Stages of Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson Stages of Psychosocial Development
By Christine Ferch
Have thought you were missing something or maybe should have taken a different path during certain stages of your life? Are you feeling your choices, or your social world left you feeling stuck and not sure which direction to go?
Erik Erikson created a theory around our social world and the role and impact it has on our psyche and the choices we make and the paths we travel. The stages of psychosocial development look at our personality unfolds based on conflicts we endure from our environments to the choices we make. These stages begin from infancy into old age.
For an individual to become fully functional we need to progress through these stages by successfully solving the conflict within the stage. There are times in adulthood, we may need to work through trust vs mistrust. When these needs are met, our trust builds which enhances the positive nature of the relationships we have, both with friends and loved ones.
When we succeed through the stages, Erikson believed we develop human virtues and a healthy personality, failure, leads to difficulty moving toward a future and negatively impacts our sense of self, and personality. We feel inadequate and this continues the “stuck” feeling.
The conflict which arises in each stage is dependent on what psychological needs are required during that stage. During infancy, these are the basic needs: food, love, safety, nurturance, it is through these needs we build trust, when these needs are not met, we gain mistrust of those around us and become emotionally detached. This creates the first stage trust vs. mistrust and occurs from birth to 18 months and is the most crucial stage as we are entirely reliant on our caregivers. Failure in this stage develops fear, mistrust, suspicion, and anxiety and negative schemas about others and the world.
The second stage is autonomy vs shame and doubt, 18 months to 3 years old. At this age, we are gaining independence as we explore the world around us. We are acknowledging what we visually identify in our world and our developing physical skills. Through this personal growth, we gain personal control and autonomy or independence. Role models assist in this stage which can be parents, teachers, caregivers, who provide the child with choice and letting them perform actions on their own. Potty training is crucial during this stage, as this is when the child learns control of their body in a supportive space while being independent, hence the autonomy which increases personal power and a sense of being in the world. When parents are encouraging and expect their children to explore limits, scratch them and avoid criticizing, children grow up feeling secure, and confident to move through the next stages of development.
Shame and doubt arise when parents are overly critical or controlling and prevent the child from asserting their desire for exploration and autonomy. The child may feel unable to survive and will constantly need their parents around, they lack self-esteem and become excessively dependent on others. There is shame over toileting accidents such as bed wetting, or just missing the cue and wetting the pants. The lack of control and encouragement from parents creates shame and doubt they can act on their own without help.
Stage 3 is initiative vs Guilt. When we have autonomy, confidence, and self-esteem to explore our world, we initiate play and social interactions, which fits as this stage is targeted from the ages 3-5. We learn with our peers to assert ourselves through play with others our age and our interpersonal skills. If we are overly restricted from exploring our social world by parental control or criticism, we develop guilt. When we are criticized, guilt increases reducing our self-esteem and desire to take initiative for fear of failure.
Stage 4 is Industry vs Inferiority
Ages 5- 12 and we become immersed in the education system, school, peer interactions, and learning to juggle academics and friends. Teachers play a larege role in our growth through this stage as they are our role models for learning and achieving. Our peer groups are also important as they also help build our self-esteem and confidence. During this age we may be engaging in sport activities which assist in our thoughts on our ability to perform and complete tasks and obtaining approval. When we are industrious, we develop competence and flourishing self-esteem, confidence, and positive interpersonal skills and relationships. Failure during this stage can lead to inferiority feeling as if we are unable to perform specific skills reducing our self-esteem, competency, and confidence levels. Failure can have a substantial impact in our maturation through our teenage years.
Stage 5 Identity vs Role Confusion
The stage of the daunting teenage years for both parents and the teenager. There are many new opportunities presenting itself as the youth progresses socially, athletically, academically all or some of these at once. There are changes in the mind and how the youth thinks based on maturation of the frontal lobe which is responsible for all executive functioning and emotion regulation tasks. As well, the stages of puberty which affects hormones levels and impacts how our mind works. This stage is the final stage which sets us up for adulthood and old age. It is the valuable exploration of our beliefs, goals, values, morals and how these will create our personal identity and sense of self.
This crucial stage between childhood and adulthood because we are growing into greater independence and responsibilities. We need successful transitions from the earlier stages as the self-esteem, confidence, competency, and healthy relationships can assist with positive progression through the later stages.
Erikson believed “between the morality learned by the child, and the ethics to be developed by the adult”. Stressing the importance for young adults to learn roles we may adopt once we mature, including sexually as our body image transforms during this stage.
Success in this stage leads to a strong belief of who we are, what we want in life and what our purpose is. Fidelity is expressed when staying true to who we are, and our identity begins to solidify. With continued encouragement, our autonomy grows, our sense of control is increased with our sense of self.
Failure during this stage looks like lack of identity and sense of self, confusion and not understanding our role in the world and purpose in life. We are unsure of ourselves, our future, and the people around us, our social group is poor or nonexistent as we do not know where we belong which may lead to identity crisis.
Stage 6: Intimacy vs Isolation
Creation of our personal and intimate relationships between 18 and 40 years old, the success in the stage is dependent on the success in stage 5. Major conflict may arise here as we attempt to gain larger long-term commitments such as work-related responsibilities along with family. The creation of health and happy relationships are secure and enduring for us to experience. Love is the ultimate success during this stage, we crave meaningful and lasting relationships.
Failure at this stage looks at going beyond, within or outside control to form appropriate bongs or avoidance of intimacy. This may lead to loneliness, isolation and depression and poor sense of self and becoming emotionally isolated and engage in few committed relationships.
If there is continued failure throughout the previous stages, one may engage in unhealthy relationships to achieve conflict resolution.
Stage 7: Generativity vs Stagnation
This stage occurs around 40 and into our mid-sixties. During our middle adulthood, we look for longevity in our life’s continuation and the long-term impact we have had on others. When we feel we have made a mark on the world, we nurtured things outside of who we are, we are providing generativity. We are advancing the generations below us as we demonstrated what being a productive and valuable member of society and our interpersonal groups. Success in this stage is presented in our level of care and feeling useful in life, we are proud of who we have become and have a strong relationship with our partner.
Failure is very different as we feel stagnate. We feel we had little impact on the world, we failed to make a dent in the world as we could not identify our purpose. We feel unproductive, uninvolved, disillsusioned, and disconnected from the world.
Stage 8: Integrity vs Despair, the final stage.
From age 65 until our passing. This stage is one of reflection. We we slow down, and naturally become less productive, embrace what we have become and accomplished. Success shows in our beliefs we achieved our goals, found happiness and have feelings of integrity and wholeness. We can state, if we pass, we will be at peace.
Failure may look like a sense of despair and regret over things left unfinished or mistakes we had made. We become bitter about the past and present and frightened about coming to the end of the life.
Did you ever have a thought you may have unresolved conflict in one or more of these stages? Contact us now to see how to proceed and resolve this issue by contacting us at: admin@ovcs.ca.
