GUIDED ESSAY 1

Guided Essay

An Example of Erik Erikson’s Eight Psychosocial Processes

Within

One Developmental Stage

Why One Sister Acculturated More Than The Other

Lisne Dorilis Bautista

Identity Formation across Cultural Frontiers:

Enculturation, Immigration, Acculturation

Autumn 2019

Professor Glen Milstein, Ph.D.

The City College of the City University of New York

October 17 2019

Words: 2,170
GUIDED ESSAY 2

Description:

Benecia is a 49-year-old woman. I observed what a day in her life consists of. Many of the daily

tasks that she completed throughout the day are not considered to be an American norm.

Something which I noticed immediately, is that Eliza uses the bathroom with the door open. In

fact, throughout the whole day, all the lights in her house remain off until it is dark outside which

is when indoor light is necessary in navigating yourself around the house. When cooking she

opens cans manually by hand with a knife, rather than with a mechanical can opener and when

people enter her home, they make sure to knock on the door instead of ringing the doorbell in

order to avoid getting scolded since she strongly detests hearing the loud doorbell ring. I also

observed Dorka (Benecia’s younger sister) who is 47 years old. Dorka’s day consists mostly of

her performing tasks the exact opposite way of how her sister does. Dorka uses the bathroom

with the door closed, and the lights are turned on in the house as soon as she wakes up. Along

with this, people who come to her house ring the doorbell. On the contrary, like Eliza she opens

her cans manually with a knife. Dorka migrated to the United States of America single and with

the purpose of having a better future while continuing her education. Benecia migrated to the

United States of America married and pregnant with her first both with the purpose of having a

better future that was more financially stable for her family and with the purpose of more

opportunities for her kids than she had in her home country.

Mystery:

Benecia demonstrates habits that help her complete her daily tasks which are non-western

tendencies, while her sister Dorka, who grew up with her in the same countryside environment,

has adapted to the western way of daily tasks.

GUIDED ESSAY 3

Research Question:

What in Benecia’s and Dorka’s developmental stages and processes, can help explain why

Benecia didn’t acclimate to the American way of doing these tasks once she moved to the United

States as much as her sister Dorka, did?

Stage:

Benecia is forty-nine years old. She has a full-time job and provides for and takes care of her

four children. Benecia is in the Adulthood stage. Dorka is forty-seven years old and also has a

full-time job and cares for her two children.

Soma Processes:

A. Psychosexual Mode: Procreativity

Benecia and Dorka are in Procreativity part of their psychosexual development. Benecia

is raising her kids on her own with minor help from her husband since they are separated. In

contrast, Dorka is raising her kids with the help of her ex-husband.

B. Radius of Significant Relations: Divided Labor • Shared Household

In Benecia’s home, she tells her children to do certain tasks. But only one of her

children does the chores. So, the labors of the house are split and shared between her and

her oldest daughter. Part of the reason why her other three children do not complete the

chores is because she scolds them for not completing the task the way she does it. Her

kids (who were all born in America) complete the task in an Americanized fashion, while

she does not. In Dorka’s home she distributes the tasks of the house between her and her

two children. Dorka cooks and cleans and organizes the house while her kids clean their
GUIDED ESSAY 4

room and organize the house. Her children complete it in their own way, but they get

done.

Ethos Processes:

C. Principle of Social Order: Currents of Education & Tradition

Benecia has taken time while raising her kids to teach them about her culture.

However, because of the language barrier she has had a hard time teaching her kids in

depth about their culture. In addition is not trying to Acculturate to the western way of

completing daily tasks. Acculturation is when morals, values, and norms of an outside

culture are acquired. She instead stays with her enculturated ways. Enculturation is

acquiring the basic morals, values, and norms of one’s own culture. Despite Dorka

acculterating to the American culture, Dorka is always talking to her kids about her

culture and embedding it to them. This is easily done for her because there is no language

barrier between her and her kids. Dorka speaks English and Spanish fluently, while

Benecia only speaks Spanish fluently.

D. Ritualization: Generational

Out of the two sisters, Dorka is more generational, meaning not in conflict about

learning and applying new ways (more westernized way) to go through her daily tasks.

Dorka is a firm believer and practicer in communication. She is teaching her children

things in life and about their culture thoroughly and frequently. And if there is a

misunderstanding in the translation of knowledge from her to her kids, she makes way to

teach it to them in a different form. In contrast, Benecia is partially generational, she

GUIDED ESSAY 5

teaches her kids about life and her culture in the same ways that Dorka has but her kids

don’t find as much interest in the culture in comparison to Dorka’s kids.

E. Ritualism: Authoritism

As mentioned in the section before Benecia does teach her kids about her culture

and things about In terms of things of life, sometimes her kids do not practice things the

way she has taught them. Because they do not do things the way she wants them to she

gets upset and tells them to stop and does it herself, making her a person who practices

Authoritism. Authoritism is when the person teaches something by doing it and doesn’t

take time to find the best way to teach it to the person. In Dorka’s home, when she asks

for a task to get done, it doesn’t matter if the kids don’t complete them the way she taught

them to...her goal is for the task to get done, regardless of the route they took to complete

it. If the kids do no complete the task, the task is left unfinished until they complete it.

This shows that Dorka is not a figure who practices Authoritism.

F. Psychological Crisis (Task): Generativity vs. Self-Absorption or Stagnation

Generativity is the pressure to teach culture so that we can learn how to be better

humans, this is important because it is biological for humans whom need culture to

survive. Benecia seeks comfort in her daily life, living in a country which she did not

grow up in by completing tasks the way she did in her home country. Even though, her

kids have a hard time taking in the culture that she teaches them she still finds it

important because her culture is a part of her identity. This is the same case for Dorka. To

both Benecia and Dorka teaching the culture isn't a hard pressure because it is something

that they do naturally. In terms of Self-Absorption or Stagnation, both mothers don’t just

care about themselves. Both mothers spread their knowledge and are not just wrapped in
GUIDED ESSAY 6

their own world, which if they would, would lead to the culture not continuing passed

their kids generation. In that case, the death of culture is because they chose not to spread

the knowledge of their own culture. However, that scenario is not the case for Benecia

and Dorka.

G. Basic Strength: Care

Benecia and Dorka take time to pass down information and culture onto their

daughters. Dorka tends to take time out of her day to do this, while Benecia passes on the

knowledge while completing daily tasks because she finds ways to relate it to the tasks

she is completing and because she spends more time at home. Even though Benecia does

not have to take extra time for it since she has good time management, she still spends

time teaching her kids. Both mothers cannot do it as often as they would like. For Dorka

it is because her children are older and have their own responsibilities along with the fact

that her jo is far from home, and for Benecia it is because her children do not like to do

tasks or learn new things which are complex.

H. Antiapathy: Rejectivity

Rejectivity is stopping the process. Benecia tends to stop the process once her kids

begin to complain or when the kids do not complete the task to -- in her opinion, the best

of its ability. Dorka does not stop the process. She makes sure her kids complete the task

whether it is done correctly so that they can learn. Not only are they learning how to do

the task, they are also being exposed to the Hispanic culture of doing your own

responsibilities on your own.

GUIDED ESSAY 7

Conclusion:

In essance, both sisters have different ways of going about their lives. Dorka and Benecia were

similar mostly in their previous stages: Infancy, Early Childhood, Play Age, and Adolescence

because these were the years of their lives where both grew up in the same household with the

same morals and living conditions. What launched a difference in their developmental stages and

processes and eventually that one sister acculturated to American culture better than the other

was an occurrence in the School Age stage. In terms of competence, school went well for Dorka,

but not so for Benecia. Yet, at the same time Benecia did well on picking up the ability to

complete tasks around the house quickly and efficiently, which made up to the fact that school

wasn’t her forte in her eyes and the eyes of her family and community, and eventually dropped

out of school and got married. In contrast, Dorka was babied and appeased in their household

since she was not only the youngest but also did well in school. Her scholarly attitude and

success made up for her lack of home skills. Proof that it was not in an earlier stage, is that in the

stage right before School Age, which is Play Age, both sisters had will: wanted to do and

purpose: and had a reason to do, along with autonomy: work hard at what must get done. Once

migrating to America both landed into a co-ethnic community. However, Dorka was able to

acculturate primarily in attendance of an American university, Lehman College, where she

learned American vocabulary with a large population of her own ethnic background. Dorka

intigrated fully, through education while Benecia did so partially. Not all children succeed in

school. This is can be cause by the idea that the School Age stage, or as William Shakespeare

calls it in his writing As You Like It (1600), the schoolboy stage, which moves slowly and kids

tend to complain about it (Shakespeare). Benecia when trying to communicate with non-Spanish

speakers at her job or professionals whom worked with her kids learned English and
GUIDED ESSAY 8

acculturated partially to the American culture through the enculturation's of her kids. She also

believes that was drove her away from fully acculturating was fear. Fear of being judged, of

failing the way she did in school, and out of fear of being disliked because she was non-

American. In the past immigrants have been and at times are still are not liked in their new

countries based on their race, religion, and stereotypes. They are also disliked because of the

citizens fear of the immigrants joining the opposition. All of this makes it harder for them to be a

part of the culture of the nations they migrated to (Kenneth C. Davis). This information also

instilled fear and set back Benecia. She chose to not try to continue her education once migrating

to America. This choice can also be explained by the idea that the unbalance between

enculturation and acculturation makes the education of immigrants harder (Milstein & Lucic).

Benecia stuck on to her Dominican culture and did not really change who she was when she

moved to America. This ties into the idea that you are your past (Erikson pg. 88) and for

Benecia, her past (her Dominican culture) is who she was and still is. This is magnifies why both

mothers have raised their children differently and passed on their cultures in dissimilar amounts

and ways. In prediction of future stages, the only stage left for Benecia and Dorka is that of Old

Age where both women will be content with their life decisions. They will reflect on their actions

and with their wisdom, Dorka will suggest for people to not only have a focus on education, but

on being attentive and master home tasks, while also staying true and not letting go of one's

culture. Benecia will suggest for individuals to not only have discipline in household chores, but

to never let go of the right of education no matter how hard it seems, to take time to get out of

one’s comfort zone, to explore and understand the cultures of others, and if applicable to learn

and live the culture of one’s new location, while not forgetting your own.
GUIDED ESSAY 9

References

Davis, K. C. (2007, July 3). The Founding Immigrants. Retrieved from

https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/03/opinion/03davis.html

Erikson, E. H., & Erikson, J. M. (1998). The Life Cycle Completed. New York: W.W. Norton.

Milstein, G., & Lucic, L. (n.d.). Young Immigrants A Psychosocial Development Perspective.

Shakespeare, W. (1600). As You Like It.