Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychological Development

[lpetrich]

 Erikson's stages of psychosocial development Erik Erikson | Psychosocial Stages | Simply Psychology

Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.

His stages:

Stage	Psychosocial Crisis	Virtue	Age
1	Trust vs. Mistrust	Hope	0 - 1 1/2
2	Autonomy vs. Shame	Will	1 1/2 - 3
3	Initiative vs. Guilt	Purpose	3 - 5
4	Industry vs. Inferiority	Competency	5 - 12
5	Identity vs. Role Confusion	Fidelity	12 - 18
6	Intimacy vs. Isolation	Love	18 - 40
7	Generativity vs. Stagnation	Care	40 - 65
8	Ego Integrity vs. Despair	Wisdom	65+

This strikes me as excessively schematic, because one can have most or all of these conflicts at any time over most of one's life.

 

[Politesse]

 Erikson's stages of psychosocial development Erik Erikson | Psychosocial Stages | Simply Psychology

Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.

His stages:

Stage	Psychosocial Crisis	Virtue	Age
1	Trust vs. Mistrust	Hope	0 - 1 1/2
2	Autonomy vs. Shame	Will	1 1/2 - 3
3	Initiative vs. Guilt	Purpose	3 - 5
4	Industry vs. Inferiority	Competency	5 - 12
5	Identity vs. Role Confusion	Fidelity	12 - 18
6	Intimacy vs. Isolation	Love	18 - 40
7	Generativity vs. Stagnation	Care	40 - 65
8	Ego Integrity vs. Despair	Wisdom	65+

This strikes me as excessively schematic, because one can have most or all of these conflicts at any time over most of one's life.

Sounds a lot like the original Enneagram system, with the emphasis on psychosocial crises as a means for synthesizing conflicting personal qualities and the backdoor commitment to churchy virtues. And unlike the Enneagram, not accounting at all for individual variations in temperament. I tend to think that such things are helpful to people when they are, but usually aren't.