Social development concepts and applications

¶ … Social development

Barack Obama: Erikson's Model of Development

According to Erik Erikson's theory of developmental stages, every human being goes through a series of conflicted stages which must be resolved before he or she can successfully progress to the next stage. Barack Obama's movement through Erickson's life stages can be seen most acutely in his adolescence and young adulthood, based upon what he has revealed about his development in his autobiography Dreams From My Father. However, it may also be presumed that during the infancy stage he went through the familiar crisis of 'trust vs. mistrust.' During this phase, Obama's father left his mother and young son, which could have created a sense of insecurity, despite his mother's evident love for her child. However, Obama's mother remarried an Indonesian man, who was by all accounts a loving stepfather (Barak Obama, 2012, Biography).

From ages 2-4, Erikson says the central crisis of the toddler is one of 'learning autonomy vs. shame' in which the child learns to cooperate with others. Obama would have had to have learned quickly how to cooperate to adjust to his newly 'blended' family. Obama's challenges did not end with this second stage. Obama's mother moved with his stepfather to Indonesia, where Obama attended school from ages 6 to 10 (Barak Obama, 2012, Biography). This stage of 'industry vs. inferiority' is said to teach the child how to master the 'rules' of social interacting -- which for the young Obama, were likely always shifting and changing, given the different cultures he was exposed to at home by his mother and in a native Indonesian school. Obama's mother instilled in him tremendous self-discipline at this time, drilling him to ensure he learned his homework, and Obama also had the challenges of the bilingualism demanded of his environment.

"During the fifth psychosocial crisis [of identity vs. identity diffusion] (adolescence, from about 13 or 14 to about 20) the child, now an adolescent, learns how to answer satisfactorily and happily the question of 'Who am I?'" (Stages of social-emotional development, 2012, Child Development Info). It was during this period of time, when Obama had moved back to the United States while his mother was completing her graduate research abroad, that he began to struggle with his biracial identity. He appeared to be African-American, yet was chastised as not being 'black enough' by his friends. Obama also experimented with alcohol and drug use, as a way of finding himself. "I was living out a caricature of black male adolescence...at least on the basketball courts I could find a community of sorts" (Obama 118-119).

However, Obama appeared to successfully resolve the questions of 'who he was' enough to transition to the 'intimacy vs. isolation' stage of young adulthood. He moved onto college, transferred from Occidental College to Columbia University, and became the editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review while a student at the institution. He also met his wife Michelle, who was to provide a formidable grounding influence upon him. Caring about others and acting as a community organizer in an underprivileged area in Chicago (passing up lucrative, high-paying corporate law jobs after his Harvard graduation) also provided him with a sense of fulfillment and helped answer the question 'who am I?'