Eminem: Psychodynamics

Erik Erikson was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on June 15, 1902. Erikson is a Freudian ego-psychologist, which means he accepts Freud’s ideas as basically correct. Erikson is most famous for his work in refining and expanding Freud’s theory of stages. Development, he says, functions by the Epigenetic Principle, which is what we develop through a predetermined unfolding of our personalities in eight stages. The progress through these stages is in part determined by our success or lack of success in all the previous stages and each stage involves certain developmental tasks that are psychosocial in nature.

Evaluating Marshall “Eminem” Mathers III life in light of, psycho-dynamics psychologist, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages, I think when he was 0-12 months; he was able to resolve the first stage Infancy. During this time his mother supplied the necessary provisions of food, warmth a

B.F. Skinner was a behaviorist who tried to exemplify this theory by testing his hypothesis on rats in a maze. Skinner began by letting the rats run “free” and “wild” in the maze. Skinner then used his idea of “operant conditioning” which coordinates with the subject (the rat or human) “operating” within their environment. Then he brought in the idea of a “reinforcing stimulus” that gives a positive reinforcement to the subject, encouraging the subject to continue the tasks that brought them to receiving their “reinforcing stimulus”.

Skinner also has schedules of reinforcement. These include continuous reinforcement, fixed ratio schedule, fixed interval schedule and variable schedules. These schedules of reinforcement “fit” into Eminem’s life as well. Eminem may encounter various obstacles at all different times in his life, but finds his way around them or works through them as did the rats (or humans) in Skinner’s experiments.

Then there is vicarious reinforcement, seeing and recalling the model being reinforced. So, he may have viewed fighting as an incentive for respect or recognition. He had to observe someone saying something to someone else that triggered a fight. This is seen in Bandura’s theory that we use models for learning. He describes three types of models for learning: live (family members, teachers, and peers), iconic or symbolic (pictorial representations of behavior), and text or verbal (nonperformance models).

Eminem knew he wanted to be a rapper since he was a little kid. So maybe by watching these rappers fight and get into all types of trouble is where he learned this behavior. He was trying to become part of a world that was notoriously known for violence. Maybe he believed that he needed to adopt that persona to fit it. Bandura also states that there are negative reinforcements that can model behavior.

In regards to Eminem’s life, he has seen and experienced many painful and unpleasant people and events. To this end, Eminem has done all he could to change the path his life might have taken. Those “adverse stimuli” he encountered through his life so far have made him who he is today. They also have made him (or conditioned him) to be more resilient to obstacles he may encounter.

Due to Eminem’s various moves throughout the United States, he never really found home. Every couple of months his mother would move again and Eminem would have to change schools. Eminem eventually moved to and finally settled down in Detroit Michigan at the age of twelve, where he lived in a housing project, which was predominantly African American and eventually took up rapping.

Some topics in this essay:
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