stages of Psychosocial Development

• First, growth takes place according to the epigenetic principle. That is, one component part arises out of another and has its own time of ascendancy, but it does not entirely replace earlier components.
• Second, in every stage of life there is an interaction of opposites—that is, a con flict between a syntonic (harmonious) element and a dystonic (disruptive) element. For example, during infancy basic trust (a syntonic tendency) is opposed to basic mistrust (a dystonic tendency)
• Third, at each stage, the conflict between the dystonic and syntonic elements produces an ego quality or ego strength, which Erikson referred to as a basic strength. For instance, from the antithesis between trust and mistrust emerges hope, an ego quality that allows an infant to move into the next stage. Likewise, each of the other stages is marked by a basic ego strength that emerges from the clash between the harmonious and the disruptive elements of that stage.
• Fourth, too little basic strength at any one stage results in a core pathology for that stage. For example, a child who does not acquire sufficient hope during infancy will develop the antithesis or opposite of hope, namely, withdrawal
• Fifth, although Erikson referred to his eight stages as psychosocial stages, he never lost sight of the biological aspect of human development.
• Sixth, events in earlier stages do not cause later personality development. Ego identity is shaped by a multiplicity of conflicts and events—past, present, and anticipated
• Seventh, during each stage, but especially from adolescence forward, personality development is characterized by an identity crisis, which Erikson (1968) called “a turning point, a crucial period of increased vulnerability and heightened potential”
• The first psychosocial stage is infancy, a period encompassing approximately the first year of life and paralleling Freud’s oral phase of development. However, Erikson’s model adopts a broader focus than Freud’s oral stage, which was concerned almost exclusively with the mouth. To Erikson (1963, 1989), infancy is a time of incorporation, with infants “taking in” not only through their mouth but through their various sense organs as well.
• Erikson’s expanded view of infancy is expressed in the term oral-sensory, a phrase that includes infants’ principal psychosexual mode of adapting. The oral-sensory stage is characterized by two modes of incorporation—receiving and accepting what is given. Infants can receive even in the absence of other people; that is, they can take in air through the lungs and can receive sensory data without having to manip ulate others. The second mode of incorporation, however, implies a social context. Infants not only must get, but they also must get someone else to give
• Basic Trust Versus Basic Mistrust Infants’ most significant interpersonal relations are with their primary caregiver, ordinarily their mother. If they realize that their mother will provide food regularly, then they begin to learn basic trust;In other words, if their pattern of accepting things corresponds with culture’s way of giving things, then infants learn basic trust. In contrast, they learn basic mistrust if they find no correspondence between their oral-sensory needs and their environment.
• Hope emerges from the conflict between basic trust and basic mistrust. Without the antithetical relationship between trust and mistrust, people cannot develop hope. Infants must experience hunger, pain, and discomfort as well as the alleviation of these unpleasant conditions. By having both painful and pleasurable experiences, infants learn to expect that future distresses will meet with satisfactory outcomes.
• second psychosocial stage is early childhood, a period paralleling Freud’s anal stage and encompassing approximately the 2nd and 3rd years of life. young children receive pleasure not only from mastering the sphincter muscle but also from mastering other body functions such as urinating, walking, throwing, holding, and so on. In addition, children develop a sense of control over their interpersonal environment, as well as a measure of self-control
• During the 2nd year of life, children’s primary psychosexual adjustment is the anal-urethral-muscular mode. At this time, children learn to control their body, especially in relation to cleanliness and mobility. Early childhood is more than a time of toilet training; it is also a time of learning to walk, run, hug parents, and hold on to toys and other objects.
• Shame is a feeling of self consciousness, of being looked at and exposed
• Doubt, on the other hand, is the feeling of not being certain, the feeling that something remains hidden and cannot be seen
• Ideally, children should develop a proper ratio between autonomy and shame and doubt, and the ratio should be in favor of autonomy
• will or willfulness evolves from the resolution of the crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt.
• Inadequate will is expressed as compulsion, the core pathology of early childhood. Too little will and too much compulsivity carry forward into the play age as lack of purpose and into the school age as lack of confidence.
• Erikson’s third stage of development is the play age, a period covering the same time as Freud’s phallic phase—roughly ages 3 to 5 years Erikson believed that the Oedipus complex is but one of several important developments during the play age. Erikson (1968) contended that, in addition to identifying with their parents, preschool-age children are develop ing locomotion, language skills, curiosity, imagination, and the ability to set goals
• The primary psychosexual mode during the play age is genital-locomotor
• Initiative Versus Guilt As children begin to move around more easily and vigorously and as their genital interest awakens, they adopt an intrusive head-on mode of approaching the world. Although they begin to adopt initiative in their selection and pursuit of goals, many goals, such as marrying their mother or father or leaving home, must be either repressed or delayed. The consequence of these taboo and inhibited goals is guilt.
• The conflict of initiative versus guilt produces the basic strength of purpose. Chil dren now play with a purpose, competing at games in order to win or to be on top. Their genital interests have a direction, with mother or father being the object of their sexual desires.
• Erikson’s concept of school age covers development from about age 6 to approx imately age 12 or 13 and matches the latency years of Freud’s theory. At this age, the social world of children is expanding beyond family to include peers, teachers, and other adult models.
• Sexual latency is important because it allows children to divert their energies to learning the technology of their culture and the strategies of their social interactions. As children work and play to acquire these essentials, they begin to form a picture of themselves as competent or incompetent.
• Industry, a syntonic quality, means industriousness, a willingness to remain busy with something and to finish a job. School-age children learn to work and play at activities directed toward acquiring job skills and toward learning the rules of cooperation.
• Industry Versus Inferiority Although school age is a period of little sexual development, it is a time of tre mendous social growth. The psychosocial crisis of this stage is industry versus inferiority.
• From the conflict of industry versus inferiority, school-age children develop the basic strength of competence
• They may become preoccupied with infantile genital and Oedipal fantasies and spend most of their time in nonproductive play. This regression is called inertia, the antithesis of competence and the core pathology of the school age.
• Adolescence, the period from puberty to young adulthood, is one of the most crucial developmental stages because, by the end of this period, a person must gain a firm sense of ego identity.
• Puberty, defined as genital maturation, plays a relatively minor role in Erikson’s concept of adolescence. For most young people, genital maturation presents no major sexual crisis. Nevertheless, puberty is important psychologically because it triggers expectations of adult roles yet ahead—roles that are essentially social and can be filled only through a struggle to attain ego identity.
• Identity Versus Identity Confusion The search for ego identity reaches a climax during adolescence as young people strive to find out who they are and who they are not. With the advent of puberty, adolescents look for new roles to help them discover their sexual, ideological, and occupa tional identities. In this search, young people draw from a variety of earlier self-images that have been accepted or rejected. Thus, the seeds of identity begin to sprout during infancy and continue to grow through childhood, the play age, and the school age.
• The basic strength emerging from adolescent identity crises is fidelity, or faith in one’s ideology.
• The pathological counterpart of fidelity is role repudiation, the core pathology of adolescence that blocks one’s ability to synthesize various self-images and values into a workable identity.
• Diffidence is an extreme lack of self-trust or self-confidence

  and is expressed as shyness or hesitancy to express oneself. In contrast, defiance is the act of rebelling against authority.
• Young adulthood —a time from about age 19 to 30—

  is circumscribed not so much by time as by the acquisition of intimacy at the beginning of the stage and the development of generativity at the end.
• Much of the sexual activity during adolescence is an expression of one’s search for identity and is basically self-serving. True genitality can develop only during young adulthood when it is distinguished by mutual trust and a stable sharing of sexual satisfactions with a loved person. It is the chief psychosexual accomplishment of young adulthood and exists only in an intimate relationship
• Young adulthood is marked by the psychosocial crisis of intimacy versus isolation.
• Intimacy is the ability to fuse one’s identity with that of another person without fear of losing it. Because intimacy can be achieved only after people have formed a stable ego, the infatuations often found in young adolescents are not true intimacy.
• isolation, defined as “the incapacity to take chances with one’s identity by sharing true intimacy” (Erikson, 1968,p. 137). Some people become financially or socially successful, yet retain a sense of isolation because they are unable to accept the adult responsibilities of productive work, procreation, and mature love.
• Love, the basic strength of young adulthood, emerges from the crisis of intimacy versus isolation. Erikson (1968, 1982) defined love as mature devotion that overcomes basic differences between men and women.