1.9: Erikson

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Erik Erikson suggested that our relationships and society’s expectations motivate much of our behavior in his theory of psychosocial development. Erikson believed that we are not driven by unconscious urges. He is considered the father of developmental psychology because his model gives us a guideline for the entire life span and suggests certain primary psychological and social concerns throughout life (Paris et al., 2019).

Erikson emphasized the importance of culture in parenting practices and motivations. He also added three stages of social and emotional domains regarding adult development. He believed that we are aware of what motivates us throughout life and people make conscious choices in life and these choices focus on meeting certain social and cultural needs rather than purely biological ones. His theory notes that humans are motivated, for instance, by the need to feel that the world is a trustworthy place, that we are capable individuals, that we can make a contribution to society, and that we have lived a meaningful life. These are all psychosocial issues.

Erikson divided the lifespan into eight stages. In each stage, we have a major psychosocial task to accomplish or crisis to overcome. Successful completion of each developmental task results in a sense of competence and a healthy personality. Failure to master these tasks leads to feelings of inadequacy. Erikson believed that our personality continues to take shape throughout our lifespan as we face these challenges in living (Erikson, 1959).

These eight stages form a foundation for discussions on emotional and social development during the life span. However, these stages or crises can occur more than once and can occur at different ages (Erikson, 1968). For instance, a person may struggle with a lack of trust beyond infancy under certain circumstances. Erikson’s theory has been criticized for focusing so heavily on stages and assuming that the completion of one stage is a prerequisite for the next development crisis (Marcia, 1980). His theory also focuses on the social expectations that are found in some cultures, but not in others. For instance, the idea that adolescence is a time of searching for identity might translate well in the middle-class culture of the United States, but not as well in cultures where the transition into adulthood coincides with puberty through rites of passage and where adult roles offer fewer choices. Here is a brief overview of the eight stages (Lumen Learning, n.d.):

Table 1. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory

Name of Stage and Age	Description of Stage
Trust vs. mistrust (0-1 year)	The infant must have basic needs met in a consistent way in order to feel that the world is a trustworthy place.
Autonomy vs. shame and doubt (1-2 years)	Mobile toddlers have newfound freedom that they like to exercise and by being allowed to do so, they learn some basic independence.
Initiative vs. guilt (3-5 years)	Preschoolers like to initiate activities and emphasize doing things “all by myself.”
Industry vs. inferiority (6-11 years)	School-aged children focus on accomplishments and begin making comparisons between themselves and their classmates.
Identity vs. role confusion (adolescence)	Teenagers try to gain a sense of identity as they experiment with various roles, beliefs, and ideas.
Intimacy vs. isolation (young adulthood)	In our 20s and 30s, we make some of our first long-term commitments in intimate relationships.
Generativity vs. stagnation (middle adulthood)	In the 40s through the early 60s we focus on being productive at work and home and are motivated by wanting to feel that we’ve made a contribution to society.
Integrity vs. Despair (late adulthood)	We look back on our lives and hope to like what we see — that we have lived well and have a sense of integrity because we lived according to our beliefs.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Initiative vs. Guilt. (CC BY-SA 4.0; Alextredz via flickr)

Cultural considerations of Erikson's Theory

As discussed throughout this reading, culture is a main component of socialization and, thus, identity formation. According to Erikson, social identity is developed through the experience of socialization. The ultimate goal of identity formation is achievement that gives a person a consistent and integrated personality. Erikson notes that this occurs through identity individuation, as children begin to see themselves as separate persons from a group. In the U.S., this idea can be challenging to apply to children raised in cultures that rely on collectivist and interdependent frameworks versus individualism and independent orientations (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Triandis, 1995). In a majority of cultures around the world, children think of themselves as a part of a group before they think of themselves as an individual. The concept of a child thinking independently is not rewarded and may make identity achievement, as Erikson outlines, not generalizable to all cultures.

Additionally, children's developing sense of self is influenced by how others- parents, caregivers, teachers, friends see them. For many children the bias around race and ethnicity will directly impact a sense of psychological well being (Kaiser & Wilkins, 2010). As noted above, group membership, or being apart of a collective, is the experience of many people. When group experiences and expectations are not taken into account it can often be framed as negative identity within Erikson's construct.

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References

Erikson, E. (1959). Identity and the life cycle. International Universities Press.

Erikson, E. (1968). Identity: Youth and crisis. W.W. Norton & Company.

Kaiser C.R., Wilkins C.L. (2010). Group identification and prejudice: Theoretical and empirical advances and implications. Journal of Social Issues. 66(3):461–476

Lumen Learning. (n.d.). Erikson’s 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development.

Marcia, J. E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J. Adelson, (Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology (pp. 159-187). John Wiley & Sons.

Markus, H. R., & Kitayama, S. (1991). Culture and the self: Implications for cognition, emotion, and motivation. Psychological Review, 98(2), 224–253.

Paris, J., Ricardo, A., Rymond, D. (2019). Child Growth and Development. College of the Canyons.

Triandis, H. C. (1995). Individualism & collectivism. Westview Press.

Attributions

1960s: Erikson by Jennifer Paris, Antoinette Ricardo, Dawn Rymond, Lumen Learning, and Diana Lang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.