Erikson's Eight Stages Of Development

Two theories that will be discussed in this paper is Erik Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development and John Bowlby’s Theory of Attachment. Erikson’s theory is considered psychosocial, emphasizing the importance of social and cultural factors within a lifespan, from infancy to later adulthood. Erikson’s theory is broken down into eight consecutive age-defined stages. During each stage, a person experiences a psychosocial crisis that contributes to their personality development. Erikson was highly influenced by Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory of Development. Although, at first Freud was limited to childhood based on the phallic stage, Erikson focused on developing a lifespan theory. The eight stages are as followed:

According to Erik Erikson’s theory there are eight stages of development for a human being to unfold. Firstly a child goes through Erikson’s first stage of development, Trust versus mistrust. This stage leads on to the second stage of development, Autonomy versus shame and the third stage of development, Initiative versus guilt happens during a child’s preschool age. This is a period where a child is exposed to many social activities and challenges where he will be require active, purposeful and responsible behaviour. Along the way feelings of guilt may arise when the child is irresponsible and made to feel him anxious as mentioned by Erik Erikson. ( Santrock, J. W. (2014). )

Gender roles, also known as gender stereotypes, are social and cultural norms on how females and males should conduct themselves within a society. Every culture has certain roles both genders are expected to follow. An example of this in traditional American culture is a man becoming a doctor while a female becomes a nurse or men being the hard workers and women being stay at home mothers. Gender development researchers, similar to other developmental researchers, focus on questions of change over time in gender related subjects (Ruble and Martin 1988). Research suggest that children are socialized to understand gender stereotypes at an early age. In fact, a study done in 2006 by indicated that children before 3 years of age understand concrete

As babies, depending on others is an essential part of life. Babies need food, shelter, protection and nurturance, which is provided by the caregiver. “According to Erikson, this extended period results in the first stage of psychosocial development being centered on forming a sense of trust” (Papalia & Martorell, 2015, p. 171). Stated in Erikson’s eight stages of psyhchosocial development, babies first challenge involves in forming a basic sense of trust versus mistrust. Trust allows a baby to feel safe and love. The sense of mistrust have babies feeling that those around them cannot be counted on in their time of need. This stage begins at infancy and gradually continues to about 18 months. Balancing between both, babies typically predominates

Erik Erikson first went to school at the University Of Vienna And then later on went on to go to school at Harvard and Yale without a bachelors degree

Erik Erikson was a fundamental person who expressed his ideas of lifespan development occurring from birth to death. Erik Erikson, the son of Karla Abrahamen and a father whose name remain unknown (Psyography: Biographies on Psychologists, n.d.) studied at various schools studying arts and language. He became the first child analysts during his attendance at Harvard Medical School. (Sharkey, 1997). Also, he was employed in various educational schools. His childhood, education experiences, and careers influenced his contributions to lifespan development. As a “neo-Freudian”, Erikson developed eight psychosocial stages of development that greatly correspond with Freud’s Psychosexual Stages (Broderick

As a baby, I was an easy baby. Nothing made me fussy and I was always happy and relaxed. To this day, it has been a part of me. It takes a lot for me to lose my temper. I could even be too relaxed at times, when I need

A child’s response to death will depend on the circumstances of their loss and the relationship with the deceased (Johnston, J. 1999). Children suffer pain and loss as intensely as adults and also experience shock and denial (Tatelbaum, J. 1997). Bereaved children struggle to maintain their state of

5.) Erikson’s theory of development was influenced greatly by Freud’s psychosexual stages of development. More importantly, Erikson was an ego psychologist. In his theory of development he emphasizes the role of culture and society has on individual. According to Erikson’s theory, everyone must go through eight interrelated stages throughout life.

There were many theories that were developed regarding development so we as individuals can each understand what each theorist concluded from their opinions. Freud theory was created in 1917 and he initiated that human development was based on five stages oral, anal, phallic latency and genital. In the oral stage of this theory he suggested that infants are infatuated with their mouths because this were they get constant pleasure. In the anal stage children are paying more attention to their anus because this is where they distinguished the signals of what their body is projecting to them. Prevailing to Freud 3rd stage of development he stated that children focuses more on what their

Attachment is the strong emotional and affectionate connection which forms between infant and caregiver within the second half of the child’s first year (Santrock, 2012). It is a behaviour system whereby regulation of emotional distress is performed. Attachment consist of active behaviours and signalling behaviours to stimulate close proximity with parent (Bell & Ainsworth, 1972). Hence, babies who desire constant regular contact have separation anxiety and distress when parents leave them temporarily. Examples of attachment include touching parent’s face.

Erik Erikson considered his psychosocial theory of development as unfolding in a sequence of eight stages through lifetime. Each stage has its particular goals, concerns, achievements and dangers (Woolfolk, 2017). While a person goes through every single stage, he or she faces a new psychosocial crisis. According to Erikson, the crisis can be resolved adopting an extreme position or finding a balance between the extreme responses. In fact, when a person resolves the psychological crisis in certain stage, he or she is able to enter to the next stage. In my opinion, Erikson’s stages are interrelated because all of them involve development of ego and personality through social environments. Another connection that I found is that when an individual

Throughout life, people go through a multitude of experiences that can heavily affect their mindsets, personalities, and lives in general. People are most prone to be influenced by these experiences from infancy up to the age of eighteen, during the developmental phases of life. Developmental phases are segments of time throughout life where humans are extremely susceptible to learning, allowing for the subconscious development of new skill sets, personality traits, and mannerisms that make them who they are. According to Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, there are eight developmental phases, five of which take place before or during adolescence. Each phase develops on a basis of psychosocial crisis, such as intimacy versus

When I was born in this auspicious earth the first face I saw was my parents face. I used to cry a lot and mom usually thinks I’m hungry and feeds me every time when I do so. So I got to know my mom a lot and I used to play with my dad and these two were familiar faces to me in the initial stages and I developed a trust on them, The important thing I felt in this stage was feeding and my parent’s care. As we were in a joint family I always stayed with my parents and never allowed my uncle or aunt to lift me, when they tried to do so I used to switch on my alarm that is my cry, it forced my mom to run all the way from the kitchen to take care of me.

The life span of an individual goes through developmental stages in life, from conception to death. The majority of the stages we pass are biological, socio-economical and psychological birth rights.