The Significance Of The Eriksons Model Of Development

Eriksons model of development focuses on key challenges that the person needs to meet and overcome in the course of their life. It views them in terms of the significant social relationships they take place within and what the favourable outcomes are of each challenge. The staging according to age/significant social relationship removes the sexualized language of Freud while still recognizing formative periods of development early on. The first three stages follow closely those of Freud but do so without the same limiting to social gender roles. Eriksons viewing of development in terms of psycho-social crisis’ also takes on board Jungs concern for the need of a deeper/meaningful view of human development. It doesn’t however go so far into the symbolic as

The positive outcome sought here is the balance of competition and cooperation essential to the ability of forming close and lasting relationships.

In some ways this would be the completion of the Freudian stages of development with the drives now unfurled and performing within the learned roles. Difficulties now being traced back to unbalanced drives from earlier stages or roles mislearnt early on by drives being out of sync at those stages.

Erikson’s stage seven carries on in middle adulthood and is the crisis of Generativity where the context is the personal household in whatever form it takes dividing labour and one’s own self-absorption. This crisis can take many forms but the successful outcome is concern for the ‘family’, society, and future generations. This is a crisis that opens the person to more than just themselves in the sense of how things affect them. Within traditional Western culture this would be the settling down to a family of one’s own but Erikson wisely frames this in a wider context not limiting it to the fulfilment of assumed