Identify the psychosocial crisis most likely to be unresolved in each of the following examples. Explain the person’s feelings and behaviour in terms of Erikson’s theory.
(a) A new employee is reluctant to do a task on their own for fear of making a mistake.
(b) A 38-year-old has had three broken engagements in the past 10 years.
(c) A solicitor decides to take up politics and runs for a state government seat in parliament because she is passionate about ‘making a difference’ to the environment.
(d) An adolescent boy is reluctant to develop friendships with females after his girlfriend was unfaithful.
(e) An adult wishes they could relive their working life so they could do it better.
(f) A 10-year-old continually misbehaves in class to avoid doing schoolwork.
(g) An adolescent always waits to be asked to join in social activities. (h) An adolescent goes through a ‘stage’ of wearing black clothes.
