Theories of Development: Erikson and Piaget

Erik Erikson's Theory of Identity

  • Psychosocial Theory of Development: Interrelation of social factors and individual behavior.

  • Lifespan Development: Development from birth to death.

  • Epigenetic Principle: Personality develops through predetermined stages, influenced by environment and culture.

  • Psychosocial Dilemma/Crisis: Internal conflict at each stage, representing opposing tendencies requiring resolution for healthy development.

  • Psychosocial Virtue: Ego strength emerging from stage resolution, forming the basis for positive development.

  • 8 Stages of Development: Each stage has a crisis, successful resolution leads to a virtue, crucial for healthy development.

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Erikson's Stages of Development

  • Trust vs. Mistrust (0-18 months): Virtue: Hope.

  • Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (2-3 years): Virtue: Will.

  • Initiative vs. Guilt (3-6 years): Virtue: Purpose.

  • Industry vs. Inferiority (6 years-puberty): Virtue: Competence.

  • Identity vs. Role Confusion (Puberty-Adulthood): Virtue: Fidelity.

  • Intimacy vs. Isolation (19-40 years): Virtue: Love.

  • Generativity vs. Stagnation (40-65 years): Virtue: Care.

  • Ego Integrity vs. Despair (65+ years): Virtue: Wisdom.

Jean Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development

  • Children's cognitive development occurs in stages.

  • Children construct knowledge actively, building schemas.

  • Schema: Abstract units of understanding.

  • Equilibration: Finding fit between old schemas and new experiences.

  • Adaptation: Assimilation and accommodation.

    • Assimilation: Incorporating new experiences into existing schemas.

    • Accommodation: Altering schemas to adapt to new information.

Piaget's Stages of Development

  • Sensorimotor (Birth - 2 years): Knowledge through sensory input and motor activity; object permanence.

  • Preoperational (2-7 years): Symbolic thought but not logical; egocentrism; struggles with conservation.

  • Concrete Operational (7-11 years): Logical thinking with concrete objects; overcomes egocentrism; understands conservation, reversibility, classification, decentration, seriation and transitivity.

  • Formal Operational (Adolescence-Adulthood): Abstract, hypothetical, and logical thinking; hypothetico-deductive reasoning; idealism.