Erik Erikson's Stages of Development

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Eric Erikson was one of the most famous theorists of the twentieth century; he created many theories. One of the most talked about theories is his theory of psychosocial development. This is a theory that describes stages in which an individual should pass as they are going through life. His theory includes nine stages all together. The original theory only included eight stages but Erikson‘s wife found a ninth stage and published it after his death. The nine stages include: trust vs. mistrust, autonomy vs. shame and doubt, initiative vs. guilt, industry vs. inferiority, identity vs. identity confusion, intimacy vs. isolation, generativity vs. stagnation, integrity vs. despair, and hope and faith vs. despair (Crandell and Crandell, p.35-36)). The First stage in Erickson’s theory is trust vs. mistrust, this stage occurs during infancy, from birth to one years old. This stage is all about trust, it is the stage where you hopefully begin to trust not only yourself but others as well (Crandell and Crandell p. 36). An infant gains trust in infancy because they can not do anything for themselves, they depend on others to do everything for them therefore in this stage they develop trust in others, their caregivers, that they will do all that they can to take care of their well-being. Developing trust in infancy is crucial because this makes the individual grow up feeling safe and secure in the world. A positive outcome of an infant developing trust is that they grow up feeling safe in the world, a negative outcome would be that the individual grows up in fear of the world. There is no way to develop one hundred percent trust or one hundred percent doubt, Erikson believed that the best way to come out of this stage is with a balanc... ... middle of paper ... ...ccesses. With this being said though, I will work hard and continue on the right path to where I hopefully can end up successfully completing all stages and end up being happy. Works Cited Crandell, T. L., & Crandell, C. H. (2012).Human development (10th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill. Erikson's Psychosocial Development in Psychology 101 at AllPsych Online. (n.d.).Erikson's Psychosocial Development in Psychology 101 at AllPsych. Web. 1 December 2014. http://allpsych.com/psychology101/social_ Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development. (n.d.). About.com Psychology. Web. 30 November 2014. http://psychology.about.com/od/psychosoc Life Transitions and Life Completion. (n.d.). : Joan Erikson's 9th Stage of Psychosocial Development. Web. 3 December 2014. http://lifetransitionslifecompletion.blogspot.com/p/joan-eriksons-9th-stage-of- psychosocial.html

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