Erik Erikson (1902-1994)
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Childhood and Society (1950)
Youth and Crisis (1968)
The Life Cycle Completed (1982)
Psychosocial development of identity (expanded on
Freud)
 Human development imaged as moving forward and
upward to increasing levels of complexity
 Noticed struggles to establishing a personal identity
today
Human Development: 3 Interactive
Pieces
 Body: Genetic predisposition
 Mind: Psychological development
 Culture (Social)
Underlying Themes to Erikson
 1) World gets bigger as we go along
 2) Failure is Cumulative
 3) meaningful self-concept depends on
peer group (mirroring)
 4. Identity formation through interaction
with meaningful others (psychosocial
reciprocity)
 5) All stages grow out of earlier stages
Final Version Erikson’s Stage
Theory