Answer To: Probable life stages: XXXXXXXXXXErikson’s (personality) - Marcia’s (personal identity) · Levinson’s...
David answered on Dec 21 2021
Case Study Analysis
Running Head: CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
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CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Case Study Analysis
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Institution
Case Study One
Introduction
Understanding the life stage issues that individuals face in life is crucial in determining what counselling approach to take in order to help them deal with such issues. This paper analyses a given case study where Nathaniel, a priest, faces a crisis with regard to his religious beliefs and his internal fear of the challenges he may encounter if he chose to leave the priesthood. Based on the problem definition, Nathaniel’s probable life stage is analysed, the challenges he faces described and a counselling approach to help deal with the issue outlined.
Probable Life Stage
In this case, scenario, Nathaniel who is 32 years of age seems to have a conflict in understanding what he beliefs. Being 32 years of age, he should be in the sixth stage of Erickson’s psychosocial developmental theory (Fleming, 2004, p. 13), where he need to be concerned about developing intimate relationships and closeness with a significant person in his life. However, this does not seem to be so. Erikson in his theory postulates that if an individual has an unsatisfactory experience with one of the stages of psychosocial development in their lives, then they would tend to continue dealing with such development issue, until they resolve and gain some insight into it and then move to the next stage (p. 3).
Nathaniel feels like he is living a lie and questions the ideology of the faith he practices. He no longer believes in God, and feels he still has many unanswered questions concerning the philosophy and ideology of Christianity. Such issues, which Nathaniel is faced with, tend to align well with role confusion in Erikson’s fifth stage. Erikson’s reasoning states that at each stage individuals face crises, which present challenges to their identity development and that a person can only truly move to the next stage once they gain insight into such crises. Therefore, it would imply that Nathaniel’s probable life stage is still in Erickson’s fifth stage of Identity vs. role confusion (Fleming, 2004, p. 3). Erikson notes that it is in this stage that an individual develops a sense of wholeness, conceives ideal societies, religions or families, and develops a sense identity through interactions with other peers (Kroger, 2007).
Erickson (cited in Sneed, Schwartz & Cross, 2006, p. 62) argues that identity and self-perception is developed through social exchanges in such a manner that aspects of the social world are sieved and integrated within an individual’s sense of self. Nathaniel’s went from school to train as a priest directly, after, which he has only worked in churches. This implies that he has not had many exchanges with the social world to understand, select and integrate various aspects of concepts and ideologies that would be strongly ingrained in his sense of self, self-constructs and life philosophy. Therefore, he did not get to change his worldview or develop a strong identity projection of what he wanted to pursue in the future. Erikson notes that identifying and choosing which occupation to pursue, what ideologies to believe in, or what life path to take, strongly conforms with self reconstruction as well as an integration of consistent role, successful sublimations and identities developed (Kroger & Marcia, 2011, p. 33). Nathaniel can only establish real intimacy with those who matter most to him at his age once he has developed a stable sense of self and identity.
This view aligns well with Marcia’s foreclosure identity status. In this, Nathaniel selected career goals and beliefs without much consideration about other alternatives (Ickes, Park& Johnson, 2012). Nathaniel committed to an occupation and an ideological position yet shows little evidence of having followed a self-construction process that would give him meaning to his commitment. He rather took up the occupation without serious questioning and searching to understand himself and develop his own unique identity that identifies with the occupation, he wanted (Buckingham, 2008, p. 3). Hence, he prematurely took an identity of convenience, possibly based on his parent’s values or other’s value system. Nathaniel in making such choices in his adolescent avoided the period of identity crisis and rather followed other’s expectations (Fleming, 2004, p. 12). This is evident in the fact he is well liked as he strives to please all his congregants.
Based on Levinson’s theory of adult development, Nathaniel is supposed to be in the 28-33 age transitional periods where he re-evaluates the life decisions made in his twenties and young adulthood to determine whether he is living his dream. In this period, his core concerns are mainly redefining and refining career goals, family life as well as renouncing alternative ways of life that defined the twenties period (Sigelman & Rider, 2012, p. 375). This helps in having singleness of purpose and consolidating the identity developed during the twenties. However, Nathaniel never went through alternatives in life, ideology or belief. He rather tries to uncover this so that he can develop his sense of self. Levinson (cited in Chandler & Kram, 2005, p. 551) notes that each stage is not age linked but rather is a frame of reference from where a person uses to develop and structure their world and how they perceive things. This implies that Nathaniel is in the ‘Entering the Adult World’ life stage where he is still trying to conceptualise and form an occupation that rather define his interests. This aligns well with the conclusions arrived at from Erickson’s theory of psychosocial development, where Nathaniel is noted to still be in the identity vs. role confusion stage.
Challenges Nathaniel Is Facing At This Stage of His Life
From the above study, the core challenge that Nathaniel is facing at this stage of his life is identity role, and career confusions as specified in both Erikson’s and Levinson’s theory. Nathaniel has not yet been able to explore the questions of who he is, where he is going, what he wants to become, and do with his life. Even more significantly, he has not been able to develop fully a personal philosophy, ideology and belief concerning the various social and religious ideas that are found in the society. The development of such ideologies and life philosophy helps individuals in later life stages to make choices and guide their behaviour as well as form a core part of their value system (Kroger, 2007, p. 54).
Having adopted the Christian values before fully integrating them in his personality through interaction in the social world and self-selection of what he would rather prefer to believe, he has ended up with a foreclosure identity status. He is also faced with role diffusion in his current work as a priest where he lacks any kind of commitment and passion (Fleming, 20, p. 12). Nathaniel though a priest does not believe in his faith and wants to leave the priesthood. However, since he is uncertain of what he wants to do or pursue, he is overwhelmed about the challenges that he will face if he chooses to leave the priesthood. Erikson notes that identity and role confusion is often characterized by a lack of a stable system of values about various factors such as philosophy in life, religious beliefs, acceptance of sexuality as well as lack of clear vocational aspirations and goals. It is only through the development of these core components, which determine the ego identity, that an individual can truly develop strong intimate relations necessary in the next life stage (Kroger, 2007, p. 54). It is also through this, that people can lose themselves in self-abandon in doing what they love without fearing that they would lose their identities. Nathaniel’s fear and self-doubt about leaving the priesthood is reflective of deficiency in role identity.
Nathaniel’s Main Counselling Issue and a Possible Way to Counsel Nathaniel
The main counselling issue that faces Nathaniel is self-knowledge in life meaning. This is because Nathaniel is trying to understand himself more on what he believes. He feels that he is living a lie in being a priest, and therefore is striving to gain insight as to why he feels this way. He further seeks to understand his fear and hesitation in leaving priesthood, as he is not sure of what challenges he will face when he leaves or how he would perceive his self-identity.
From this counselling issue, a possible way to counsel Nathaniel would be through a self-awareness exposition. This would be essential in enhancing personal exploration. Providing opportunities for...