Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of

Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson (whose name was Homburger until he came to the U.S.) was a student of the Freuds. He worked with Sigmund Freud in Austria. After his mentor died, he continued with Sigmund's daughter Anna Freud. Like others among Freud's followers, Erikson initially felt that his own theory was simply an elaboration of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theory. Eventually, though, he decided he disagreed with too many of Freud's key points. He felt Freud was correct in noting that people go through specific stages in developing their personalities, but he came to believe that Freud had overemphasized the role that sexual development plays and that Freud had neglected adult personality development.

In his theory of psychosocial development, Erikson identified eight distinct periods of personality development. In each stage, according to his theory, the individual undergoes a "crisis" that will lead to either a healthy or an unhealthy trait. For example, during the first eighteen months of life people experience the crisis of basic trust versus mistrust. During this time, the individual is completely at the mercy of others to meet his or her needs. By age eighteen months, the person will have developed a tendency to trust others if caregivers have met his or her needs consistently and appropriately, or the person will learn to mistrust others because of caregivers who met the child's needs inconsistently or inappropriately. A successful outcome in this stage increases the likelihood of a successful outcome in the next stage, and an unhealthy outcome in one stage makes an unhealthy outcome more likely in the next stage. After all, if you don't feel you can trust anyone, you won't feel secure enough to explore your environment and your own abilities enough to develop a sense of autonomy.

Basic trust versus mistrust: 0-18 months. Infant learns to trust or mistrust, as described above.

Autonomy versus shame and doubt: 18 months to 3 years. Success in new tasks and exploring environment leads to a sense of autonomy, believing you can do things for yourself. An unsuccessful outcome leads the child to feel shame, feeling small and worthless, and to doubt his or her ability to things autonomously.

Initiative versus guilt: 3 years to 6 or 7 years. Child either learns to use their own initiative rather than rely on others to initiate activities, or to feel guilt as though it were wrong for them to take initiative. The guilt ridden child will feel unaccepted and have negative feelings about oneself, and will feel that independent action is morally wrong.

Industry versus inferiority: 7 years to puberty. Now school age, the child develops a sense of industry, competence and mastery in their abilities, or inferiority. The child preoccupied with feeling inferior will engage in a self-fulfilling prophecy, in that fear of failure will either make the child avoid opportunities to succeed or make the child so nervous that his or her own anxieties interfere with ability to perform.

Identity achievement versus role confusion: Adolescence to beginning of adulthood. During this time, the adolescent develops a sense of who he or she is. The person is learning how very complex the world is and begins to develop goals, opinions, attitudes, and many new traits. Erikson discussed four identity statuses:

foreclosure - individual has developed commitments to ideals and goals without going through the identity crisis, without even considering alternatives.

moratorium - the crisis period; during this time the person is exploring alternatives and is working on developing a stable personality, trying to become an adult. Researchers have noted that the "moratorium of youth" has been taking longer and adolescent behavior lasting longer as individuals take longer and longer to make major life decisions.

confusion or diffusion - sheer chaos; the individual is not going through the crisis and has developed a relatively stable sense of self even though he or she is no longer a young child. Because this individual lacks stable traits, the person is chaotic, erratic, unpredictable.

achievement - stable, consistent, mature personality. The individual has developed opinions, attitudes, and goals that do not easily change.

Intimacy versus isolation: In early adulthood, one's twenties and thirties, the individual learns psychological intimacy, the ability to form close relationships with others, or will be stuck in psychological isolation in which he or she is unable to experience true closeness with others.

Generativity versus stagnation: In middle adulthood, the forties and fifties, the individual has lived long enough to evaluate the life he or she has lived while there is still time to make major changes if necessary. With a sense of generativity, the person feels concerns for what he or she generates, what he/she contributes to the world. Individuals with very narrow generative concerns might only care that they make certain their offspring do well but without caring what happens to the rest of the world. The unhealthy outcome stagnation could also be called self-absorption. The psychologically stagnant person's concerns are so narrow that he or she has little or no concern for contributing anything to anyone else.

Ego integrity versus despair: In late adulthood, the individual may look back at the life he or she has lived. The individual may experience ego integrity, a healthy self-concept with self esteem but not self-absorption, or may experience despair, which may involve depression over the life one has lived or anxiety about the impending end.