Jeff Ricker noted: I've been looking at the issue of Erikson's relevance to contemporary work for the past hour and must tentatively disagree with Gary's claim. Yes, even Erikson criticized his own work after his retirement and seemed unsure whether research in this area could ever be "scientific." Nevertheless, he seemed to believe that the assumptions and general principles that formed the foundation of his thinking were valid. -------------------------------- MY RESPONSE:
I think it was good that Erikson recognized problems with the scientific value of his ideas. I always felt they were interesting, but just not as theoretically useful, but the Barnum-like way they are described in Psych texts is also problem. Text authors seem to revel in the vagueness, and everyone looks for confirmation in anecdotal accounts while finding, events to fit the "theory" in hindsight. I think the same problems are reinforced in educating health professionals...they are told such unsupported ideas are relevant, and taught to look for ways to fit his(and other) ideas to cases. Again, such ideas are comfortable frameworks that are thus "made" to feel important and relevant. This leads such folks to feel they have knowledge to share....whether it is evidenced based or not. Thus, notions like Kubler-Ross's stages of dying, and similar (or, even more pseudoscientific) views become required lore in the socialization/training of health professionals. What is seen as important, and what is actually efficacious in practice may be different. However, it is warming a few degrees here, and I am becoming less curmudgeonly, so I will defer to those with more expertise in developmental science ;-) ------------------------------------------- JEFF NOTED And his ideas about and theories of fundamental developmental challenges seem to still be important in areas like nursing, social work, and counseling psychology. I noticed that this may be especially true in the care and treatment of geriatric patients, which is the issue that gave rise to this thread. Perhaps someone with expertise in this broad area could expound on this a bit. YES, AGREE... G.L. (Gary) Peterson,Ph.D Psychology@SVSU --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@mail-archive.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=42205 or send a blank email to leave-42205-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
