“Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages Are Meaningful to Someone Growing in Africa Although They Are a Eurocentric Worldview”. Critically Analyze This Statement Using Relevant Examples from the Kikuyu Culture of Kenya Culture.

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INTRODUCTION I come from the Kikuyu tribe of Kenya and though I have substantially been brought up in the cosmopolitan Nairobi city my parents and grandparents were close to their Kikuyu culture and through them and the many writings about our culture I find that my way of thinking and relating affected by my background and cultural beliefs. I do know that culture relates to a peoples way of life and particularly their beliefs and traditional practices but I believe as well that these evolve through time especially with intermarriages between different tribes that come from different cultures; in fact I have married from the Kenyan Luo tribe and being a cosmopolitan person based in the Nairobi City where all cultures have been thrown into the same melting pot my children are challenged unlike myself in observing two different cultures that are very different but ofcourse still African. Despite these challenges there are certain attitudes and values my children have definitely picked up from my tribe mainly by virtue of the patriarchal nature of the majority of African cultures where children belong to the fathers tribe but their exposure to other tribes and particularly my wife’s culture will influence their lives and even their own children. The development of the Psychosocial stages is credited to Erik Erikson who was “ influenced by Freud , but searching for a different perspective….” According to him the “human life progresses through a series of 8 stages. Each of these stages is marked by a crisis that needs to be resolved so that the individual can move on. He used the term crisis in a medical sense; i.e. it is like an acute period during illness , at the end of which the patient takes a turn for the worse or better.” Dacey et al (2004). Below I will attempt to show how applicable (or otherwise) the Erikson psychosocial stages are to my culture. THE

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