Erik Erikson: The Eight Stages of Development
Biography
Although not as famous as Sigmund Freud, Erik Erikson was no less influential in the development of 20th century psychology. Like Freud, Erikson viewed human beings as developing through a series of 'stages,' but he broke with Freud in terms of his emphasis on social development, versus sexual development. Erikson was the first major theorist to question Freud's emphasis on the Oedipus Complex and the Electra Complex in respectively influencing a boy's or a girl's development, Erikson conceived of what he called eight 'psychosocial stages,' or conflicts based not solely upon the relationship between parent and child but upon the child and the larger community. The conflicts inherent to the stages were based upon social dynamics of which sexuality was but one factor.
The reason for this different orientation may lie in the fact that Erikson's background was also different from Freud's: he was not trained as a doctor and studied art and languages. He took only two classes in chemistry before dropping out of medical school, and was far more enamored with the humanities' potential to reveal aspects of the human psyche. At first, he said "I could not see a place for my artistic inclinations in highly intellectual endeavors" although when he came in contact with Anna Freud she offered to take him on and train him as a child analyst, evidently seeing some potential in Erikson and thus beginning what would constitute his life's work (Friedman 1999: 69). Erikson would eventually break with the Freudian tradition and had an important role in the development of humanistic (versus psychodynamic) psychology in America. After moving to America in the 1960s and 1970s, Erikson became an important figure in pop culture, including a stint advising John Lindsay as well as professor (Freidman 1999: 27)
General orientation of the theory
"Children in Society by Erikson (1963) was one of the first Western theories of development to give due recognition to the impact of social interaction on human development. Ego strengths develop from trusting relationships, according to Erikson" (Coughlan, F., & Welsh-Breetzke 2012:222). Much like Freud, and later like Piaget, Erikson conceptualized human development as existing in a series of phases, rather than as a continuous, linear path. Unlike Freud's concept of development in terms of oral, anal and genital stages of development, Erikson stressed that other considerations besides purely sexual factors were significant in shaping the development of the human psyche. Erikson gave greater priority to factors such as the influence of peers upon the child's development of an autonomous identity.
The reason why Erikson's stages are called 'psycho-social' in nature is because they allow for the influence of peers and other relatives to change the developmental trajectory of the child with environmental influences outside the home. Like Freud, however, Erikson did believe that development proceeded in a series of 'conflicts' between opposing influences, and if those conflicts were not resolved, than the individual would continue to struggle with specific issues pertinent to the stages. Without such a resolution, the child will remain forever in a state of 'arrested development,' just as Freud believed that certain persons were condemned to have 'oral' or 'anal' personalities and not proceed to the genital stage, unless they resolved their issues. "For Erikson, identity is best characterized on a continuum, with healthy outcomes being represented on one end of the scale by identity achievement (commitment to a self-determined set of identified ideals, goals, and values), and dysfunctional outcomes represented on the opposite end by identity diffusion (the inability to develop and commit to a set of self-identified ideals" (Cullitan 2011: 433-444).
Description of the stages
Erikson's analysis of the human experience begins in infancy. "Erikson's first stage of human development, trust vs. mistrust, addresses the individual's infantile experiences with the world other than himself. Is the world reliable and are object relations consistent and available?" (Vogel-Scibilia et al. 2009: 407). A child which receives adequate emotional support from his or her parents when he or she is picked up when crying, a child who is attended to when he or she is hurt, and is given approval for positive behavior will learn that the world is a place that can be trusted, and people are reliable, generous and giving. A neglected child will learn the opposite and will perhaps grow into an adult who is incapable of trusting other people. If the conflict is never resolved, the individual cannot learn to trust...
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