The Perspective on Secondary Socialization in E. H. Erikson

Abstract

E. H. Erikson's theory of life cycle has been often quated from the view of the secondary socialization after childhood. His theory expands the scope of developmental psychology into the whole human life cycle, including adolescent and adulthood.In this paper, I examine the basic character of his theory and show how his theory of life cycle presupposes certain “normative image of man” which corresponds to his view on the contemporary American society. It seems that Erikson takes some ambivalent atittude toward the American society. For although he sees the American society essentially as pluralistic and democratic, he also critisizes an ethnocentric attitude (in his term, “cultural pseudospeciation”) in the American whites. Then he emphasizes the “wider identity” that is based on more universal perspectives. For Erikson, the “generative man” who has his wider identity is the goal of the secondary socializations.I also examine how this normative image of man has been developed in the “psychohistory”, that is Erikson's study of life histories about historical leaders. Especially Erikson shows in his study of Gandhi how the generative man establishes the “mutuality” in his socalization. Accoding to Erikson, because Gandhi confronted younger generations with the wider identity, he succeeded in organizing them. Through organizing and directing younger generations, Gandhi himself had been socialized as a historical leader. Socilization depends on such a mutuality or interaction between different generations.Through these reviews on Erikson's theory, I have made an effort to find a cue for constructing the framework of the studies in the secondary socialization.