Erickon's Psychosocial Stages of Development 1

Basic Trust vs. Mistrust 0-1 Hope Dependency or Paranoia

-when the parents present consistent, adequate, and nurturing care, the child develops basic trust and realizes that people are dependable and the world can be a safe place. The child develops a sense of hope and confidence; this is a belief that things will work out well in the end -when the parents fail to provide these things, the child develops basic mistrust, resulting in depression, withdrawal, and maybe even paranoia 2 Autonomy vs Shame & Doubt 2-3 Will Obsessive/Impulsive or Avoidant

-if parents guide children gradually and firmly, praise and accept attempts to be independent, autonomy develops. The result will be a sense of will which helps us accomplish and build self-esteem as children and adults -if parents are too permissive, harsh, or demanding, the child can feel defeated, and experience extreme shame and doubt, and grow up to engage in neurotic attempts to regain feelings of control, power, and competency. This may take the form of obsessive behavior; if you follow all rules exactly then you will never be ashamed again. If the child is given no limits or guidance, the child can fail to gain any shame or doubt and be impulsive. Some is good, as it causes us to question the outcomes of our actions, and consider others' well-being. This may also result in Avoidance; if you never allow yourself to be close to others, they can never make you feel ashamed 3 Initiative vs Guilt 4-5 Purpose Constricted or Antisocial/Narcissistic

-the child becomes curious about people and models adults. Erickson believed the child does attempt to possess the opposite sex parent and experience rivalry toward the same sex parent; however, a true Oedipal Complex only develops in very severe cases -if parents are understanding and supportive of a child's efforts to show initiative, the child develops purpose, and sets goals and acts in ways to reach them -if children are punished for attempts to show initiative, they are likely to develop a sense of guilt, which in excess can lead to inhibition. Too much purpose and no guilt can lead to ruthlessness; the person may achieve their goals without caring who they step on in the process 4 Industry vs Inferiority 612 Competency Helplessness or Shallowness

-occurs during Latency, but Erickson did not think this was a rest period; the child begins school and must tame imagination and impulses, and please others. If adults support the child's efforts, a sense of competence develops

-if caretakers do not support the child, feelings of inferiority are likely to develop. Too much inferiority, and inertia or helplessness occurs (underachievers). Too much competency and the child becomes an adult too fast, and develops either into a Histrionic or Shallow person One way to divide Erikson's stages is into two groups of four -- the first four have to do with figuring out the world, the last four with figuring out yourself 5 Identity vs Role Confusion 1319 Fidelity Identity Diffusion or Fanaticism

-young adults attempt to develop identity and ideas about strengths, weaknesses, goals, occupations, sexual identity, and gender roles. Teens "try on" different identities, going through an identity crisis, and use their friends to reflect back to them. Marcia offers four resolutions: Identity Achievement (crises and commitment), Moratorium (crises and commitment later), Foreclosure (commitment without crises), and Identity Diffusion (no crises, no commitment) -if they resolve this crisis, they develop fidelity, "the ability to sustain loyalties freely pledged in spite of the inevitable contradictions of value systems" (can be friends with very different people) -if they fail to resolve the crisis, they develop identity diffusion; their sense of self is unstable and threatened; too little identity and they may join cults or hate groups, too much identity and they may show fanaticism 6 Intimacy vs Isolation 2024 Love Promiscuity or Exclusion

-intimacy is the ability to be close, loving, and vulnerable with romances and friends. It is based in part upon identity development, in that you have to know yourself to share it. The virtue gained here is love. Failure to develop intimacy can lead to promiscuity (getting too close too quick and not sustaining it), or exclusion (rejecting relationships and those who have them) 7 Generativity vs Stagnation 2564 Care Stagnation or Overextension

-if you have a strong sense of creativity, success, and of having "made a mark" you develop generativity, and are concerned with the next generation; the virtue is called care, and represents connection to generations to come, and a love given without expectations of a specific return -adults that do not feel this develop a sense of stagnation, are self-absorbed, feel little connection to others, and generally offer little to society; too much stagnation can lead to rejectivity and a failure to feel any sense of meaning (the unresolved mid-life crises), and too much generativity leads to overextension (someone who has no time

for themselves because they are so busy) 8 Ego Integrity vs Despair 65? Wisdom Presumption or Disdain

-this entails facing the ending of life, and accepting successes and failures, ageing, and loss. People develop ego integrity and accept their lives if they succeed, and develop a sense of wisdom a "detached concern with life itself in the face of death itself" -those who do not feel a sense of despair and dread their death; it's too late to change their lives (Ebenezer Scrooge just managed to avoid it) Too much wisdom leads to presumption, too much despair to a disdain for life

Erik H. Erikson This page was last updated on January 31, 2012

"Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear death."Erikson INTRODUCTION

Erik Erikson was a psychoanalyst who developed the theory of psychosocial development. He was born on June 15, 1902 in Karlsruhe Germany. His classic work "Childhood and Society" set forth his theory of the life cycle. Young Man Luther, Identity: Youth and Crisis, and Gandhi's Truth are his other influencial works. He believed that the achievements and failures of earlier stages influence later stages, whereas later stages modify and transform earlier ones. Erikson's conceptualization of psychosocial development based its model the epigenetic principle of organismic growth in utero. Erikson views psychosocial growth occurs in phases.

EIGHT STAGES OF THE LIFE CYCLE

Erikson explains 8 developmental stages in which physical, cognitive, instinctual, and sexual changes combine to trigger an internal crisis whose resolution results in either psychosocial regression or growth and the development of specific virtues. Erikson defined virtue as "inherent strength". Related

Psychosocial Stage Trust vs. mistrust

Age birth18 months

Virtue Hope

Psychopathology Psychosis Addictions

Depression Paranoia Obsessions Compulsions Impulsivity Conversion disorder Phobia Psychosomatic disorder Inhibition Creative inhibition Inertia Delinquent behavior Gender-related identity disorders Borderline psychotic episodes Schizoid personality disorder Distantiation Midlife crisis Premature invalidism Extreme alienation

Autonomy vs. shame and doubt

~18 months

Will

Initiative vs. guilt

~3 years

Purpose

Industry vs. inferiority

Competence

Identity vs. role confusion

~13 years

Fidelity

Intimacy vs. isolation

~20s

Love

Generativity vs.stagnation Integrity vs. despair

~40s ~60s

Care Wisdom

Trust Versus Mistrust (Birth to About 18 Months)

The infant is taking the world in through the mouth, eyes, ears, and sense of touch. A baby whose mother is able to anticipate and respond to its needs in a consistent and timely manner despite its oral aggression will learn to tolerate the inevitable moments of frustration and deprivation A person who, as a result of severe disturbances in the earliest dyadic relationships, fails to develop a basic sense of trust or the virtue of hope may be predisposed as an adult to the profound withdrawal and regression characteristic of schizophrenia (Newton DS, Newton PM, 1998).

Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt (About 18 Months to About 3 Years)

"This stage, therefore, becomes decisive for the ratio between loving good will and hateful self-insistence, between cooperation and willfulness, and between self-expression and compulsive self-restraint or meek compliance." - Erikson This oral-sensory stage of infancy, marked by the potential development of basic trust aiming toward the achievement of a sense of hope. Here, the child will develop an appropriate sense of autonomy, otherwise doubt and shame will undermine free will. An individual who becomes fixated at the transition between the development of hope and autonomous will, with its residue of mistrust and doubt, may develop paranoic fears of persecution (Newton DS, Newton PM, 1998). Other disturbances of improper transition of this stage results in perfectionism, inflexibility, stinginess and ruminative and ritualistic behavior of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder.

Initiative Versus Guilt (About 3 Years to About 5 Years)

Here, the childs task is to develop a sense of initiative as opposed to further shame or guilt. The lasting achievement of this stage is a sense of purpose. The child's increasing mastery of locomotor and language skills expands its participation in the outside world and stimulates omnipotent fantasies of wider exploration and conquest

Industry Versus Inferiority (About 5 Years to About 13 Years)

Here the child is in school-age , so called stage of latency. He tries to master the crisis of industry versus inferiority aiming toward the development of a sense of competence.

Identity Versus Role Confusion (About 13 Years to About 21 Years)

At puberty, the fifth stage, the task of adolescence is to navigate ther identity crisis as each individual struggles with a degree of identity confusion. The lasting outcome of this stage can be a capacity for fidelity.

Intimacy Versus Isolation (About 21 Years to About 40 Years)

Young adulthood, at the stage of genitality or sixth stage, is marked by the crisis of intimacy versus isolation, out of which may come the achievement of a capacity for love.

Generativity Versus Stagnation (About 40 Years to About 60 Years)

"Generativity is primarily the concern for establishing and guiding the next generation."Erikson Care is the virtue that curresponding to this stage.

This failure of generativity can lead to profound personal stagnation, masked by a variety of escapisms, such as alcohol and drug abuse, and sexual and other infidelities.Mid-life crisis may occur.

Integrity Versus Despair (About 60 Years to Death)

"The acceptance of one's one and only life cycle and of the people who have become significant to it as something that had to be and that, by necessity, permitted of no substitutions." The individual in possession of the virtue of wisdom and a sense of integrity has room to tolerate the proximity of death and to achieve. When the attempt to attain integrity has failed, the individual may become deeply disgusted with the external world, and contemptuous of persons as well as institutions.

NURSING IMPLICATIONS

Application of Erikson's stages of psychosocial development helps in analysing patient's symptomatic behavior in the context of truamatic past experineces and struggles with current developmental tasks. When patients' resolutions of previous psychosocial stages have been so faulty as to seriously compromise their adult development, they have the opportunity to rework early development through the relationship with the therapist. (Newton DS, Newton PM, 1998). "The object of psychotherapy is not to head off future conflict but to assist the patient in emerging from each crisis "with an increased sense of inner unity, with an increase of good judgment, and an increase in the capacity `to do well' according to his own standards and to the standards of those who are significant to him." (Erikson in Identity: Youth and Crisis)