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world war and how the character deal with the traumatic experience related to Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. The results of the research show that
there is two psychosocial crises suffered by the main characters according to Erikson’s psychosocial development; those are Intimacy vs. Isolation and
Generativity vs. Stagnation. The second is entitled Identity Crisis of The Second Generation of Asian-Indian
Americans as Reflected in Lahiri’s The Namesake by Anestia Fiddin 2013. This research focuses on identifying the identity crisis that experienced by the main
character in the novel and the impact of the crisis toward the character’s personality development related to Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. The result of the
research is that there are three problems occurring on the main character in the novel, those are identity diffusion, identity foreclosure, and negative identity. As the
consequences, there are three malignancies that happen on the character as the impact of the identity crisis in adulthood stage; those are intimacy crisis, identity confusion,
and distantion. The theory of the previous research finding is the same as the theory used in this
research that Erikson’s psychosocial development focuses on socio emotional development. Conversely, this investigates The Perks of Being A Wallflower by
Stephen Chbosky. This research aimed to identify the failure in the process of psychosocial development and the impact of the failure on the main character
personality in the novel as the effects of traumatic experiences using Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. Psychosocial development is applied in the
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research to show the causes and the impacts of the failure in the Erikson’s fifth stage of development toward the character of Charlie. There has not been a previous study
on Chbosky’s The Perks of Being A Wallflower conducted by either students or lecturers in the English Department of Yogyakarta State University.
E. Conceptual Framework
Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower shares to the readers about the teenagers’ life in America. The main character in the novel is Charlie, who is in
his growing up period to find his identity. Charlie is a boy who faced so many conflicts in his life, whether with his friends, family, or even himself. Charlie
experiences some traumatic experiences in his life such sexual assault from his beloved aunt, the sudden death of his aunt and his best friend. Charlie is trying his
best to deal with those bad experiences, but he failed. The researcher identifies how traumatic experiences fail Charlie to accomplish the basic strength in the fifth stage of
Erikson’s psychosocial development and the effect of the failure toward his personality in the following stage.
The researcher applies Erikson’s psychosocial theory to answer the research questions. This theory believes that each person experiences eight psychosocial crises
which help to define his growth and personality. Each stage consists of problem that must be faced. The more an individual resolves the crisis successfully, the healthier of
psychological development will be.
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Figure 2. Conceptual Framework
Chbosky’s The Perks of Being a Wallflower
words, phrases, clauses, sentences, discourse
Erikson’s Psychosocial Development
Eight Stages of Development: 1.
Trust vs. Mistrust 2.
Autonomy vs. Shame Doubt
3. Initiative vs. Guilt
4. Industry vs. Inferiority
5. Identity vs. Role
Confusion 6.
Intimacy vs. Isolation 7.
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Identity vs. Identity Confusion
Intimacy vs. Isolation
1. To reveal how traumatic
experiences make Charlie fail to accomplish the basic
strength in the fifth stage of Erikson’s psychosocial
development. 2.
To analyze how the failure affects Charlie’s
personality in the sixth stage of Erikson’s
psychosocial development.
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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD
A. Research Design
This research was a qualitative research and the results of the research were data in the form of expressions instead of numbers. Qualitative research aims to develop
an understanding about social phenomena in the world, such as identifying why things are the way they are Yorkshire, 2009: 7. The first step required in this
qualitative research was doing close reading to the given text and figuring out every details in the text that supports the data of the research. Then, the researcher
interpreted the meaning of the text guided by the theory used in order to answer the research questions.
The data of this research could not be measured numerically. Therefore, a descriptive-qualitative method was employed to analyze the data of the research. The
data were used to describe the phenomena as the effects of traumatic experiences toward adolescence’s psychosocial development as depicted in Chbosky’s The Perks
of Being a Wallflower. The descriptive-qualitative method helped the researcher explain the complexity of the meaning of the data in order to make the readers
understand it.
B. The Data and Sources of Data
The primary source of this research was The Perks of being a Wallflower, a novel written by Stephen Chbosky and published in 1999. The novel was composed of four
