Case study: Psychosocial Theory

Psychosocial development theory was developed by Erikson and it is the best theory in
psychology. He believed that personality progresses are a continuous series of stages. Daily
experiences and information in life cause major changes. Researchers have accepted his theory
and it has been globally applied both by scholars and researchers. Psychosocial development
holds that the different conflicts people meet in life serve as major turning points. During these
conflicts, there can be success or failure in the human life. The main component of Psychosocial
development theory is the identity which is a self-conscious that we had gained through our daily
social interactions. Erikson identifies the ages of 6-12 years old as the “School Age”. Which
shows the comparison of the stages, Industry and Inferiority. The objective of this stage is to set
and attain a personal goal, in order to do that, a child must need to expand his/her understanding
to the world, adoption of basic skills that is required for school success, and lastly, the child must
develop an “appropriate” role identity. And if the child failed to fulfill the said objective, the
child may feel the inadequacy of the feeling of not being good enough.
 Applying the psychosocial development theory to the case of Matthew. Psychosocial
Theory focuses on explaining self-understanding and social relationships development and in
changes in a person's relationship to society as a product of interaction among biological,
psychological, and social processes. In the case of Matthew, it is depicts the changes or breaking
the societal norms, to be specific, it is all about the gender. Most of the teenagers nowadays are
having difficulties on their gender identity. And there’s Matthew, a creative boy who recently
developed passion for fashion and quit playing football because he’s having a conflict on his
gender identity. Gender identity affect indexes of adjustment relative to self-appraisal (internal)
vs. externalizing behavior. Matthew’s behavior is indicative of internalizing problems. Matthew
appears to be fully happy with engaging in creative activities but his life with sports appears to
be ingrained, to suffer from role confusion between his true passion and an activity that he does
not like as much but is exceptional, possible questioning of why his interests lie in creative
activities and not in something more socially acceptable like football. When the child takes on
characteristics and admired features of parents or significant others. And based on Erikson’s
Psychosocial theory, it is the process called identification.

Identification allows the child to build a set of expectations about what he or she wishes
to be and do. When he told them he was quitting football to take ballet, his former teammates
began bullying him relentlessly. And some of his friends from the football team who also bullied
him convinced him to come back to the team. The persuasion technique used by his friends could
be interpreted as a form of bullying. Then all of a sudden, Matthew is forced back to play
football due to his friends’ persistence, and it may seem that he may give up ballet which is his
real desire. His friends play a pivotal role because of a sudden changes from his main interest
back to his initial activity which is the football. Matthew is struggling to reconcile incongruence
of self-identity (passion for fashion, ballet) and perception of his identity by peers. Causing him
an distress and signs of depression. According to Birhamer et al (2004), Relationship between
self-appraisal, interpersonal relationship with peers and resulting psychosis and behaviors can be
cyclical (identity synthesis problems →interpersonal problems→ depression →identity synthesis
problems, etc. Psychosocial theory explains One’s relationship to society as a product of
interactions of 3 systems:
o Biological
• Matthews physiological interest in girls (crush) = dictating behavior.
o Psychological
• Matthew is attempting to reconcile his personal interests with gender identity roles.
o Societal
• Matthew is realizing that how he self identifies is incongruent with gender identity norms.

In this society, creative activities such as dance and fashion are not considered typical
male activities. Football is a more socially acceptable activity for boys to engage in. The
problems that are being encountered are grief, interpersonal role disputes, role transitions, and
interpersonal deficits. There are ways to prevent of having problems or difficulties which are;
identifying a specific problem area; identifying effective communication and problem-solving
techniques for that problem area; and practicing these skills in session prior to utilizing them in
significant relationships.

For Matthew
Psychosocial Theory seeks to explain:
• Strive to reduce tension by using a variety of familiar and new coping strategies.
o Familiar: Matthew succumbs to peer pressure and returned to football team; continues to
sketch but sketches are football related.
o New: Matthew subdues his “passions"; withdraws; reads novels instead of fashion magazines.
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