Societal Factors

Societal Factors

  • Submitted By: falaq
  • Date Submitted: 02/08/2010 7:28 PM
  • Category: Psychology
  • Words: 961
  • Page: 4
  • Views: 1156

Societal Factors
Given Erickson’s eight psychological stages of development, one has to take into account that an individual’s personality is not simply formed based on these stages but a personality is also affected by the society in which an individual lives. While it would seem that an individual may potentially skip a particular stage due to culture or mental health, Erickson became aware of the massive influence of culture on behavior and placed more emphasis on the external world, such as depression and wars. Therefore the factors surrounding an individual’s society may greatly influence his personality.
There are several societal factors that may affect personality development such as the internet or technology, media, television and video games, war, crime, and homosexuality to name a very few. While these factors may not seem to be as important in the earlier stages of development, by stage four or school age, these factors become very important and realistic. It is quite easy to understand how an individual, who watches too much television as a child, may not be able to easily navigate through later stages of development similar to someone who was not as influenced by television. Children who are left to watch hours of uncensored television may grow to take on the personalities that they view or may begin to imitate what they see as though it were reality. These actions can be depicted in how they choose to deal with the outside world regarding how they choose their friends or simply with whom they may choose to associate. Adolescent children who are attempting to find their own identity may associate or begin to identify with a television character as he attempts to learn how to socialize and deal with moral issues. While Michael Jackson was a real individual who millions have honored by mimicking him, “The Fonz” on the comedy series Happy Days was not and he had millions of impersonators all the same. Attempting to identify...

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