Erik Erikson proposed 8 stages of psychosocial development from infancy to late adulthood. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis between opposing factors that helps develop a virtue. The stages include trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame/doubt (early childhood), initiative vs guilt (play age), industry vs inferiority (school age), identity vs role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood), generativity vs stagnation (adulthood), and integrity vs despair (late adulthood). Erikson expanded on Freud's psychosexual stages and emphasized the role of society and culture in ego development.
Erik Erikson proposed 8 stages of psychosocial development from infancy to late adulthood. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis between opposing factors that helps develop a virtue. The stages include trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame/doubt (early childhood), initiative vs guilt (play age), industry vs inferiority (school age), identity vs role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood), generativity vs stagnation (adulthood), and integrity vs despair (late adulthood). Erikson expanded on Freud's psychosexual stages and emphasized the role of society and culture in ego development.
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LIFE AND WORK TO THEORIES OF PERSONALITY OF ERIK ERIKSON
Erik Erikson proposed 8 stages of psychosocial development from infancy to late adulthood. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis between opposing factors that helps develop a virtue. The stages include trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame/doubt (early childhood), initiative vs guilt (play age), industry vs inferiority (school age), identity vs role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood), generativity vs stagnation (adulthood), and integrity vs despair (late adulthood). Erikson expanded on Freud's psychosexual stages and emphasized the role of society and culture in ego development.
Erik Erikson proposed 8 stages of psychosocial development from infancy to late adulthood. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis between opposing factors that helps develop a virtue. The stages include trust vs mistrust (infancy), autonomy vs shame/doubt (early childhood), initiative vs guilt (play age), industry vs inferiority (school age), identity vs role confusion (adolescence), intimacy vs isolation (young adulthood), generativity vs stagnation (adulthood), and integrity vs despair (late adulthood). Erikson expanded on Freud's psychosexual stages and emphasized the role of society and culture in ego development.
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SUMMARY OUTLINE was similar to Freud's concept of the oral stage,
except that Erikson expanded the notion of
I. Overview of Erikson's Post-Freudian incorporation beyond the mouth to include sense Theory organs such as the eyes and ears. The Erikson postulated eight stages of psychosocial psychosexual mode of infancy is oral-sensory, development through which people progress. which is characterized by both receiving and Although he differed from Freud in his emphasis accepting. The psycho-social crisis of infancy is on the ego and on social influences, his theory is basic trust versus basic mistrust. From the crisis an extension, not a repudiation, of Freudian between basic trust and basic mistrust emerges psychoanalysis. hope, the basic strength of infancy. Infants who do not develop hope retreat from the world, and this withdrawal is II. Biography of Erik Erikson the core pathology of infancy. When Erik Erikson was born in Germany in 1902 B. Early Childhood his name was Erik Salomonsen. After his mother The second to third year of life is early childhood, married Theodor Homburger, Erik eventually took a period that compares to Freud's anal stage, but his step-father's name. At age 18 he left home to it also includes mastery of other body functions pursue the life of a wandering artist and to search such as walking, urinating, and holding. The for self-identity. He gave up that life to teach psychosexual mode of early childhood is anal- young children in Vienna, where he met Anna urethral-muscular, and children of this age Freud. Still searching for his personal identity, he behave both impulsively and compulsively. The was psychoanalyzed by Ms. Freud, an experience psychosocial crisis of early childhood is autonomy that allowed him to become a psychoanalyst. In versus shame and doubt. The psychosocial crisis mid-life, Erik Homburger moved to the United between autonomy on the one hand and shame States, changed his name to Erikson, and took a and doubt on the other produces will, the basic position at the Harvard Medical School. Later, he strength of early childhood. The core pathology of taught at Yale, the University of California at early childhood is compulsion. Berkeley, and several other universities. He died C. Play Age in 1994, a month short of his 92nd birthday. From about the third to the fifth year, children experience the play age, a period that parallels III. The Ego in Post-Freudian Psychology Freud's phallic phase. Unlike Freud, however, One of Erikson's chief contributions to personality Erikson saw the Oedipus complex as an early theory was his emphasis on ego rather than id model of lifelong playfulness and a drama played functions. According to Erikson, the ego is the out in children's minds as they attempt to center of personality and is responsible for a understand the basic facts of life. The primary unified sense of self. It consists of three psychosexual mode of the play age is genital- interrelated facets: the body ego, the ego ideal, locomotor, meaning that children have both an and ego identity. interest in genital activity and an increasing A. Society's Influence ability to move around. The psychosocial crisis of The ego develops within a given society and is the play age is initiative versus guilt. The conflict influenced by child-rearing practices and other between initiative and guilt helps children to act cultural customs. All cultures and nations develop with purpose and to set goals. a pseudospecies, or a fictional notion that they But if children have too little purpose, they are superior to other cultures. develop inhibition, the core pathology of the play B. Epigenetic Principle age. The ego develops according to the epigenetic D. School Age principle; that is, it grows according to a The period from about 6 to 12 or 13 years of age genetically established rate and in a fixed is called the school age, a time of psychosexual sequence. latency, but it is also a time of psychosocial growth beyond the family. Because sexual development is latent during the school age, IV. Stages of Psychosocial Development children can use their energies to learn the Each of the eight stages of development is customs of their culture, including both formal marked by a conflict between a syntonic and informal education. The psychosocial crisis of (harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive) this age is industry versus inferiority. Children element, which produces a basic strength or ego need to learn to work hard, but they also must quality. Also, from adolescence on, each stage is develop some sense of inferiority. From the characterized conflict of industry and inferiority emerges by an identity crisis or turning point, which may competence, the basic strength of school age produce either adaptive or maladaptive children. Lack of industry leads to inertia, the adjustment. core pathology of this stage. A. Infancy Erikson's view of infancy (the first year of life) disdain (a core pathology marked by feelings of E. Adolescence being finished or helpless). Adolescence begins with puberty and is marked by a person's struggle to find ego identity. It is a V. Erikson's Methods of Investigation time of psychosexual growth, but it is also a Erikson relied mostly on anthropology, period of psychosocial latency. The psychosexual psychohistory, and play construction to explain mode of adolescence is puberty or genital and describe human personality. maturation. The psychosocial crisis of adolescence A. Anthropological Studies is identity versus identity confusion. Erikson's two most important anthropological Psychologically healthy individuals emerge from studies were of the Sioux of South Dakota and adolescence with a sense of who they are and the Yurok tribe of northern California. Both what they believe; but some identity confusion is studies demonstrated his notion that culture and normal. The conflict between identity and identity history help shape personality. confusion produces fidelity, or faith in some ideological view of the future. Lack of belief in B. Psychohistory one's own selfhood results in role repudiation, or Erikson combined the methods of psychoanalysis an inability to bring together one's various self and historical research to study several images. personalities, most notably Gandhi and Luther. In both cases, the central figure experienced an F. Young Adulthood identity crisis that produced a basic strength Young adulthood begins with the acquisition of rather than a intimacy at about age 18 and ends with the core pathology. development of generativity at about age 30. The C. Play Construction psychosexual mode of young adulthood is Erikson's technique of play construction became genitality, which is expressed as mutual trust controversial when he found that 10- to 12-year- between partners in a stable sexual relationship. old boys used toys to construct elongated objects Its psychosocial crisis is intimacy versus isolation. and to produce themes of rising and falling. In Intimacy is the ability to fuse one's identity with contrast, girls arranged toys in low and peaceful that of another without fear of losing it; whereas scenes. Erikson concluded that anatomical isolation is the fear of losing one's identity in an differences between the sexes play a role in intimate relationship. The crisis between intimacy personality development. and isolation results in the capacity to love. The core pathology of young adulthood is exclusivity, or inability to love. VI. Related Research G. Adulthood Erikson's theory has generated a moderately The period from about 31 to 60 years of age is large body of research, must of it investigating adulthood, a time when people make significant the concept of identity. In addition, some contributions to society. The psychosexual mode researchers have looked at Erikson's concept of of adulthood is procreativity, or the caring for generativity. one's children, the children of others, and the A. Identity in Early Adulthood material products of one's society. The A longitudinal study by Jennifer Pals and Ravenna psychosocial crisis of adulthood is generativity Helson found that identity established in early versus stagnation, and the successful resolution adulthood is associated with stable marriage and of this crisis results in care. Erikson saw care as high levels of creativity. Additional research by taking care of the persons and products that one Helson and Pals found that women who had solid has learned to care for. The core pathology of identity and high creative potential at age 21 adulthood is rejectivity, or the rejection of certain were more likely than other women to have had a individuals or groups that one is unwilling to take challenging and creative work experience at age care of. 52. H. Old Age B. Generativity in Midlife The final stage of development is old age, from People high in generativity should have a lifestyle about age 60 until death. The psychosexual mode marked by creating and passing on knowledge, of old age is generalized sensuality; that is, values, and ideals to a younger generation, and taking pleasure in a variety of sensations and an should benefit from a pattern of helping younger appreciation of the traditional lifestyle of people people. Research by Dan McAdams and of the other gender. The psychosocial crisis of old colleagues found that adults at midlife who age is the struggle between integrity (the contributed to the well-being of young people had maintenance of ego-identity) and despair (the a clear sense of who they were and what life had surrender of hope). The struggle between to offer them. Other research found that people integrity and despair may produce wisdom (the high in generativity are typically concerned with basic strength of old age), but it may also lead to the well-being of others. VII. Critique of Erikson Although Erikson's work is a logical extension of Freud's psychoanalysis, it offers a new way of looking at human development. As a useful theory, it rates high on its ability to generate research, and about average on its ability to be falsified, to organize knowledge, and to guide the practitioner. It rates high on internal consistency and about average on parsimony.
VIII. Concept of Humanity
Erikson saw humans as basically social animals who have limited free choice and who are motivated by past experiences, which may be either conscious or unconscious. In addition, Erikson is rated high on both optimism and uniqueness of individuals.