This week on The Psych Files we take a stroll through the various phases of life: from childhood, to adolescence, into mid-life and then we listen to two interesting voices of men nearing the end of their lives and they do so with very different perspectives John Wayne and Roy.

 

 Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Life [50:12m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 How to Memorize Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Memorize Erikson’s Eight Stages

Do you have to memorize Erikson 's Eight Stages of psychosocial development? Having trouble remembering which one comes after Trust vs. Mistrust? Well, here 's how I learned to remember the stages using the pegword technique.

Click on the play button above to listen to me talk about my mnemonic devices for Erikson’s stages, or download it to your ipod, Zune or other mp3 device.

Remember: pegwords are effective when they are:

• Bizarre
• Colorful
• Contain action
• Most important - when they evoke images that are familiar to you.

Here is the list of my keywords:

1. Bun - (Trust vs. Mistrust) a rusty red (rust-colored) bun

2. Shoe (Autonomy vs. Shame): a huge automobile (maybe a humvee?) stuffed into your shoe: license plate says shame

3. Tree (Initiative vs. Guilt) a tree with lots of quilts (guilt) (initiative)

4. Door (Industry vs. Inferiority): industry: you open a door and you see a factory (industry) with smoke coming out the top. It’s a very tiny (inferiority) factory

5. Hive (Identity vs. Identity Diffusion) picture a dented (identity) beehive that has one of those radioactive signs on it to remind you of fusion (diffusion)

6. Sticks (Intimacy vs. Isolation): picture two sticks in love (intimacy) they have their little twigs around each other and they kissing. I will also picture a stick all by itself (isolation).

7. Heaven (Generativity vs. Stagnation). picture a generator (generativity) up in heaven connected to the pearly gates and a stag (stagnation) is pulling the rope to try start up the generator. Or picture all your previous generations (grandparents, etc.) are in heaven. Granda riding a stag. OR: general: you could picture a general in heaven who just shot a stag

8. Plate (Integrity vs. Despair): picture a plate of grits (integrity) with a pear (despair) next to it on the plate.

Click to view or download an image of the above information that will help you to memorize Erikson's Eight Stages of Psychosocial Development

Click to hear brief audio snippets from the people in the podcast who are each at a different stage of Erikson’s stages of development

Resources for This Podcast

Shakespeare describes the stages of life in his “All the World’s A Stage” speech from “As You Like It.” It was read by Reed Martin of the Reduced Shakespeare Company. Click here to go to their site.

All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players,
They have their exits and entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then, the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths, and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden, and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice
In fair round belly, with good capon lin’d,
With eyes severe, and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws, and modern instances,
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper’d pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose, and pouch on side,
His youthful hose well sav’d, a world too wide,
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again towards childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

• Here’s a great webpage which describes all of Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development.

• I mentioned a website which discussed each of Erikson’s stages. Click here to go to Support for Change site where I found this interesting note about how adolescents “subsitute philosophy for experience”: “A significant task for us is to establish a philosophy of life and in this process we tend to think in terms of ideals, which are conflict free, rather than reality, which is not. The problem is that we don’t have much experience and find it easy to substitute ideals for experience. However, we can also develop strong devotion to friends and causes.”
• Click here to go to StoryCorps where you’ll find lots of interesting interviews with regular folks of all ages.
• Click here to go to the page on Archive.org where you can hear the original recording of John Wayne.