Developmental stages: Erickson

Developmental stages: Erickson

Introduction
	Erik Erickson is an American psychologist whose work has been widely accepted and influences current thinking. He is known for his description of the psychosocial stages of human development.

Discussion
	Erik Erickson (1978:25 in Dacey 1982:38--55) described eight stages of the life cycle in terms of psychosocial crises. He asserts that development can be successful if the individual is able to resolve the key conflict which arises during each of the stages.

Stages

A stage is a period of time during which some specific change is accomplished. Each stage is marked by a crisis--that is, pressures resulting from internal needs and external demands of society which require a decision and a new direction. Individuals must resolve the task of each crisis in order to proceed to the next stage of development (Dacey 1982:39).

Here are the eight stages of the life cycle according to Erickson (adapted from Dworetzky 1987:228; Lefrancois 1988:184):

Stage	Name and age range	Psychosocial crisis	Hoped-for result
1	Infancy Birth to 1.5 years	Trust versus mistrust	Hope
2	Early childhood 1.5 to 3 years	Autonomy versus shame, doubt	Will
3	Play age 3 to 5 years	Initiative versus guilt	Purpose
4	School age 5 to 12 years	Industry versus inferiority	Competence
5	Adolescence 12 to 18 years	Identity and repudiation versus identity confusion	Fidelity
6	Young adulthood 18 to 25 years	Intimacy and solidarity versus isolation	Love
7	Maturity 25 to 65 years	Generative versus self absorption and stagnation	Care
8	Old age 65+ years	Integrity versus despair	Wisdom

See also
	Developmental theories of learning
	See the following portions of online books for more information:
	Cognition and Learning, Developmental theories

Context for this page:

Fact module: Developmental stages: Erickson
In overview module: Developmental theories of learning
In overview module: Learning theories, by Patricia M. Davis
In overview module: Learning research, by Patricia M. Davis
In overview module: Reading and learning research, by Kenneth A. Boothe (contributor) and Leah B. Walter (contributor)
In modular book: Implement a literacy program, by Carole P. Spaeth (compiler) and Leah B. Walter (compiler)
In bookshelf: Literacy

This page is an extract from the LinguaLinks Library, Version 4.0, published on CD-ROM by SIL International, 1999. [Ordering information.]

Page content last modified: 2 July 1998