Personality development or character building has been regarded as one of the important objectives in educational practice. This paper examine the relationship between personality development and physical education based on Erik H. Erikson's theory of ego development.
First of all, the pedagogical significance of “virtue” and “ground plan, ” both of which are main concepts in Erikson's theory of ego development, was examined. Findings are as follows; “Ground plan” exercises “virtue” to overcome psychological and social conflicts, “ground plan” and reincorporating “virtue” into itself to expand and deepen itself at the same time. Therefore manner, the “ground plan” widens a new horizon for the next life stage. This indicates that “ground plan” can be interpreted as “body” itself where “virtue” is exercised in “figure-ground” relationship. From the above, it is possible to reinterpret Erikson's theory of ego development as a theory of physical education, in which development of “zest for living” is pursued.
Next the following, new perspective in physical education was deduced from Erikson's theory of ego development; It is necessary to place greater emphasis on the process of “can-do→can-understand” rather than on the process of “can-understand→can-do in order to develop physical quality.” In other words, the technical knowledge obtained in the “can-understand→can-do” process is reincorporated into the body (i. e., updating one's personality) in the “can-do→can-understand” process. This process strengthens “body” as the ground, and enables physical education practice to develop physical quality that can challenge newer and more difficult conflicts in the pursuit of a better ego. This is the learning process based on the concept of proficiency attainment characterized by the “learning→proficiency→mastery” sequence, and was recognized to be identical with the personalization process observed in physical education.
Therefore, the idea of attaining proficiency through the “learning→proficiency→mastery” process is believed to be highly likely to serve human development of identity through physical sensation accompanied by physical load and hard work.