Solve the

Identity Crisis

INSTRUCTIONS

• Read each case study• Determine which psychological crisis is happening

in each case study• Click to the next slide to see the answer• Go to the next slide to read the first case study

CASE 1 • Raelynn is four years old and loves to be active, creative, and social. She likes

ballet class because she gets to be expressive, mobile, and most importantly, she gets to play with her friends. At class she runs around the studio with her friends, wanting to be free and explore her environment, they leap all around, jump on the bars, play hide and seek, even pretend they’re fairy princesses at a ball – but their teacher doesn’t approve. She wants them to be disciplined and dance when she tells them to, she doesn’t think they need to be explorative on their own, especially not pretend about some silly royal ball that doesn’t exist. Raelynn wants to jump and play, throw her shoes in the air or slide across the slick dance floor, she also wants to pretend – but she knows her teacher won’t like it and she might get punished. She wants to discover the world for herself, explore her actual physical environment, dapple in her imagination, and expand and strengthen her social skills. However, her fear of doing something wrong holds her back. She is torn between purposefully getting to know herself and doing what has always been comfortable because she is afraid of what might happen.

• What controversy is Raelynn grappling with?

Answer: Initiative vs. Guilt

CASE 2 • Alan and Judie have been married 50 years and have 6 kids, living

their whole lives in the moment. Alan is feeling like he hasn’t lived up to his potential, and feels he could have done more to make his life fulfilling. He’s feeling very down at the thought that death could be just a few years away from him. He wishes he could have another chance to make all the years count. Judie on the other hand feels that she did everything up to her possible standards. She’s done everything she can for her kids and was a teacher for 40 years. Despite a few regrets, she is comfortable in the fact that death may be a few years away for her and feels she left a good impression on the world. But, she has been noticing a change in Alan and doesn’t know why.

• Judie is unaware the Alan has not come to terms with which psychological crisis?

Answer: Integrity vs.

Despair

CASE 3• Eric is a healthy, active seventeen year old high school senior. He is an honors student

that has participated in the band, foreign language honor society and other clubs since his freshman year. He has also been an active member of the physical education department, including team and club sports. Eric has all the potential to be the well rounded college student that a university would be glad to enroll. However, half way into his senior year, Eric’s parents began to notice some drastic changes in their respectable and dearly beloved child. The changes began slowly but quickly began to escalate. Eric began to hang out with his friends on a more daily basis than in the past, often missing family events that were once important to him. His mom noticed that he cared more about his appearance than usual, and started running late in the morning for school. This particular change was very obvious because Eric had always been punctual with time. Furthermore, his grades began to drop considerably. He stopped attending club meetings and even dropped playing his saxophone in band. Finally, his parents had enough and questioned his drastic change in behavior. In response, Eric was verbally abusive and claimed his social life was none of their business. His mother addressed her concern of college for the upcoming year and Eric claimed he wasn’t interested in attending any college. He claimed school was unimportant and the only thing that mattered was spending time socializing with his peers. His parents felt helpless and lost. Their beloved son was heading in the wrong direction at such a crucial time in his life.

(Click to continue case study…)

CASE 3 (continued…)

• A couple of months later, Eric began to notice his friends talking about college plans for the following year. He realized that while he was hanging out with friends, some peers were applying and taking the necessary steps to plan for their future. That evening at dinner, Eric brought his realization up to his parents. He discussed his fear of not having anywhere to attend school in the fall because of his previous lack of interest. His mother reassured him that there was still time to pursue a college of his choice even though his priorities had gotten confused over the past couple of months. After dinner, Eric applied to six different colleges because he did in fact want to go to school. That night his parents went to bed proud of their son, and Eric went to bed proud of himself.

• What psychological stage is taking place during this case study?

Answer: Identity vs. Role-confusion

CASE 4 • A middle-class family living in York, Pennsylvania has decided to

open their home to foster children. The first child, Michael, who comes to live with the family, is a seven year old boy from Philadelphia. He is the son of a single mother, who has been arrested for drug dealing and abuse. This is the child’s second foster home, because his first placement ended after a year due to the foster parents’ divorce. Although the new foster family provides for all of Michael’s needs and expresses feelings of love towards him, he remains distant and withdrawn from the family.

• This could be caused by a failure to resolve which psychosocial crisis?

Answer: Trust vs. Mistrust

CASE • Anna was a bright and educated woman who earned her doctorate at an

early age. She was a dermatologist who would spend countless hours indulged in her work. Even though family was important to her, the demand of working in the medical field always came first. Eventually, Anna noticed that her lack of attendance at family events resulted in minimal if any invitations. Annoyed, Anna questioned her sister about this concern. Her older sister was a teacher, happily married with four young children. She explained to Anna that the family missed having her at family functions, but were equally frustrated that she would respond that she would attend and consistently not show up. Furthermore, she explained that her lack of presence was always disappointing and she was tired of explaining to her children why their beloved aunt was never around. Anna was hurt and insulted. She loved her family, especially her nieces, more than anything the world. She didn’t realize that her work schedule was influencing her ability to have a relationship with her family. (Click to continue case study…)

CASE 5 (continued…)

• The next day Anna requested a weekend off from work and began to catch up with family and friends who she hadn’t seen in a long time. The revival of old friendships was refreshing and made her feel good. She decided to call an old guy friend and they set up to meet the following night for dinner. During their date, Anna realized how her job had affected her ability to pursue a relationship not only with her family, but with a significant other. Following a lovely evening, Anna realized how much time she had spent alone at the expense of her career. From that point on, Anna strived to balance her career with her social life. She used her days off to spend time with family rather than work overtime. She even used her vacation and sick days to pursue a relationship with her guy friend from dinner. A short year after her conversation with her sister, Anna was walking down the aisle. She was thrilled to start a new chapter of her life with the love of a supportive family and with the man she loved.

• What psychological crisis was resolved in this case study?

Answer: Intimacy vs.

Isolation

CASE 6 • Sue and Dan have been married for 25 years and have 3 kids.

Sue has been feeling a little stagnant, as if she has nothing to live for and nowhere to go for the rest of her life. Her kids have moved out and she has been wallowing in self pity. Although, lately she has been shopping and treating herself to all sorts of indulgences. Dan, on the other hand, has been feeling fulfilled with his life. He’s been a Social Worker for 20 years and has loved every minute of it. He feels he’s done all he can for his kids and is feeling that Sue is a little unhappy?

• What stage maybe causing Sue’s unhappiness and indulgences?

Answer: Generativity vs. Self-absorption

CASE 7• It is Jane’s day off. That doesn’t seem to bother her team at

work. They feel the most recent directive from the corporate office is urgent news. By lunch, she had been summoned to the office by three different co-workers. She was needed for a 3:00 p.m. conference call with the New York office. Jane wouldn’t usually mind but she could not exactly leave David at home alone. She definitely couldn’t take him to the office with her. Her husband, Joshua was away on a business trip. Neither set of grandparents is proximal. Joshua and Jane had moved across the country three years ago because of Jane’s demanding job as a retail buyer. Joshua worked in Procurement for an electronics manufacturer and frequently traveled. It was occurrences such as the current predicament that made Jane wish she was still living on the East Coast.

(Click to continue case study…)

CASE 7 (continued…)

• She quickly called a friend, Sarah, who lived down the street. She hoped Sarah was home. Sarah agreed to watch David for the afternoon. When Jane dropped David off at Sarah’s house, she hoped to quickly depart for the office. She passed David to Sarah, who sat him down on the floor with some toys. David began to play with a truck, crashing it into a table. As Jane turned the corner out of the room, David began to sob, then cry, then scream. Jane rushed back into the room to see him standing, perfectly fine, and suddenly quiet. She returned his attention to the truck he had been playing with and turned towards the door once more. The response from David was the same. It took Jane another ten minutes to assure David of his environment before she was able to exit the house.

• What psychological crisis maybe causing David’s behavior?

Answer: Autonomy vs.

Doubt

CASE 8 • Avery and Mackenzie are both about to enter fifth grade. They’re vivacious girls who are

passionate about everything they do and are just brimming with excitement and life. They’re twins and have been best friends since they were babies – they used to play make believe all the time, they also played kitchen and house with their baby dolls and just loved being spontaneous. As they’ve gotten older they’ve been dealing with changes in their play patterns – their games now have strict rules that they need to learn. Avery plays softball and Mackenzie does cheerleading – they need to listen to instructions and play by the rules rather than just fluid make believe like before. Avery has friends from her team and Mackenzie has friends from her squad, they’re learning to balance new social circles while maintaining old ones. They also love school, but Avery gets straight A’s and Mackenzie struggles. Avery constantly gets praised for her work; teachers seem to simply love her, while Mackenzie fears she may not be smart enough. They each seek the support and praise of adults, but Avery seems more confident, self assured and consequently motivated to succeed. Mackenzie is hesitant to try because she is afraid it won’t work out, and her self esteem seems to suffer because of it. She is afraid she won’t measure up to her sister and her fear of inadequacy seems to turn her off from future learning. While these twins seem like they are on different ends of the spectrum.

• Which crisis stage are Ava and Mackenzie experiencing?

Answer: Industry vs.

Inferiority

References:All information relating to Erikson’s steps of social development come from:

Slavin, Robert E. (2009). Educational psychology. New Jersey: Pearson.

Photograph on title slide was retried from:

http://jennarocca.blogspot.com/2009/03/sherlock-holmes-teaser-wow.html