ERIKSON’S THEORY
PSYCHOSOCIAL
DEVELOPMENT
Oral Sensory
Age: Infancy -- Birth to 1 year
Conflict: Trust vs. Mistrust
Important Event: Feeding
• Description:
• The important event in this stage is feeding.
According to Erikson, the infant will develop a
sense of trust only if the parent or caregiver is
responsive and consistent with the basic needs
being meet. The need for care and food must be
met with comforting regularity. The infant must
first form a trusting relationship with the parent
or caregiver, otherwise a sense of mistrust will
develop.
• Elements for a positive outcome:
• The infant's need for care, familiarity, comfort
and nourishment are met. Parental consistency
and responsiveness is essential for the sense of
trust to develop.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• Babies who are not securely attached to their
mothers are less cooperative and more
aggressive in their interactions with their
mothers. As they grow older, they become less
competent and sympathetic with peers. They
also explore their environment with less
enthusiasm and persistence.
• Examples:
• Babies will begin to understand that
objects and people exist even when they
cannot see them. This is where trust
becomes important.
Muscular-Anal
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Age:Toddler period -- 1 to 2 years
Conflict: Autonomy vs. Doubt
Important Event: Toilet Training
Description:
According to Erikson, self control and self
confidence begin to develop at this stage.
Children can do more on their own. Toilet
training is the most important event at this
stage. They also begin to feed and dress
themselves. This is how the toddler strives
for autonomy. It is essential for parents not to
be overprotective at this stage. A parent's
level of protectiveness will influence the
child's ability to achieve autonomy. If a
parent is not reinforcing, the child will feel
shameful and will learn to doubt his or her
abilities. "Erikson believes that children who
experience too much doubt at this stage will
lack confidence in their powers later in life"
Muscular-Anal
• Elements for a positive outcome:
• The child must take more responsibility for his or her
own feeding, toileting, and dressing. Parents must be
reassuring yet avoid overprotection.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• If parents do not maintain a reassuring, confident attitude
and do not reinforce the child's efforts to master basic
motor and cognitive skills, children may begin to feel
shame; they may learn to doubt their abilities to manage
the world on their own terms. Children who experience
too much doubt at this stage will lack confidence in their
own powers throughout life.
• Examples:
• In this stage children begin to assume
important responsibilities for self-care like
feeding toileting, dressing.
Locomotor stage
• Age: Early Childhood -- 2 to 6 years
Conflict: Initiative vs. Guilt
• Important Event: Independence
• Description:
• The most important event at this stage is
independence. The child continues to be
assertive and to take the initiative. Playing and
hero worshipping are an important form of
initiative for children. Children in this stage are
eager for responsibility. It is essential for adults
to confirm that the child's initiative is accepted
no matter how small it may be. If the child is not
given a chance to be responsible and do things
on their own, a sense of guilt may develop. The
child will come to believe that what they want to
do is always wrong.
Locomotor
• Elements for a positive outcome:
• In order for a positive outcome in this stage, the
child must learn toaccept without guilt, that there
are certain things not allowed. Children mustbe
guilt free when using imagination. They must be
reassured that it is okay toplay certain adult
roles.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• If children are not allowed to do things on their
own, a sense of guilt maydevelop and they may
come to believe that what they want to do is
always wrong.
• Examples:
• A four year old passing tools to a parent
who is fixing a bicycle. Children at this
stage will worship heroes. Pretend games
are also common
Latency
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Age: Elementary and Middle School
Years -- 6 to 12 years
Conflict: Industry vs. Inferiority
Important Event: School
Description:
"In this stage children are learning
to see the relationship between
perseverance and the pleasure of a
job completed"(Woolfolk, 1987).The
important event at this stage is
attendance at school. As a student,
the children have a need to be
productive and do work on their
own. They are both physically and
mentally ready for it. Interaction with
peers at school also plays an
imperative role of child development
in this stage. The child for the first
time has a wide variety of events to
deal with, including academics,
group activities, and friends.
Difficulty with any of these leads to
a sense of inferiority.
Latency
• Elements for a positive outcome:
• It is essential for the child at this stage to
discover pleasure in being productive and the
need to succeed. The child's relationship with
peers in school and the neighborhood become
increasingly important.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• Difficulty with the child's ability to move between
the world at home and the world of peers can
lead to feeling of inferiority.
Latency
• Examples:
• In this stage children want to do productive
work on their own. Students are able to
water class plants, collect and distribute
materials for teacher, and keep records of
forms for teacher.
Adolescence
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Age: Adolescence --12 to 18 years
Conflict: Identity vs. Role Confusion
Important Event: Peer relationships
Description:
At this stage, adolescents are in
search of an identity that will lead
them to adulthood. Adolescents
make a strong effort to answer the
question "Who am I?" Erikson notes
the healthy resolution of earlier
conflicts can now serve as a
foundation for the search for an
identity. If the child overcomes
earlier conflicts they are prepared to
search for identity. Did they develop
the basic sense of trust? Do they
have a strong sense of industry to
believe in themselves?
• Elements for a positive outcome:
• The adolescent must make a conscious search
for identity. This is built on the outcome and
resolution to conflict in earlier stages.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• If the adolescent can not make deliberate
decisions and choices, especially about
vocation, sexual orientation, and life in general,
role confusion becomes a threat.
• Examples:
• Adolescents attempt to establish their own
identities and see themselves as separate from
their parents
Young Adulthood
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Age: Young Adulthood -- 19 to 40 years
Conflict: Intimacy vs. Isolation
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Important Event: Love relationships
Description:
In this stage, the most important events
are love
relationships. Intimacy refers to one's
ability to relate to another human being
on a deep, personal level. An individual
who has not developed a sense of
identity usually will fear a committed
relationship and may retreat into
isolation. It is important to mention that
having a sexual relationship does not
indicate intimacy. People can be
sexually intimate without being
committed and open with another. True
intimacy requires personal commitment.
However, mutual satisfaction will
increase the closeness of people in a
true intimate relationship.
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• Elements for a positive outcome:
• The young adult must develop intimate relationships with
others. Not resolving this conflict leaves the young adult
feeling isolated. The young adult must be willing to be
open and committed to another individual.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• An individual may retreat into isolation if a sense of
identity is not developed and will fear a committed
relationship.
• Examples:
• Giving and sharing with an individual without asking what
will be received in return.
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Age : Middle adulthood -- 40 to 65 years
Conflict: Generativity vs. Stagnation
Important Event: ParentingDescription:
In this stage generativity refers to the adult's ability to
care for another person. The most important event in this
stage is parenting. Does the adult have the ability to care
and guide the next generation? Generativity has a
broader meaning then just having children. Each adult
must have some way to satisfy and support the next
generation. According to Erikson, "A person does best at
this time to put aside thoughts of death and balance its
certainty with the only happiness that is lasting: to
increase, by whatever is yours to give, the goodwill and
higher order in your sector of the world"(Erikson, 1974).
• Elements for a positive outcome:
• To have and nurture children and/or become
involved with future generations.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• An individual must deal with issues they are
concerned with or it can lead to stagnation in
later life.
• Examples:
• In this stage an adult will be concerned with
issues such as: the future of the environment,
what kind of world will we leave the next
generation, equality for all people, etc.
• Age: Late Adulthood -- 65 years to
deathConflict: Integrity vs. DespairImportant
Event: Reflection on
and acceptance of one's lifeDescription:
• The most important event at this stage is coming
to accept one's whole life and reflecting on that
life in a positive manner. According to Erikson,
achieving a sense of integrity means fully
accepting oneself and coming to terms with the
death. Accepting responsibility for your life and
being able to undo the past and achieve
satisfaction with self is essential. The inability to
do this results in a feeling of despair.
• Elements for a positive outcome:
• The adult feels a sense of fulfillment about life
and accepts death as an unavoidable reality.
• Elements for a negative outcome:
• Individuals who are unable to obtain a feeling of
fulfillment and completeness will despair and
fear death.
• Examples:
• An aged person may find it necessary to reflect
and analyze what they have accumulated
throughout life and decide what offspring will
receive from them upon death.