Psychology and Spirituality
Pastoral Ministries Program, Santa Clara University
(last taught Winter 2002)

Lecture 3: Psychological Development II: Adolescence to Old Age

  1. (Matthew 22:36-40) "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
  2. Questions from last time?
  3. The Chambered Nautilus by Oliver Wendell Holmes
  1. Sylvia Cartoon
    1. so far the stages we covered have been distant past for us; we're coming to the stages that we currently experience (or soon will)
    2. "Crisis" in adult life: (Whitehead & Whitehead, 1999: 48)
      1. Consider a critical time in your life: transition, decisive event, turning point
        1. how long were you in "crisis"? engaged in the experience and the crucial issues
        2. what did you "lose" in the experience? what did you have to give up?
        3. what did you gain? how were you enriched by the transition?
  2. Recap of Erikson: [Erikson Chart]
    1. Epigenetic stages; physical/ psychological/ social
    2. Each stage with a crisis and a virtue; each sustained by social and cultural institutions
    3. Development through school age:
      1. Infancy- Trust vs. Mistrust; Hope or Withdrawal
      2. Early Childhood-- Autonomy vs. Shame; Will or Compulsion/Obsession
      3. Play Age-- Initiative vs. Guilt; Purpose or Inhibition
      4. School Age-- Industry vs. Inferiority; Competence or Intertia
  3. Stage V: Adolescence
    1. Puberty
    2. Formation of identity vs. Identity confusion
    3. Identity is:
      1. A conscious sense of being a separate and unique individual
      2. A feeling of "inner sameness and continuity" over time, the relative attainment of unconscious striving;
      3. The wholeness achieved through the silent, synthesizing functions of the ego; and
      4. A sense of deep accord ("inner solidarity") with the self-definition and ideals of some group that affirms in turn a person's own identity. (Erikson, 1959)
    4. Time of identity crisis-- needing to connect the child to the emerging adult; trying on roles, experimentation. "Hero worship," "In-crowds"-- over identifying with popular figures or with a group of peers
    5. Virtue of fidelity-- ability to commit to others
    6. Sustained by ideology or world-view; in devotion to some creed or doctrine, teen finds coherence (and definition of evil); entry into a larger family, albeit one which often fosters hostility toward others
    7. Negative: role repudiation: distrust of all roles; failure to make commitments
    8. Further issues:
      1. crisis of faith-- leaving parents' image of God and finding one's own
      2. Sacramental Life:
        1. baptism: childlike trust; envelopment in caring
        2. confirmation: identity formation/loyalty; when does confirmation take place? Is this an appropriate time psychologically?
      3. Male and female development: Carol Gilligan (Gilligan, 1982)
        1. men- moral judgement based on individual rights; women on maintaining networks of relationships
        2. does identity precede intimacy (as Erikson's theory)? Only for men?
        3. Erikson's emphasis on autonomy and independence; not only masculine orientation but Western European culture
  4. Stage 6: Young Adulthood
    1. Physical maturity now complete; this and later stages less dependent on physical factors
    2. With development of identity comes a desire to share that identity with another; the challenge is to develop intimacy or fall into isolation/ stereotyped formality/ promiscuity
      1. Erikson focused primarily on heterosexual relationships, but intimacy is not limited to these; includes friendships, team cooperation and competition
      2. What are the qualities of intimacy? What is required to develop intimacy?
        1. Skills: self-disclosure; listening; assertiveness
    3. Developing virtue is love-- selfless care given to others by choice
      1. Gender differences: as noted by Gilligan
    4. Social structures are the patterns of relationship defined and supported by the society-- marriage, friendship, kinship, etc.
    5. Relationships require a certain measure of exclusivity, but when not properly developed, becomes destructive.
    6. (Whitehead & Whitehead, 1999) Marriage as religious passage of intimacy (also sacramentally at this stage: Holy Orders, another kind of intimacy)
      1. Grows in stages, not a sudden, one-time creation with the sacrament
      2. Develops gradually
      3. Involves skill building– self disclosure, listening, assertion (balance of identity and intimacy)
    7. Also- intimacy with own self: recovery of undervalued elements (shadow); the importance of memory and reintegration
  5. Stage VII: Adulthood
    1. Challenge is to move beyond the particular, immediate relationship into a concern for the wider society; it is the stage in which our social development comes to its fullest; the task here is not only to develop personally, but to join together with others in "establishing and guiding the next generation" directly, by raising one's own children, or indirectly through productivity and creativity (Erikson, 1982: 267).
    2. Virtue: care-- "the widening concern for what has been generated by love, necessity or accident; it overcomes the ambivalence adhering to irreversible obligation" (Erikson, 1964: 131)
    3. No one institution centers on generativity; all of society is devoted to this task
    4. Care requires rejectivity, one selects some things as helpful; and rejects others as dangerous or destructive; but if over-emphasized, rejectivity limits our ability to care and include
    5. Stage of care not only for others, but for one's self-- "middle age" as the time for inner growth; Jung noted that this age of roughly 35-40 marks a significant shift in the concerns and development of the psyche. (Jung, 1969b: ¶749-95).
      1. "Mid-life crisis"-- transitions and reformations Levinson's "Age 40 crisis"
      2. Balance point-- care for self; care for others "Love your neighbor as yourself."
      3. Communities also need balance; think about your parish/ community/ organizations-- is there a balance between care for members and for the world?
    6. (Whitehead):
      1. Recognition of one's own personal power– "there's nobody here but us"
      2. Taking on the role of mentor for next generation
      3. Coming to grips with "the dream"– the vision of youth that is now different:
        1. reckoning with the disjunctions between the dream and reality
        2. overcoming the tyrrany of the youthful dream
        3. recovering the lost dream
      4. sacrament— Rite(s) of Reconciliation; need to ask (and receive) forgiveness for the undone, the poorly done: both the "baggage" and the "wreckage"
        1. recognition/honesty; exploration/confrontation; celebration
        2. hindrances: fear and/or the inability to give up or share control
  1. Stage VIII: Old Age
    1. Crisis: integrity vs. Despair; ego integrity as oneness/ wholeness
    2. Adult development in widening circles-- intimacy with one other; care and generativity with one's own family and the wider world; now valuing connections across time and space
    3. "...the acceptance of one's one and only life cycle as something that had to be and that, by necessity, permitted of no substitutions" (Erikson, 1950, p. 268). (In theological terms-- accepting life as it has been given by God)
    4. Coming to terms with parents;
    5. Danger is despair- inability to accept the end of the life cycle
    6. Wisdom is sustained by philosophical or religious traditions
    7. Antipathy is disdain
    8. Erikson, in old age, suggested the system might need to be reworked; we have gone from honored elders to increasingly numerous "elderlies" who have little more than their age
    9. Important contributions of elders: memory/ anamnesis; need to honor and give a place for seniors
    10. Diminishment
    11. (Whitehead)
      1. Need for inclusion of the elder– younger need to come to terms with own aging
      2. Recognize not just the need but the strength of the elders
      3. Acceptance of the past/ sacred remembering (listen to the stories)
      4. The "sacrament of uselessness"– honoring seniors for their being, not for what they can do or what they have.
        1. example of Torah scrolls; even when they no longer speak the word of God clearly they are honored for what they were
  2. Stages of Life and Ritualization
    1. First and last stages of life are supported primarily by religious tradition-- hope from the first stage and wisdom from the last. The other stages, too, have religious implications, or at least are played out in religious tradition. Erikson looked also at ritualization, "an agreed-upon interplay between at least two persons who repeat it at meaningful intervals and in recurring contexts." (Erikson,1966,:p. 337.)
      1. Ritualization both supports the transmission of culture and support for the stages of growth, but also promotes pseudospeciation-- the idea that one's in group defines what is essentially human and that others, lacking similar divine election, are threats to identity
      2. Chart of Ritualization:
        1. Numinous- the "sense of the holy presence" reflective of the relationship of mother and child; an assurance of union with the loving presence
          1. religious images of Madonna and child; images and gestures of childlike dependency
          2. not "merely" originating in childhood; "veneration or adoration" is an integrative act
          3. if not integrated, merely adulation-- it becomes idolism, implying an illusory and narcissistic image of perfection
        2. Judicious: discrimination of right and wrong (Autonomy and will)
          1. If learned only in form and not in spirit, it manifests as legalism
        3. Dramatic: as on stage; meaningful representations of human experience offering catharsis
          1. if only "playacting", then impersonation
        4. Formal: concern for perfection, proper form, order
          1. if form becomes an end in itself-- formalism
        5. Ideological: coherence, binding together the earlier factors
          1. appears in adolescence with rituals of induction, confirmation, graduation
          2. can become totalism: "a fanatic and exclusive preoccupation with what seems unquestionably ideal within a tight system of ideas." (Erikson, 1977, p. 110).
        6. Affiliative: (originally only six elements-- the first five and Generational; later added two more to coordinate with his developmental charts) affiliation corresponds to intimacy
          1. if only shared narcissism, Elitism of exclusive association
        7. Generational: taking authority as teacher, parent, healer; participating in the numinous and generative transmission of values
          1. usurpation of authority is authoritism; Erikson suggests this is the essence of male dominance
        8. Integral: personifying ritual wisdom; Erikson also called this the "philosophical"
          1. pretence of having attained wisdom is dogmatism, which, when joined with power, becomes coercive orthodoxy
  3. Stages of Life and the Seven Deadly Sins
    1. Donald Capps suggests a correlation between the stages and the classic seven deadly sins. (Capps, 1983) When he suggested this to Erikson, Erikson thought that maybe there was no key sin for the first stage. Capps subsequently learned that originally there had been eight sins-- the sin of sloth had once been two: indifference (acedia) and melancholy (tristitia).
      1. Infancy-- Trust-- Gluttony
      2. Early Childhood-- Will-- Anger
      3. Play Age-- Purpose-- Greed
      4. School Age-- Competence-- Envy
      5. Adolescence-- Identity-- Pride
      6. Young Adulthood-- Intimacy-- Lust
      7. Adulthood-- Care-- Indifference
      8. Old Age-- Integrity-- Melancholy
  4. Criticism of Erikson:
    1. Are the stages really epigenetic? Or are they cultural?
      1. Leaves out non-western factors: child-rearing very different in India and Japan-- issues of autonomy, initiative and identity not central in those cultures
      2. Omits factors of early encouragement of dependency and later imposition of hierarchical relationships in the family
    2. Even today in western culture-- people living longer and having fewer children; cycles far more flexible than Erikson allows
    3. Generativity does not seem to be a stage as much as a moment-- we act in spurts; generativity can also be destructive
  5. Implications/ issues-- So what?
    1. What difference does it make for us to recognize that people develop psychologically?
    2. What are the implications, if any, of a theory of stages of development for sacramental life? For catechesis?
  6. Assignment:
    1. Faith Development: Fowler-- "Faith Development Theory and the Human Vocation" (reading to be handed out Jan. 31; see online resources)
    2. First reflection paper: 2-3 pages on reading, class discussion and your personal responses

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