This assessment is based on an interview of Melinda (not her real name because she requested for strict anonymity), a 70-year old female. The focus of the interview was on her lifespan development, using the framework of the first five stages of personal development proposed by Eric Erickson. The assessment sought to establish the effect of any dystonic outcomes of her early life development during infancy and adolescence on her late life. The interviewee completed 34 questions that were based on the written systonic and dystonic outcomes of Erickson’s model of personal development. The findings of this interview assessment indicate that Melinda showed a clear first stage dystonic outcome, which led to a series of mistrust during her adolescence causing confusion of identity. The consequence of this personal development was the failed marriage, isolation from her peers and her current stagnation in the 7 th stage of Erickson. This psycho-social paper, recommends that if intervention has to be considered, then it should focus on re-establishing trust by way of examination of the issues surrounding the personal development history of Melinda, particularly her relationships, in a consistent and supportive manner.
The personal development history interview
This personal development history interview was conducted with a 70-year old woman, Melinda. Its purpose was to assess her life development history based on the 8 stages of Erickson. The interviewee had to recollect important events in her past life that were part of her personal development. The events to be recollected were guided by the interview questions asked to her. This assessment concentrated on establishing any dystonic results in the course of one of the starting five stages of personal development as proposed by Eric Erickson. The main hope of the paper was that the enquiries used would help in effectively isolating the very specific areas, where occurrences may have stopped any of the stages of development hence impacting the later perception of the interviewee on her adolescence life.
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This specific assessment is motivated by the view of Erickson on the identity of crisis. Erickson describes crisis as the psycho-social part of adolescing. Such a perspective on adolescence demands conscious convergence of all outcomes of the previous stages to make up an identity or identity confusion. This identity or identity confusion is what then forms the backbone for the future physiological development as well as social responsibility. It is vital to note the fact that all stages that come before this particular one, usually end with a given level of conflict resolution. However, what is very important is the level and quality of identity of a person during his or her adolescence stage because it is at this point that one has the first encounter of identity. Through this assessment, the theory suggesting that views of life as well as the recollections about a person’s adolescence are normally determined by the dystonic results identified during the first four stages of personal development proposed by Erickson was tested within the structure of this interview.
Methodology of the interview
This interview was done by way of telephone and took a period of 2 hours. I used e-mail to request for the approval of the interview. In the request message to the interviewee, I informed her that its purpose was simply to get her recollection of significant past experiences in her life that can be considered as part of her personal development. I informed her that the interview would be specifically center on her infancy and adolescent life stages. I also requested for permission from her to record the interview, which she willingly approved.
During the interview, Melinda was asked a number of questions, basically general in nature, with a view of establishing the history of her personal development. Before listing the 34 relevant questions for the interview, the interviewee was asked to state her major happy and sad moments in life. The interview was concluded after Melinda had replied all the 34 questions.
It is also vital to note that the focus questions were formed based on the first five stages of personal development as stated by Erickson (1968). The results of systonic and dystonic resolution of conflicts for each of these stages as proposed by Newman & Newman (2014) also informed the design of the interview questions. The assumption made in this interview was that dystonic expressions in issues that related to each stage of personal development would lead to some level of identity confusion in the course of adolescence and during old age. Furthermore, it would offer significant guidelines for the assessment of the personal development history of the interviewee.
The five stages of focus in this assessment include:
Mistrust vs. trust
Autonomy vs. doubt and shame
Guild vs. initiative
Inferiority vs. industry
Identity confusion vs. identity
For the stage 1 questions to Melinda, the main model used was aimed at testing the level at which the interviewee is a trusting or mistrusting individual. The reason for choosing this approach is that the major personal development challenge in this stage is trust. The questions used at this stage included those aimed at establishing the interviewee’s trust for other people as well as herself. Furthermore, time confusion was also tested at this stage both directly by use of sleeplessness questions and through setting of goals.
Stage two interview questions sought assess the response of the interviewee to issues of independence and self-doubt. The questions here were designed to establish the level of stinginess and retentiveness on the part of the interviewee. Her willingness to cooperate with other people was also evaluated by stage 2 questions. Other issues tested in this stage included her confidence in work achievement and defiance to authority. Whether she was vulnerable to control over her life by other people is also an issue that questions here sought to establish.
Questions asked under stage 3 were very essential in determining the identity of the interviewee. Here, I intended to establish the interviewee’s successful development of purpose by way of curiosity and setting initiatives. In this stage, the questions asked were meant to find out the interviewee’s level of enthusiasm in terms of ambitions, curiosity and initiative.
The fourth stage simply involves the emotions of being successful and attaining accomplishments. It also entails approval and recognition when it comes to one’s tasks. Questions asked here focused on the general sense of competency and feelings of inferiority. The questions also concerned the issue of success in school during the personal development of an individual.
Finally, there were questions for stage five, which tested the interviewee’s experience of identity. The assessment here focused on establishing the strengths and weaknesses of the interviewee, Melinda. I sought to find out how Melinda has been involved actively, in laying down plans for her future life. Therefore, her answers to questions in this stage would give me insights to the manner in which she has undergone struggles during her fifth stage of personal development.
Overview of Melinda’s life events
Melinda is a 70 years old Caucasian woman. She did not want to be known hence I use the name Melinda to refer to her, which is not her real name. Her birth place is in Wilmington, Delaware. She hails from a family made up of four children, where she is the eldest of them all. She has two younger sisters and one brother. Melinda does not have any parent because both of them are died. She currently resides in Middletown, Delaware, which is about 30 miles south of Wilmington, Delaware. It is also vital to note the fact that Melinda is single after divorcing in 1979. She has never entered another marriage since then.
The earliest recollection that Melinda mentions about her personal development history is at the age of 3 years, in an event where she walked down the street in Wilmington, Delaware and boarded a bus at a distance of 30 meters into the down-town to search for candy. It is very unusual for such an event to happen in the modern world. Melinda does not remember any barrier during this adventure. A good Samaritan alerted the police, who looked for her parents and they came to collect her.
She also remembers an event that happened when she was at the age of 4 years old. Her family shifted to a small farmhouse away from the city. Here, they lived with her paternal grandmother. Her grandmother had a habit of drinking the cream, which always caused quarrels with her mother in the house. Melinda’s mother had been advised by doctors to drink cream because she lost a lot of weight after giving birth to her second daughter. However, she occasionally found Melinda’s grandmother drinking her cream.
This situation forced Melinda’s family to shift again to Chester, Pennsylvania, where they stayed for a long time as their house was being constructed. Melinda did not recall much about this period. However, she noted that it was a very unpleasant period in her life.
Melinda’s family then moved into a new home when she was at the age of 5 years old. This new home was in a new neighborhood and she recalls trying to make friends of her age group. There was one girl in the neighborhood was very rough, but Melinda’s mother made her to defend herself. Melinda did not fancy the experience of confronting the rough girl hence always avoided her.
Melinda started going to school at the age of 6 years. Her family was regarded an upper-middle class. Her performance in school was very good. During her school days, she recalls that there were occasional altercations between her mother and father in the house.
At this point, Melinda gives me her first major disappointment in life. She entered a contest against her sister in maintain a garden. She narrates that she spent a lot of time taking care of the garden whereas her sister never attended to hers. However, when the judges of the contest came, they awarded her sister. This greatly disappointed her.
She also recalls the experience of menstruation at the start of her adolescence when she was in the 8 th grade. She also notes the recognition that she received at school, when she was given the opportunity to serve as an assistant tutor in the lower grades when the teachers were absent. She describes this chance as a remarkable accomplishment in her life.
Later on in her school life, the fights between her parents intensified. The fights were based on financial expenditure in the house. When the arguments got worse, Melinda ran away from home for a period of three weeks. She had gone to her Uncle’s place in Chester, Pennsylvania. Melinda goes on to recollect her personal development in life and mentions the divorce with her husband in 1979 as her lowest moment in life.
Results of the interview
Stage 1: Trust versus Mistrust
Melinda replied that she trusted her mother because she always told her the truth about everything. However, she never relied on her mother to keep her word because she always broke her promises to her. Melinda started trusting her father during her adolescence. However, Melinda’s father lost her full trust when she realized he was a womanizer keeping mistresses later in her life. She had trust for her female friends. Moreover, Melinda also believed in her abilities. She described her identity as smart and accomplished. Melinda describes herself as a very generous person during her adolescence.
Stage 2: Autonomy v. Shame and Doubt
She notes that she always loved her father as a result of his gentle nature. Melinda confesses that she loved her friends too. On time, she indicated that she was always punctual. Melinda states that she never had goals in her life because school work was very easy to her hence did not require planning. Although she was able to manage her adolescence, she says that she always looked forward to weekend dances.
When it comes to money, she says that it has never controlled her because she saves it well. She always performed tasks alone and did not like group work. She also mentioned her area of cooperation with peers, which mostly involved sports. She teamed up with her peers and started a baseball club for girls in her high school. This team would later become an intramural one and she served as its writer as well director of plays. Melinda feels the respect she earned was as a result of her cooperation with others.
Stage 3: Initiative v. Guilt
Only two questions were asked in this stage. The enquiries were meant to test the attitude she had towards initiative, ambition and curiosity in the course of her adolescent life. Melinda answered that she greatly liked fresh initiatives and would even create them. Her high curiosity was in science and the hunger of knowing the way thing functioned. On her ambitions, Melinda explained that she only had an ambition of becoming a cheerleader.
Stage 4: Industry v. Inferiority
Melinda noted had always put her in charge of everything and this made her to always feel competent and accomplished. The opportunity of serving as an assistant tutor in lower grades at school had also given her confidence.
Stage 5: Identity v. Identity Confusion
Melinda was not clear on the enquiry about her strengths and weaknesses. She also said she did have any specific goal in her future life and wanted top just do everything.
Discussion and conclusion
The assessment of Melinda’s personal development history proves Erickson’s epigenetic principle of development. Erickson’s model stresses the “developmental interaction between maturational advances” (Newman & Newman, 2014). Erickson (1968) states that every stage in a person’s development is associated to the previous one. The result of the conflict in each stage of personal development is negative or positive. It is also more dominant in the ego that affects additional development in the following stages (Newman & Newman, 2014). From this assessment, it is evident that a subsequent stage of personal development is not automatically distorted by the dystonic result in the previous one. However, dystonic outcome in a given stage may show its impact as the other sections of the identity formation start developing a clear identity in the 5 th stage. For instance, a clear result of mistrust within stage 1, later comes out with its dystonic impact at stage 5 through creation of a distance in interpersonal interactions hence leading to confusion of identity.
The personal development of the interviewee currently fits stagnation within the 7 th stage of Erickson. The recommended intervention in this case is creating an effective interpersonal relationship, whose main purpose is reactivating identity exploration and development. This can help in creating a structure of trust that would end the original mistrust.
References
Erickson, Erik H., (1968). Identity Youth and Crisis . New York, New York: W.W. Norton & Company.
Newman, B., & Newman, P. (2014). Development through life: A psychosocial approach (12th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Appendix: Interview questions
1.1. When you were an adolescent, did you trust your mother?
1.2. When you were an adolescent, did you trust your father?
1.3. When you were an adolescent, did you trust your female friends?
1.4. When you were an adolescent, did you trust your male friends?
1.5. Did you trust your own abilities?
1.6. How do you describe what your identity was as an adolescent?
1.7. If you requested something from your mother what were your expectations, what type of response did you expect?
1.8. Can you remember during adolescence any examples of “giving” in the altruistic sense, to someone else?
1.9. How do you describe your relationship with peers during adolescence? Did you trust them? Was there mutual recognition (v. isolation)?
1.10. As an adolescent, did you have trouble going to sleep at night?
2.1 As an adolescent, describe how you felt about affection? Time? Money?
2.2 Did you tend to hoard things or discard them? Did you throw stuff out of car windows?
2.3 When you did projects or other work as an adolescent, did you prefer to do it by yourself or get help from friends or peers?
2.4 Did you get the most respect through cooperation or insistence?
2.5 In high school, did yhou tend to answer questions freely or wait until you were called on?
2.6 Were you proud of your accomplishments?
2.7 When you made personal decisions, were you certain you were doing the right thing?
2.8 Where there times when you were ashamed as an adolencent?
2.9 Were you ever afraid of being in an exposed or vulnerable situation?
2.10 Did you ever try to get away with things if you couldn’t get caught?
2.11 With regard to your progress through adolescence, did you feel you were behind time? Needed more time?
3.1 Did you enjoy and look forward to new initiatives?
3.2 As an adolescent were you curious? Were you ambitious?
4.1 As an adolescent did you seek and get recognition of work well done?
4.2 Did you have feelings of inadequacy or inferiority?
5.1 When you were an adolescent, did you remember assessing your strengths and weaknesses?
5.2 What did you want to be when you grew up?
5.3 Did you have a lot of peer group involvement?
5.4 In adolescence, what were your goals as an adult?
5.5 Did you have a love relationship as a teenager?
5.6 What is so important in your life when you were an adolescent that you are willing to commit to it?
5.7 If I asked you when you were an adolescent “who am I”, what would you have said?
5.8 If I asked you when you were an adolescent “Where am I going”? What would you have said?
5.9 As an adolescent, were you pre-occupied with the opinion of others?
