Erik Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development

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Recommended: “Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Stages of Development”

Erik Erikson is an ego psychologist. According to Erikson, a child growing environment is very important and as it provides growth environment, adjustment, source of awareness, and identity to a child. If the environment was rich in what had been mentioned above, a child would grow healthily or vice versa, he or she will have an unhealthy development.

Ego of a person develops when one successfully solves the crisis at each stage of development and when this phenomenon occurs, it results in healthy personality. For an instance, a sense of trust in others, sense of identity in society, and preparation of next generation for the future. Not to forget that basic virtues, the ability which ego can use to solve subsequent crisis also would exist in one self. While on the other hand, when one failed to resolve the crisis, it results reduced ability to complete further stages, thus unhealthy personality and sense of self would occur in one self. However these stages can be resolved successfully later in the future.

Erikson has developed a theory of development and ego, which are the stages of psychosocial development. This theory describes the lifespan development of an individual. Through this theory, we can have a better understanding on what Erikson meant about the ego and identity of one self. He assumes that crises happened in every stages of development, and how one react to the crisis determines the growth of the individual.

There are eight stages of psychosocial development. The first stage of development happens during the first year of life which is from 0 years old to 1 and the half years old. During this stage, infant is uncertain about the world, and the consistency of care from parents will influence the growth ...

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Erikson, E. H. (1970). Autobiographic on the Identity Crisis.

Gilmore, K. (2008). Psychoanalytic developmental theory: A contemporary reconsideration. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, 56(3), 885-907. DOI: 10.1177/0003065108323074. Retrieved from http://apa.sagepub.com.ezproxy.snhu.edu/content/56/3/885.full.pdf+html

Horst, E. A. (1995). Reexamining Gender Issues in Erikson's stages of identity and intimacy. Journal of Counseling and Development : JCD, 73(3), 271. Retrieved from http://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/219009722?a countid=3783

Lahey, B. B. (2011). Psychology, An Introduction 11th edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

McLeod, S. A. (2008). Erik Erikson. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik

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