Erikson's Four Stages Of Cognitive Development

Erikson lists 5 stages between the infant and adolescence stages of life. Stage I is termed trust verses mistrust. This in the infant stage (birth to 2 years); the infant must come to view the world as a safe place with reliable, nurturing, and dependable relationships. As long as the infants needs are met in a nurturing and timely manner, he or she comes to see the world and others as trustworthy, and can gain a sense that they are worthy of love. If this stage is not mastered, the infant will demonstrate fretfulness, whining, clinging behaviors in conjunction with physical symptoms such as, ineffective sleep patterns, vomiting and diarrhea.

Stage II (2-3 years) is autonomy verses shame and doubt. In this stage, the toddler must exhibit the sense of control and free will. The

As each stage is accomplished, a person achieves a higher level of functioning. The sensorimotor stage (birth – 2 years) is where a child develops a sense of themselves as separate for the world and palpable objects still exist even though they cannot be seen. In the preoperational stage (2 – 6 years) the child develops the ability to express themselves through language, they understand the meaning of symbols, and they can classify objects. Concrete operations (6 – 12 years) is the stage when the child applies logic to thinking, is able to understand time and space, broadens social interactions, and is can apply rules; but thinking is still concrete. Egocentrism is central to their thought process with the inability to consider that other people have differing opinions. The last stage, formal operations (12-15 years and older) the child learns to think and reason in abstract terms, develops deeper logical thinking and reasoning, and achieves cognitive maturity. (Videback, pg.