development and modified it as a
psychosocial theory. Erikson emphasized that
the ego makes positive contributions to
development by mastering attitudes, ideas, and
skills at each stage of development.
- This mastery helps children grow into
successful, contributing members of society.
During each of Erikson’s eight stages, there is a
psychological conflict that must be successfully
overcome in order for a child to develop into a
healthy, well-adjusted adult.
- Erikson developed his eight stages of
psychosocial development based on Freud’s
psychosexual theory.
Stages of Psychosocial Development
- Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development
are based on (and expand upon) Freud’s
psychosexual theory.
- Erikson proposed that we are motivated by
the need to achieve competence in certain areas
of our lives. According to psychosocial theory,
we experience eight stages of development over
our lifespan, from infancy through late
adulthood.
- At each stage there is a crisis or task that we
need to resolve. Successful completion of each
developmental task results in a sense of
competence and a healthy personality. Failure
to master these tasks leads to feelings of
inadequacy.
- Erikson also added to Freud’s stages by
discussing the cultural implications of
development; certain cultures may need to
resolve the stages in different ways based upon
their cultural and survival needs.
TRUST vs MISTRUST
• From birth to 12 months of age, infants must
learn that adults can be trusted. This occurs
when adults meet a child’s basic needs for
survival.
• Infants are dependent upon their caregivers,
so caregivers who are responsive and sensitive
to their infant’s needs help their baby to
develop a sense of trust; their baby will see the
world as a safe, predictable place.
• Unresponsive caregivers who do not meet
their baby’s needs can engender feelings of
anxiety, fear, and mistrust; their baby may see
the world as unpredictable.
- If infants are treated cruelly or their needs are
not met appropriately, they will likely grow up
with a sense of mistrust for people in the world.
AUTONOMY vs. SHAME/DOUBT
• As toddlers (ages 1–3 years) begin to explore
their world, they learn that they can control
their actions and act on their environment to
get results. They begin to show clear
preferences for certain elements of the
environment, such as food, toys, and clothing.
• A toddler’s main task is to resolve the issue of
autonomy vs. shame and doubt by working to
establish independence. This is the “me do it”
stage.
• For example, we might observe a budding
sense of autonomy in a 2-year-old child who
wants to choose her clothes and dress herself.
Although her outfits might not be appropriate
for the situation, her input in such basic
decisions has an effect on her sense of
independence.
• If denied the opportunity to act on her
environment, she may begin to doubt her
abilities, which could lead to low self-esteem
and feelings of shame.
INITIATIVE vs GUILT
• Once children reach the preschool stage (ages
3–6 years), they are capable of initiating
activities and asserting control over their world
through social interactions and play.
• According to Erikson, preschool children
must resolve the task of initiative vs. guilt.By
learning to plan and achieve goals while
interacting with others, preschool children can
master this task.
• Initiative, a sense of ambition and
responsibility, occurs when parents allow a
child to explore within limits and then support
the child’s choice. These children will develop
self-confidence and feel a sense of purpose.
• Those who are unsuccessful at this
stage—with their initiative misfiring or stifled
by over-controlling parents—may develop
feelings of guilt.
INDUSTRY vs INFERIORITY
• During the elementary school stage (ages
6–12), children face the task of industry vs.
inferiority.
• Children begin to compare themselves with
their peers to see how they measure up. They
either develop a sense of pride and
accomplishment in their schoolwork, sports,
social activities, and family life, or they feel
inferior and inadequate because they feel that
they don’t measure up.
• If children do not learn to get along with
others or have negative experiences at home or
with peers, an inferiority complex might
develop into adolescence and adulthood.
IDENTITY vs. ROLE CONFUSION
• In adolescence (ages 12–18), children face the
task of identity vs. role confusion. According to
Erikson, an adolescent’s main task is
developing a sense of self.
• Adolescents struggle with questions such as
“Who am I?” and “What do I want to do with
my life?” Along the way, most adolescents try
on many different selves to see which ones fit;
they explore various roles and ideas, set goals,
and attempt to discover their “adult” selves.
• Adolescents who are successful at this stage
have a strong sense of identity and are able to
remain true to their beliefs and values in the
face of problems and other people’s
perspectives.
• When adolescents are apathetic, do not make
a conscious search for identity, or are pressured
to conform to their parents’ ideas for the future,
they may develop a weak sense of self and
experience role confusion. They will be unsure
of their identity and confused about the future.
• Teenagers who struggle to adopt a positive
role will likely struggle to “find” themselves as
adults.
INTIMACY vs ISOLATION
• People in early adulthood (20s through early
40s) are concerned with intimacy vs. isolation.
After we have developed a sense of self in
adolescence, we are ready to share our life with
others.
• However, if other stages have not been
successfully resolved, young adults may have
trouble developing and maintaining successful
relationships with others.
• Erikson said that we must have a strong sense
of self before we can develop successful
intimate relationships.
• Adults who do not develop a positive
self-concept in adolescence may experience
feelings of loneliness and emotional isolation.
GENERATIVITY vs STAGNATION
• When people reach their 40s, they enter the
time known as middle adulthood, which
extends to the mid-60s. The social task of
middle adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation.
• Generativity involves finding your life’s work
and contributing to the development of others
through activities such as volunteering,
mentoring, and raising children. During this
stage, middle-aged adults begin contributing to
the next generation, often through childbirth
and caring for others; they also engage in
meaningful and productive work which
contributes positively to society.
• Those who do not master this task may
experience stagnation and feel as though they
are not leaving a mark on the world in a
meaningful way; they may have little
connection with others and little interest in
productivity and self-improvement.
INTEGRITY vs DESPAIR
• From the mid-60s to the end of life, we are in
the period of development known as late
adulthood.
• He said that people in late adulthood reflect
on their lives and feel either a sense of
satisfaction or a sense of failure.
• People who feel proud of their
accomplishments feel a sense of integrity, and
they can look back on their lives with few
regrets.
• However, people who are not successful at
this stage may feel as if their life has been
wasted. They focus on what “would have,”
“should have,” and “could have” been. They face
the end of their lives with feelings of bitterness,
depression, and despair