CHAPTER SIX

Erik Erikson: Identity Theory

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Describe the Life of Erikson.
2. Examine the Psychosocial Stages of Personality Development.
3. Outline Basic Weaknesses.
4. Analyse Assessment in Erikson’s Theory.
5. Summarize Research in Erikson’s Theory.
6. Reflect on Erikson’s Theory.
OUTLINE
I. Erik Erikson
A. The Life of Erik Erikson
1. Erikson was born in Germany under the name of his stepfather, Dr. Theodore
Homburger. When Erikson immigrated to the United States when he was 37,
he adopted the name of Erik Homburger Erikson. Erikson had Danish parents,
and lived in Germany with his Jewish stepfather and Lutheran mother.
Although Erikson followed his stepfather’s Jewish heritage, he converted to
Christianity later in life. Erikson would describe his own childhood and
adolescence as an identity crisis. To the end of his life Erikson was ashamed
of his illegitimate birth.
2. Erikson trained as a psychoanalyst, was analysed by Anna Freud, and became
a member of the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute. Erikson immigrated to
Denmark and then Boston, where he became affiliated with Henry Murray’s
Harvard clinic. Erikson did research on the cultural influences of child-rearing
practices of the South Dakota Sioux Indians. Later, Erikson went to the
University of California at Berkeley to expand his clinical experience, where
he saw patients that were normal as well as those who were emotionally
disturbed.
3. During Erikson’s work with American Indians and in California, he noted that
certain psychological symptoms appeared to be related to a sense of alienation
from cultural traditions and resulted in the lack of a clear self-image or self-
identity. This condition he called an identity crisis or confusion. Erikson
retired in 1970 after teaching at Harvard for many years. He wrote a book on
old age when he was 84.

B. Psychosocial States of Personality Development

1. According to Erikson, there are eight psychosocial stages. Erikson believed
these stages were governed by the epigenetic principle of maturation, which
is internal and has genetics factors. To Erikson, human development involves
 a series of personal conflicts, where each stage demands certain adaptions.
When we confront our environment, the crisis involves a shift in perspective,
requiring us to refocus our instinctual energy in accordance with the needs of
each stage of life. Each confrontation of Erikson’s stages can have elements of
being positive or negative. If the conflict at any stage remains unresolved, we
are less likely to be able to adapt to later problems. Erikson also proposed
eight basic strengths, or virtues that emerge once the crisis has been resolved
in a particular stage of development. The eight basic strengths are hope, the
will, purpose, competence, fidelity, love, care, and wisdom.
2. Trust versus Mistrust describes the oral-sensory stage of psychosocial
development. Since the infant is totally dependent on the primary caregiver
for survival, the positive or negative care given to the infant is crucial for trust
now in the child’s future.
3. Autonomy versus Doubt and Shame occurs during the muscular-anal stage
during the second and third year. Children rapidly learn language and develop
a variety of physical and mental abilities. Children of this age like to have
choices and how caregivers respond in allowing a child, within limits. To
explore and exercise choice is important for the child’s future self-regulation.
4. Initiative versus Guild develops during the locomotor-genital stage, which
occurs between 3 and 5. The child’s initiative can be channelled toward
realistic and socially sanctioned goals in preparation for the development of
adult responsibility and morality. Freud would call this the superego.
5. Industriousness versus Inferiority occurs from ages 6 to 11 in the latency
stage of psychosocial development. Here the child begins school and displays
skills in playing by the rules, and doing good work for praise and for the
satisfaction of successfully completing a task. The attitudes and behaviours of
the caregivers and the teachers largely determine how well children perceive
themselves to be developing and using their skills. This stage completes the
four childhood psychosocial developmental stages of Erikson.
6. Identity cohesion versus Role Confusion is the fifth stage of the
psychosocial development in which we must meet and resolve the crisis of our
basic ego identity. We form our self-image during this stage and integrate
what we think of ourselves and about what others think of us. People who
emerge from this stage have a strong sense of self-identity. People who do not
master this stage experience an identity crisis, which is a confusion of roles.
Positive or negative persuasion can be found for an individual as they affiliate
with peer groups, such as street gangs or religious youth groups.
7. Intimacy versus Isolation extends from adolescence to about the age of 35.
This is a time of independence and the establishment of intimate relationships.
If a person avoids social contacts and rejects other people, then the person will
develop feelings of isolation.
8. Generativity versus Stagnation is a stage of maturity in which we need to be
actively involved in teaching and guiding the next generation. A person
 between the ages of 35 to 55 may become stagnant, bored and be absorbed
with their own personal needs and comforts, to the exclusion of others.
9. The final stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development of maturity and old
age, is marked by Ego Integrity versus Despair. We evaluate and examine
our whole life to either have a sense of fulfilment and satisfaction or feel we
are failures in life. We possess ego integrity when we accept our place in life
and our past.

C. Basic Weaknesses
1. Although the ego should consist primarily of the adaptive attitude it will also
contain a share of the negative attitude, which could be called basic
weaknesses. In an unbalanced development, the ego consists solely of one
attitude, either positive, adaptive, or maladaptive is a condition called
maldevelopment. When positive tendency is present in the ego, it is called
maladaptive but when there is a negative tendency, it is called malignant.
Maladaptions can lead to neurosis and malignancies can lead to psychoses.

D. Questions about Human Nature

1. Erikson believed that although not everyone is successful in attaining hope,
purpose, wisdom, and other virtues, we all have the potential to do so.
According to Erikson, we are capable of resolving each situation in a way that
is adaptive and strengthening. Even if we fail at one stage and develop a
maladaptive response or a basic weakness, there remains hope for change a
later stage. The first four stages are determined partially through parents,
teachers and peer groups. We have more chance to exercise free will during
the last four stages. Erikson believed we are guided more by learning and
experiences than by heredity.

E. Assessment in Erikson’s Theory

1. Erikson believed that assessment techniques should be sleeved and modified
to fit the unique requirements of the individual patient. To collect his data,
Erikson used play therapy, anthropological studies, and psychohistorical
analysis. The form of intensity of the play therapy with children revealed
aspects of the personality that might not be manifested verbally, because of a
child’s limited powers of verbal expression. Psychohistorical analysis was
essentially biographical studies, using his life-span theory of personality as a
framework to describe the crises and the ways of coping of significant
political, religious, and literary figures, such as Gandhi. Martin Luther, and
George Bernard Shaw. Erikson did not use psychological tests. However, tests
such as the Ego-Identity Scale has been used to measure ego identity in the
adolescence and the Loyola Generativity Scale is a self-report inventory or
adults to measure level of generativity or stagnation.
F. Research in Erikson’s Theory
1. Erikson used play therapy to conduct research on his theory, focusing on what
he called play construction. In his studies, boys and girls constructed a scene
for an imaginary movie using dolls, toy animals, automobiles, and wooden
blocks. Girls tended to build low enclosures, while boys focused on exteriors,
action, and height. According to Erikson, based on biological differences, girls
build low enclosures in which people are walled in, and boys would build
towers. Research today still persists that traditional gender stereotyping
between girls and boys exists. Girls typically play with dolls, jewellery, and
toy kitchen implements, while boys play with trucks, soldiers, and guns.
2. Erikson emphasized the importance of developing an early sense of trust if
we are to achieve feelings of well-being later in life. There is also strong
support for this in research.
3. There is support in research for Erikson’s Psychosocial Developmental
Stages. Psychologists tested Erikson’s belief that positive outcomes in
resolving the identity crisis are related to positive outcomes at prior
developmental stages.
4. Extensive research on Erikson’s adolescent stage of development identified
five psychosocial types, or statuses, for that period, such as identity
achievement, moratorium, foreclosure, identity diffusion, and alienated
achievement.
5. In further studies with adolescents who play high-tech computer games and
try different identity roles on the internet confirm Erikson’s idea for the
necessary of role development through the use of virtual identities. While
intensity of virtual roles increased, one suggests a danger towards the virtual
identity replacing real-life interactions.
6. Erikson believed that social and historical factors affect the formation of ego
identity, which in turn affects the nature of the personality. One such example
of the work of social factors in personality development is the women-s
movement. Studies have found that most adolescent women today include a
career orientation as part of their ego identity. Also, a willingness and
readiness to change may help women to have ego resiliency.
7. Research in the area of identity crisis show that this stage may begin around
12 and be resolved by the time a person is 18. However, for some people,
identity crisis resolvement may not occur until as late as age 24, or perhaps,
through the entire lifespan.
8. Research on the adulthood stage of psychosocial development has shown that
generativity in middle-aged research participants is positively correlated with
power and with intimacy motivation.
9. Erikson believed that people in the maturity and old age stage of psychosocial
development spend time recalling and examining their life, accepting or
regretting past choices. However, one study showed no significant differences
between younger adults compared to older adults in reported frequency of life
 reflections. Younger people engaged in reflection to gain self-insight and find
solutions to current problems, while older people used reflection of their past
to evaluate their lives and achieve a sense of ego integrity.
10. While Erikson did not cover ethnic issues, research with Black adolescents
show strong relationships between racial identity and psychological health,
well-being, life satisfaction, and self-esteem. Some research reports identity
confusion for some Black and Hispanic women who may be attempting to
emulate the predominant ideal of beauty, like the extreme thinness seen in the
majority of White culture. This condition could lead these women into eating
disorders. One model of ethnic identity suggest four stages of the
psychological health of African-American adolescents. In the pre encounter
stage, the adolescent lacks awareness of racial identity. Then the adolescent
may encounter racism in the next stage. In the third stage, the adolescent may
view everything White as evil in the Immersion-emersion stage. The
internalization stage is consistent with a pro-Black Afrocentric prospective.
11. Another area of recent study, consistent with Erikson’s identity stages; is the
area of gender preference identity. Gays who score high on self-report
measures of well-being express no desire to alter or hide their same-sex
gender preference from others.

G. Reflections on Erikson’s Theory

1. Erikson contribution to psychology includes the recognition of personality
development through the life span, the concept of the identity crisis in
adolescence, and the incorporation in his theory of the impact of cultural,
social, and historical forces. While some of his concepts, such as an
incomplete description of the developmental stage of maturity and sex
differences in his interpretation of play-constructions have come under attack
by critics, Erikson showed little interest in responding to his critics. His
influence grew through books and the work of succeeding generations of
psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers, and counsellors who found in his ideas
useful ways to describe personality development from infancy through old
age.