Erik Erikson’s Stages of Development

This will be the first of three posts on developmental. In a previous post, I stated that I will explain three different theories of development from an emotional point of view, from a cognitive point of view and from a moral point of view. Today’s post will be the emotional viewpoint by Erik Erikson. Erikson’s viewpoint of development has been said to be based on Freud’s psychosexual development, but Erikson went the psychosocial route. For those that don’t know what psychosocial means it’s looking at an individual through the lens of the psychological factors as well as the social environment around them. By doing so, you should be able understand how the environment around them impacts their daily functioning. In this theory, Erikson lists out 8 stages from birth to death. For each stage there is a conflict scenario that every individual encounters. Success in reference to the conflict would mean that the person is developing well and will gain skills that will be used for greater levels of functioning throughout their life. Conversely, failure means they will be hindered in their development and their level of functioning throughout their life may diminish due to not being able succeeded in a previous developmental stage. That being said, let’s get into it.

Stage 1: Trust vs. Mistrust (birth to 18 months)

This stage is a unique stage. Aside from being the first stage, it’s the only stage where the individual isn’t responsible for their own success, but their parents are. Because the child was just born and is dependent on the parents, the conflict that happens at this stage is “trust vs mistrust”. If the parents can provide what a child needs during this crucial stage, they will grow up with a sense of security. However, if the parents are not, the child runs the risk of growing up with a fear of the world around them. The structure wasn’t there during their upbringing, why would it be there as they continue in life? Erik’s belief that during this stage, and each other stage within this theory, that the individual must have a healthy balance between the two opposing sides for them to develop at an optimal level in his eyes. Continuing on with this belief he also theorized that there is an ideal outcome that is sought for once this individual is able to reach that optimal level. For this stage that outcome is hope. Hope in the context of the theory is the feeling of trust that the children gain and the ability to determine who is trustworthy and not.

Stage 2: Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt (2 to 3 years)

This is the second stage within this theory. During this stage is when the child is starting to get their own sense of personal control. If we look at the previous stage, the child is completely cared for by the parents. As the child gets older, they begin to start getting a little more control of their behaviors. Within this new realm the child will go through certain successes and failures that will impact their functioning as they move on through life. For example, Very Well Mind explains that during this stage one crucial learning experience is potty training. I’m sure if we can’t remember how stressful of a time that was for us growing up, our parents will be more than happy to let us know the mental turmoil we put them through during this time. In learning how to use the bathroom on their own, and the constant accidents until this point, children gain a base understanding of autonomy as well as shame. Being able to conquer this event in our childhood gives us a sense of elation. However, in that same regard, waking up to that puddle in our bed makes us feel a level of shame that is unmatched during our early childhood. Like the previous stage, the aim is to gain a balance of both of the positive (autonomy) and negative (shame and doubt) for healthy functioning throughout life. The outcome for this stage is will. Will in the context of the theory is the intention of doing something within reason.

Stage 3: Initiative vs. Guilt (3 to 5 years)

This is the third stage of the theory. This stage is during the preschool years. During this stage is when the child begin to take control of the environments that they are able to control. This may sound redundant so let me try to explain further. During each stage of our life there are certain environments that we can “control” to fit our individual personality. The adult may be in charge of a company or a group of people, the teen may take control of class assignments or their friend group and the child (more specific to this stage) may take control of their play environments. We could take a look at a good example, The Rugrats. Tommy Pickles is known as one of the main protagonists in the show. He takes lead of the rest of the babies and protects them from his cousin Angelica. If he were in this stage he would be a good example of what a person that successfully finds balance in this stage would look like. He knows how to lead and he knows how to work together with others to reach a common goal. Now using the same show we also have an example of two people that would be considered as an individual that was unable to reach that balance, Angelica Pickles and Charles “Chucky” Finster. Angelica is known as one of the main antagonists in the show that often tries to assert her dominance over the babies. Because she tries very hard, and often fails, it leads her to feel more anger towards the babies as well as getting in trouble with her parents. With Chucky it’s the opposite. Often, he shirks away from the possibility of taking lead and opts to just be one of the followers. This can lead to lack of initiative as he grows in life, as is apparent in Rugrats: All Grown Up.  With balance the individual develops a sense of purpose however when imbalanced the individual is left feeling guilty, doubting of themselves and generally lacking initiative.

Stage 4: Industry vs. Inferiority (5 to 11 years)

Welcome to stage 4. We are currently at the halfway point and if you made it this far, I appreciate you for taking the time out of your day to read this. Get up and stretch and when you’re ready, let’s get back to it.

In this stage is where social interactions start to play a more defining role in our development. During these ages we are going to school, maybe joining a sports team, going to the neighborhood park, etc. Based on how we respond to each of these different social interactions will determine whether or not we were able to successfully maneuver through this stage. So for this stage, I’ll use myself as an example. At the age of 9, I started playing baseball. I would play for a local league and for my first time playing a sport and practicing, I wasn’t half bad. Being able to showcase my talent and getting recognized for that talent left me feeling competent in my ability to play the game. Now at the age of 10 it was my second year of baseball and I’m not going to lie to you, I was horrible. I couldn’t hit a ball to save my life and that was a slap in the face to my ego at the time because I was still feeding off that high from my first year playing. Because I was able to experience both extreme competence and self-doubt about my abilities, I was able to discern my true ability when it came to this sport. Like all the stages before this, the goal is balance between the positive and negative. Once that balance is achieved, competence in yourself and abilities will be gained from then.

Stage 5: Identity vs. Confusion (12 to 18 years)

As identified in the stage this is during an individual’s teenage years. This the time of a person’s life where they are trying to find themselves. As all stages, this is an important stage of person’s development because they are actively figuring out their interests, both professionally and socially. Teens are normally in school, working to see how they want the remainder of life to shape out. Maybe they are thinking of going to college to start working towards their career or they plan on finding employment directly after college. One of the important events that happen during this stage are the social relationships that an individual gains. Think about your closest friends. I would bet that many of the friends that you would consider part of your inner circle were friendships that started during this age range. You’ve been able to maintain these friendships due to similar ideals and beliefs that you’ve developed throughout your entire life. Which brings me to the success component of this stage. For those that are successful in managing this stage of development they achieve fidelity. Fidelity in this context is referring to the loyalty someone has to their ideals. This is what pushes them to start making the career and educational choices. This is also what helps to foster and keep those relationships going long term. Unfortunately, due to us having to experience with different individuals on a regular basis and learning their personalities, we sometimes run into confusion of our own identity. We may try to fit into social norms that don’t necessarily fit our character and leave us worse off than we would like. As parents for people during this stage of life, it’s important to ask questions that would foster the identity of the kids going through this but leave it open for change if their interest changes.

Stage 6: Intimacy vs Isolation (19 to 40 years)

This stage is one of the longer stages of development. As the title suggests, this is stage of an individual’s life where they are searching for their ideal person(s). We work to create personal relationships with others that we’d like to see ourselves with long term. If we look at the previous stage we have gotten to a point where we are sure of ourselves and our ideals. We seek out those people that may fit into those ideals and try to build with them. For some this may be easier than others depending on the social circles they may be in. For example if a person is part of a specific religion, they may find someone else that is part of that religion as well as interprets the religion in the same way. They have similar ideals therefore there is a good possibility that they will be in a long standing relationship. Now for those that have struggled in the previous levels of development they have the issue of maintaining these relationships long term. They seek out what they think they want and when they realize it isn’t what they thought, they run the risk of experiencing loneliness. At this point you could guess that success in this stage is love, where a long standing relationship is gained or levels of loneliness and isolation is gained.

Stage 7: Generativity

vs Stagnation (40 to 65 years)

Like all stages that came before it, this stage is a continuation of the previous one. The focus in this stage however is building for the future. Around this time, the ideal individual has a partner, a job, a home, possibly kids and they are building for the future of their loved ones. In the same fashion as the last stage where we are looking for someone to start a life with, we now look at that same person to build a future with. At this stage we begin to appreciate how far we have come in life and start looking to the future for what’s to come and what will be left behind for the generations after us. The important tenet for this stage is care. Care means in this framework to appreciate your accomplishments thus far. If you’ve been working at a job for some time you may look back at all the work you’ve done with a company or with your business. If you have a family you may take a step back to appreciate how far you’ve come from when you’ve started. They say the last stage is the stage of reflection however I would argue that reflection actually starts at this age when you start to notice all the things you’ve done in your life and appreciate it. However, the negative possibility at this stage is stagnation. The feeling that you’ve come so far with nothing to show from it. Like all the other stages, if you have failed at one or more of the previous stage, it seems like you are always playing catch up. And with that failure unfortunately comes even more isolation from the world around you.

Stage 8: Integrity vs Despair (65 to death)

As the title suggests this is the final stage of life. This is where it is theorized that we begin to reflect on everything that we’ve done so far. We’ve possibly retired at this point and for some there may be some medical challenges they are now experiencing more than ever. At this stage we look at our lives in it’s entirety and put our accomplishments on a figurative scale. On this scale it tells us if we’ve done enough or if our lives were wasted. Countless movies have shown a person on their death bed, about to pass on to the afterlife and once the state they appreciate the life they had and what they’ve done they die with a smile on their face. In the same amount of movies, we see the old irritable individual, no family or friends around them and they die alone due to their actions up until that point and they may audibly say they feel like they’ve wasted their entire life. The virtue gained in this stage, if successful, is integrity. With integrity we can look back at our life with a sense of pride that we did what we needed to do and we rocked it in the process. However the unsuccessful feeling is immense regret and the unfortunate feeling that your life has been wasted.

Now I don’t want to end off this post so morbid, but this puts some things into perspective. Regardless of the stage you are in, I would argue that there are some changes that can be done to reach a level of success at that stage. However the change is not going to come from the outside world, it’s going to come from you. Even as I’ve written this post, I’ve noticed something about myself and how I’ve interacted with the world. I’ve seen what I could possibly due to change my future for the positive in the long run and I hope with the bit of information that you read here today that it does the same for you. Like always, I hope that you enjoyed this post. I apologize for it taking so long however I feel that it is fitting for the new year. Take in the information, process it, learn from it and work on the changes you’ve been wanting to for a while so that you don’t get left behind in a stage you don’t need to be in. Happy New Year and until the next post, have a great day.

Source for this post came from verywellmind