Erikson's psychosocial development

Psychosocial development theory

• Psychosocial development theory is based on eight stages of development

• Each stage defined by a crisis or challenge

• Crisis in one stage = problems in later ones

Stage One- Oral sensory

crisis: trust vs. mistrust

• infants depend on others for food, warmth, and affection and therefore must be able to blindly trust their parents/caregivers for providing

outcomes of oral stage

• Positive needs met consistently and responsively by the parents, infants will develop a secure attachment with parents and trust environment

• Negative: infant will develop mistrust towards people and things in their environment, even themselves

Stage Two- muscular-anal

crisis: autonomy (independence) vs. doubt (shame)

• toddlers learn to walk, talk, use toilets and do things themselves; self-control and self-confidence develops

outcomes of muscular-anal stage

• positive: if parents encourage their child’s use of initiative and reassure her when she makes mistakes, child will develop confidence needed to cop with future situations requiring choice, control, independence

• negative: if parents are overprotective, disapproving of the child’s independence, she may feel ashamed of her behavior or have too much doubt

Stage 3- locomotor

crisis: initiative vs. guilt

• children (2-6) have newfound power as they developed motor skills and become more engaged in social interactions; they must learn to achieve a balance between eagerness for responsibility and learning to control impulses

outcomes of locomotor stage

• positive: if parents are encouraging buy consistent in discipline, children will learn to accept without guilt, that certain things are not allowed, and will not feel shame when using imagination

• negative: children may develop a sense of guilt and believe that it is wrong to be independent

stage four- latency

crisis: industry vs. inferiority

• school is important- children learn to to make things, use tools, and acquire the skills to be a worker and potential provider- they do all these while making the transition from the world of home into the world of peers

outcome of latency stage

• positive: children can discover pleasure in intellectual stimulation, being productive, seeking success, develop a sense of competence

• negative: develop a sense of inferiority

stage five- adolescence

crisis: identity vs. role confusion

• during this time we ask the question “who am I” but we can only answer this if we had a healthy resolution of all earlier conflicts- “identity crisis” occurs

adolescence outcomes

• positive: if adolescent solves this conflict successfully, he will come out of this stage with a strong identity, and ready to plan for the future

• negative: if not, adolescent will sink into confusion, unable to make decisions and choices, especially about vocation, sexual orientation, and his role about life in general

Stage 6- young adulthood

crisis: intimacy vs. isolation

• most important events are love relationships. no matter how successful you are with work, you are not developmentally complete until you are capable of intimacy —> those who have not developed a sense of identity will fear a committed relationship and isolate

young adult outcomes

• positive: adult individuals can form close relationships and share with others if they have achieved a sense of identity

• negative: if not, they will fear commitment, feel isolated and unable to depend on anybody in the world

stage 7- middle adulthood

crisis: generatively vs. stagnation

• generatively- adult’s ability to look outside of oneself and care for others through parenting for instance- adults need children as much as children need adults- reflects need to create a living legacy

outcomes of middle adulthood

• positive: people can solve this crisis by having and nurturing children, or helping the next generation in other ways

• negative: the person will remain self-centered and experience stagnation later in life

Stage 8- late adulthood

Crisis: integrity vs. despair important

• old age is a time for reflecting upon one’s own life and its role in the big scheme of things, and seeing it filled with pleasure and satisfaction or disappointments and failures