Erikson's Theory: The Eight Stages Of Human Development

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.
This essay will focus on the two stages, drawn from the eight stages of Erikson Theory, namely: Trust vs Mistrust and Generativity vs Stagnation. The essay will further discuss authoritative parenting and attachment styles. The eight stages which a healthy person should undergo from infancy to late adulthood, are built on the success of mastering the previous stage. However, if not completed, problems may emerge at a later stage in the individual development. ( Erikson,1956)

Trust versus Mistrust and Generativity vs. Stagnation.
One would ask a question like this: Is the world an innocent place or is it

Despite experiencing an adverse environment during development, people have the potential to become healthy individuals in the psychosocial sense of the word (Duncan et al, 2003). Erikson does not refer much to the resilience of humans in his theory, except to state that people can go back and positively resolve stages that were previously negatively actualized. (Louw et al, 1999). An example of human resilience would be, despite many South Africans having lived with political, racial and educational oppression from childhood, some of them have risen above their circumstances, educated themselves and gone on to lead successful lives financially, socially and emotionally as adults (Jordaan & Jordaan, 1998). As quoted in Freeman's article "The fact that so many people have managed to survive abominable circumstances is, as Straker et al. (1992) put it, 'a tribute to the human spirit's capacity to deal with adversity'"(1993, p.158). Therefore, human resilience is important when applied to the South African context, however has limited presence in Erikson's