Psychosocial Development
Major Theorist
Erik Erikson
| Erikson's Stages or Psychological Development |
| Approximate Age |
Stage |
Potential Strenght to be Gained |
Description |
| 0-1 |
I. Basic trust v. mistrust |
Hope |
The infant must form a first, loving, trusting relationship with the caregiver or risk a persisting sense of mistrust. |
| 2-3 |
II. Autonomy v. shame and doubt |
Will |
The child's energies are directed toward the development of key physical skills, including walking, grasping, and sphincter control. The child learns control but may develop shame if not handled properly. |
| 4-5 |
III. Initiative v. guilt |
Purpose |
The child continues to become more assertive and take more initiative, but may be too forceful and injure others or objects, which leads to guilt. |
| 6-12 |
IV. Industry v. inferiority |
Competence |
The school-aged child must deal with the demands to learn new, complex skills or risk a sense of inferiority. |
| 13-18 |
V. Identity v. role confusion |
Fidelity |
The teenager (or young adult) must achieve a sense of identity--both who he or she is and what he or she will be--in several areas, including occupation, gender role, politics, and religion. |
| 19-25 |
VI. Intimacy v. isolation |
Love |
The young adult must risk the immersion of self in a sense of "we," creating one or more truly intimate relationships, or suffer feelings of isolation. |
| 25-65 |
VII. Generativity v. self-absorption and stagnation |
Care |
In early and middle adulthood, each adult must find some way to satisfy the need to be generative, to support the next generation or turn outward from the self toward others. |
| 65+ |
VIII. Ego integrity v. despair |
Wisdom |
If all previous stages have been dealt with reasonably well, the culmination is an acceptance of one-self as one is. |
| Taken from Bjorklund & Bee, 2008 |
Citations
Bjorklund, B. R. & Bee, H. L. (2008). The Journey of Adulthood, 6th ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Web Links
http://allpsych.com/psychology101/social_development.html
A brief summary of Erikson's stages
http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/ERIK/WELCOME.HTML
A site created for use by students in a psych course. An example of how not to create a site that you want to protect for course use only. Remember to password protect sites intended for course use.
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