Erik Erikson: The Father of Psychosocial Development

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Erik Erikson The Father of Psychosocial
Development

• Children love and want to be loved and they very
  much prefer the joy of accomplishment to the
  triumph of hateful failure. Do not mistake a
  child for his symptom
• -Erik Erikson

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Who is Erik Erikson?

• Born in Germany on June 15th 1902.
• He was an artist and a teacher in the late 1920s
  when he met Anna Freud, an Austrian
  psychoanalyst. With Annas encouragement, he
  began to study child psychoanalysis at the Vienna
  Psychoanalytic Institute.
• He immigrated to the US in 1933 and taught at
  Yale and Harvard University.
• It was at this point in his life that he became
  interested in the influence of society and
  culture on child development. To satisfy his
  curiosity, he studied groups of American Indian
  Children to help formulate his theories. Studying
  these children enabled him to correlate
  personality growth with parental and societal
  values.

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Field of Research

• He studied groups of Aboriginal children to learn
  about the influence of society and culture on
  child development. From this, he developed a
  number of theories, the most famous being his
  psychosocial development.
• He believed that humans have to resolve different
  conflicts as they progress through each stage of
  development in the life cycle.
• Eriksons theory consists of eight stages of
  development. Each stage is characterized by a
  different conflict that must be resolved by the
  individual. If a person is unable to resolve a
  conflict at a particular stage, they will be
  confront and struggle with it later in life.

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Eriksons Psychosocial Development
Age (Years) Stage Psychosocial Crisis Psychosocial Strength Environmental Influence
1 Infancy Trust vs. Mistrust Hope Maternal
2-3 Early childhood Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Willpower Both parents or adult substitutes
4-5 Preschool Initiative vs. Guilt Purpose Parents, family and friends
6-11 Middle Childhood Industry vs. Inferiority Competence School
12-18 Adolescence Identity vs. Role confusion Fidelity Peers
18-35 Young adulthood Intimacy vs. Isolation Love Spouse, lover, friends
35-65 Middle age Generativity vs. Stagnation Care Family, society
Over 65 Old age Integrity vs. Despair Wisdom All humans
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Eriksons Contributions

• He made major contributions in the area of child
  development by studying groups of Native American
  children and developed the concept of identity
  crisis.
• He was concerned with the relationship between
  society/culture and child development, which he
  termed psychosocial development.
• This interest led him to develop the Eight Stages
  of Development.
• In each stage, the individual encounters a
  developmental crisis.
• In order to move on to the next stage, the
  individual must resolve the crisis.

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THE END