ERIK ERIKSON – STAGES OF
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
Dr.Saqib
“Children love and want to be loved and they very much
prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of hateful
failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom”
-Erik Erikson
ERIK ERIKSON: THE FATHER OF
PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
▶ Development of self concept, ways of interacting with the others
and attitude towards world.
PSYCHO SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
▶ Born in Germany on June 15th 1902.
▶ He was an artist and a teacher in the late 1920s when he met Anna Freud,
an Austrian psychoanalyst. With Anna’s encouragement, he began to study
child psychoanalysis at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute.
▶ He immigrated to the US in 1933 and taught at Yale and Harvard
University.
▶ It was at this point in his life that he became interested in the influence of
society and culture on child development. To satisfy his curiosity, he
studied groups of American Indian Children to help formulate his theories.
Studying these children enabled him to correlate personality growth with
parental and societal values.
ERIC H.ERIKSON (1902 – 1994)
▶ He studied groups of Aboriginal children to learn about the influence of
society and culture on child development. From this, he developed a
number of theories, the most famous being his psychosocial development.
▶ He believed that humans have to resolve different conflicts as they
progress through each stage of development in the life cycle.
▶ Erikson’s theory consists of eight stages of development. Each stage is
characterized by a different conflict that must be resolved by the
individual. If a person is unable to resolve a conflict at a particular stage,
they will be confront and struggle with it later in life.
FIELD OF
RESEARCH
⮚ Development of an individual is the result of his interaction with
social environment
⮚ Conceptualized development as psycho social
⮚ Individual moves through eight stages of
psycho social development. Based on epigenetic principle.
⮚ In each stage there is a specific crisis or conflict between competing
tendencies.
⮚ Resolution of a stage lays the foundation for negotiating the challenges
of the next.
⮚ Emphasis on society, relationships and interaction with people
ERIKSON’S THEORY
▶ 8 successive stages over the lifespan
▶ Addresses bio, social, situational, personal influences
▶ Crisis: must adaptively or mal-adaptively cope with task in each
developmental stage
▶ Respond adaptively: acquire strengths needed for next developmental stage
▶ Respond mal-adaptively: less likely to be able to adapt to later problems
▶ Basic strengths: Motivating characteristics and beliefs that derive from
successful resolution of crisis in each stage
ERIKSON’S STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
▶ Stages 1-4
▶ Largely determined by others (parents, teachers)
▶ Stages 5-8
▶ Individual has more control over environment
▶ Individual responsibility for crisis resolution in each stage
ERIKSON’S STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
▶ Approximate age : Birth to 18 months
(infancy)
▶ Psychological crisis : Trust /mistrust
▶ Significant relationship: Maternal Person.
STAGE 1: BASIC TRUST VS. MISTRUST
▶ Totally dependent on others
▶ Caregiver meets needs: child develops trust
▶ Caregiver does not meet needs: child develops mistrust
▶ Basic strength: Hope
-Belief our desires will be satisfied
-Feeling of confidence
STAGE 1: BASIC TRUST VS. MISTRUST
▶ Parents should ensure a trusting relationship with the child.
▶ Satisfying the needs develops trust.
▶ Anxiousness and anger develops mistrust.
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Approximate age: 18 months to 3 year
(toddlerhood)
▶ Psychological crisis : Self autonomy/doubt.
▶ Significant relationship : Parental persons.
STAGE 2: AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT
▶ Children try to do things Independently. Growing mobility
▶ Language acquisition
▶ Ego-strength – will(Determination to exercise freedom of choice in face of
society’s demands)
▶ If the freedom and exploration are encouraged, toddler develops autonomy,
if they are overly restricted, they experience shame, self doubt
STAGE 2: AUTONOMY VS. SHAME AND DOUBT
▶ Arrange for each child to have something which are his own and with
which he can identify.
▶ Values the things the child makes
▶ Development of early trust is necessary
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Approximate age : 3 to 6 year (preschooler)
▶ Psychological crisis : Initiative / guilt.
▶ Significant relationship : Basic Family.
STAGE 3: INITIATIVE VS. GUILT
▶ Resolution of Oedipus or Electra Complex
▶ Ego strength- Purpose(Courage to envision and pursue goals)
▶ Takes initiative in interacting with the environment, if this tendency is censored,
through criticism or control, develop a sense of guilt
STAGE 3: INITIATIVE VS. GUILT
▶ Do not punish children for their initiative-ness.
▶ Create a playful atmosphere.
▶ Value children's play and talk to them about their play.
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Approximate age : 6 to 12 year (elementary school age)
▶ Psychological crisis : Industry/inferiority
▶ Significant relationship : Neighborhood /school
STAGE 4: INDUSTRIOUSNESS VS. INFERIORITY
▶ Peers become important and the child tries to measure and evaluate himself
with peers.
▶ Children seek to establish a clear identity
▶ Child develops cognitive abilities to enable in task completion (school work,
play)
▶ Parents/teachers do not support child’s efforts: child develops feelings of
inferiority and inadequacy
▶ Basic strength: Competence
-Exertion of skill and intelligence in pursuing and completing tasks
STAGE 4: INDUSTRIOUSNESS VS. INFERIORITY
▶ Assign roles for them and appreciate for their effort.
▶ Make confidence in them by giving opportunities to express their abilities
▶ Praise them for doing their best and encourage to finish task
▶ Strengthen the school environment
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Approximate age : 12 to 18 year(adolescence)
▶ Psychological crisis : Identity / role confusion
▶ Significant relationship :peer groups /models of leadership
STAGE 5: IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION
▶ Children seek to establish a clear self identity (understands his own unique
traits)
▶ Begins with puberty
▶ Role confusion
▶ Ego strength- Fidelity and loyalty
▶ Failure to discover self identity, results in identity crisis and role confusion.
-Fidelity
-Emerges from cohesive ego identity
-Sincerity, genuineness, sense of duty in relationships with other
STAGE 5: IDENTITY VS. ROLE CONFUSION
▶ Help the students to identify their roles
that are socially acceptable.
▶ Give reinforcement towards positive roles.
▶ Prevent them from unlimited imaginations
▶ Assign duties and responsibilities
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Approximate age : 20 to 40 (young adulthood)
▶ Psychological crisis : Intimacy / Isolation
▶ Significant relationship : Partners in Friendship, sex and co-
operation.
STAGE 6: INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION
▶ Selection of a mate
▶ Establishment of an occupational pattern
▶ Harmonious relationships with others
▶ Intimacy- “finding oneself, but losing oneself in another person” Erickson.
▶ Undertake productive work and establish intimate relationships
▶ Inability to establish intimacy leads to social isolation
▶ Basic strength: Love
-Mutual devotion in a shared identity
-Fusing of oneself with another person
STAGE 6: INTIMACY VS. ISOLATION
▶ Develop harmonious relationship
▶ Develop the habit- To love and to work
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Approximate age : 40-65 (middle adulthood )
▶ Psychological crisis : Generativity /self
absorption(stagnation).
▶ Significant relationship : Divided labor & shared
household
STAGE 7: GENERATIVITY VS. STAGNATION
▶ Interest in establishing and guiding the next generation.
▶ Focus on career and family
▶ Involve in creative pursuits – voluntary works art science, etc. By failing to
achieve these objectives, one become stagnant (disinterested in others,
concerned only with self)
▶ Basic Ego strength: Care
-Broad concern for others
-Need to teach others
STAGE 7: GENERATIVITY VS. STAGNATION
▶Be active in home and community
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Approximate age : 60 + (Late adulthood)
▶ Psychological crisis : Integrity/ Despair
▶ Significant relationship : “Mankind”
STAGE 8: EGO INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR
▶ Evaluation of entire life(Time of introspection)
▶ Integrity: Look back with satisfaction
▶ Despair: Review with anger, frustration
▶ Acceptance of accomplishments, failures and ultimate limitation, Accept the
finality of death
▶ If feels his life as unproductive, feel guilty about past, becomes dissatisfied
with life and develop despair
▶ Basic strength: Wisdom
-Detached concern with the whole of life
STAGE 8: EGO INTEGRITY VS. DESPAIR
▶ Introspection is necessary
▶ Listen to elderly people.
IMPLICATIONS
▶ Personality develops throughout the lifetime
▶ Identity crisis in adolescence
▶ Impact of social, cultural, personal and situational forces in forming
personality
CONTRIBUTIONS OF ERIKSON
▶ Ambiguous terms and concepts
▶ Lack of precision
-Some terms are not easily measured empirically
▶ Experiences in stage may only apply to males
▶ Identity crisis may only apply to those affluent enough to explore
identities
CRITICISMS OF ERIKSON
