Social Development - Erik Erikson’s Stages of
Psychosocial Development
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Erik Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Erikson is a neo-Freudian, but his theory is more socially
and culturally-based
• Development unfolds in a both predetermined way and on
the basis of the success of previous stages
• Each stage involves certain developmental tasks and crises
or conflicts (trust-mistrust)
• Balance must be achieved. If so, psychosocial traits
develop which supports future stage development
• Everybody Rides the Carousel
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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Trust – Mistrust (Infancy 0-1 year)
– Infant seeks familiarity, consistency, reliability. Infant
needs to see world as reliable and loving
• Autonomy – Shame and Doubt (1-2 years)
– Development of sense of child’s independence, e.g.?
Parents should not push nor discourage
• Initiative – Guilt (Preschool 3-5 years)
– To play. To imagine, broaden skills, cooperate, lead
and follow
• Industry - Inferiority (School age 6-12 years)
– To work. Mastering skills required by society, both
academic and social. Conceive and carry out plans
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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Trust – Mistrust (Infancy 0-1 year)
• Psychosocial task(s) - Infant seeks familiarity, consistency,
reliability. Infant needs to see world as reliable and loving.
Caregiver based. A balance is required
– Maladaptive tendency: Sensory distortion may occur
when child becomes overly trusting
– Malignant tendency: Withdrawal is based in mistrust,
and may result in apprehension, suspicion, depression,
or paranoia
– Psychosocial virtue: Hope/faith
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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Ego Identity – Role Confusion (Adolescence)
– Who am I? Need to achieve ego identity and avoid role
confusion. Time of psycho-social moratorium in west
• Psycho-social moratorium (Erikson 1968)
– Agreed upon “period of delay before an adolescent’s
final commitment to a mature adult identity”
– May involve a prolonged state of confusion - active
experimentation with different roles, values and beliefs
– Many societies provide for clear “rite(s) of passage” to
help demarcate childhood from adulthood
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Erikson and Adolescence
• Positive ego identity is the goal
– If identity is pushed onto the adolescent he/she may not
adequately explore alternative roles resulting in identity
foreclosure or confusion (identity crisis)
– Adolescent may withdraw, isolating him/herself from
peers and family or may loses identity in the crowd
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Other Issues in Adolescent Development –
Place Erikson on hold…
Adolescence
 Physical Development
 Cognitive Development
 Personality/Social Development
 Emerging Adulthood
 What is adolescence? When does it begin? When do
adolescents become adults?
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Adolescent Physical Development –
Erikson on Hold
Puberty - Primary and secondary sexual characteristics
Neurons in the frontal cortex grow myelin, speeding up nerve
conduction. Prefrontal cortex lags behind the limbic system.
Hormonal surges and limbic activity explain occasional teen
impulsiveness
Pre-adolescent brain spurt. Synaptic pruning A second period
of selective pruning
The Adolescent Brain
The Teenage Brain
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Cognitive Errors Common in Adolescence (Elkind)
• Imaginary audience - Belief that everyone else is focused
on you, related to self-consciousness
• Personal fable - Delusion that you are unique and very
important (adolescent egocentrism)
• Invulnerability - Nothing can harm you
• Argumentativeness – Building viewpoints; argue both big
and small issues
• Apparent hypocrisy – Have difficulty living up to ideals
• Indecisiveness - Choices, choices, choices…
• Finding fault with adult figures - Authorities fall short
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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Intimacy
–
Isolation
(Adulthood 18-30 years)
– Psychosocial task(s) - To
establish
close
relationships with a clear
sense of who you are.
Mutuality of devotion .
– Maladaptation?
Malignancy?
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Erikson’s Stages of Psychosocial Development
• Generativity - Stagnation (Middle Adulthood)
– To cultivate proper balance between generativity
(extension of love into the future) and stagnation
(degree of self-absorption-lack of contribution) . What
about midlife crisis? Mid-Life Myth
• Integrity - Despair (Late Adulthood)
– Reconciling loss of usefulness and relevance (in youthbased society), coping with biological failure,
adjustment to constant loss of self and others. Goal is
ego integrity
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Value and Criticisms of Erikson
•
•
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Lifelong consideration of development
Recognizes ego growth and self awareness
Later personality is premised in part on earlier influences
Emphasis on social and cultural influences (v. individual)
• Freudian connections/influence
• All criticisms associated with discontinuous stage theories
about development. Discontinuity v. more incremental,
timing, cultural differences…
• Western, industrialized bias
• Oversimplification
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