Psychosocial Theory: Erikson
Clifton, Haverford '95
The Epigenetic Psychosexual Stages
Erikson believed that childhood is very important in personality
development. He accepted many of Freud's theories, including the id,
ego, and superego, and Freud's theory of infantile sexuality. But
Erikson rejected Freud's attempt to describe personality solely on
the basis of sexuality, and, unlike Freud, felt that personality
continued to develop beyond five years of age.
All of the stages in Erikson's epigenetic theory are present at
birth, but unfold according to an innate plan, with each stage
building on the preceding stages, and paving the way for subsequent
stages. Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis, which
is based on physiological development, but also on demands put on the
individual by parents and/or society. Ideally, the crisis in each
stage should be resolved by the ego in that stage, in order for
development to proceed correctly. The outcome of one stage is not
permanent, but can be altered by later experiences. Everyone has a
mixture of the traits attained at each stage, but personality
development is considered successful if the individual has more of
the "good" traits than the "bad" traits.
Erikson's theory of ego psychology holds certain tenets that
differentiate his theory from Freud's. Some of these include:
- The ego is of utmost importance.
- Part of the ego is able to operate independently of the id and
- The ego is a powerful agent that can adapt to situations,
- mental health.
- Social and sexual factors both play a role in personality
Erikson's theory was more comprehensive than Freud's, and included
information about "normal" personality as well as neurotics. He also
broadened the scope of personality to incorporate society and
culture, not just sexuality. Criticisms of his theories, in addition
to the factors discussed in class, have noted that he did no
statistical research to generate his theories, and it is very hard to
test his theories in order to validate them.
Zones, Modes, and Modalities
PSYCHOSOCIAL STAGE PSYCHOSEXUAL MODE MODALITY "VIRTUE"
Trust/Mistrust incorporative1 getting
incorporative2 taking Hope
Autonomy/Shame retentive holding on
eliminative letting go Willpower
Initiative/Guilt intrusive making Purpose
Identity/Role Confusion Fidelity
Stage 1 - Basic Trust vs. Mistrust
Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
- Developing trust is the first task of the ego
- The child will let mother out of sight without anxiety and
rage because she has become an inner certainty as well as an outer
- The balance of trust with mistrust depends largely on the
quality of maternal relationship.
Stage 3 - Initiative vs. Guilt
- If denied autonomy, the child will turn against himself all
his urges to manipulate and discriminate.
- Shame develops with the child's self-consciousness.
- Doubt has to do with having a front and back -- a "behind"
subject to its own rules. Left over doubt may become paranoia.
- The sense of autonomy fostered in the child and modified as
life progresses serves the preservation in economic and political
life of a sense of justice.
- Initiative adds to autonomy the quality of undertaking,
planning, and attacking a task for the sake of being active and on
- Thechild feels guilt over the goals contemplated and the acts
initiated in exuberant enjoyment of new locomoter and mental
- The castration complex occuring in this stage is due to the
child's erotic fantasies.
- A residual conflict over initiative may be expressed as
hysterical denial, which may cause the repression of the wish or
the abrogation of the child's ego: paralysis and inhibition, or
overcompensation and showing off.
- The Oedipal stage results not only in oppressive establishment
of a moral sense restricting the horizon of the permissible, but
also sets the direction towards the possible and the tangible
which permits dreams of early childhood to be attached to goals of
an active adult life.
After Stage 3, one may the whole repetoire of previous modalities,
modes, and zones for industrious, identity-maintaining, intimate,
legacy-producing, dispair-countering purposes.
Stage 4 - Industry vs. Inferiority
Stage 5 - Identity vs. Role Confusion
- To bring a productive situation to completion is an aim which
gradually supersedes the whims and wishes of play.
- The fundamentals of technology are developed
- To lose the hope of such "industrious" association may pull
the child back to the more isolated, less conscious familial
rivalry of the Oedipal time
- The child can become a conformist and thoughtless slave whom
Stage 6 - Intimacy vs. Isolation
- The adolescent is newly concerned with how they appear to
- Ego identity is the accrued confidence that the inner sameness
and continuity prepared in the past are matched by the sameness
and continuity of one's meaning for others, as evidenced in the
promise of a career.
- The inability to settle on a school or occupational identity
- Body and ego must be masters of organ modes and of the other
nuclear conflicts in order to face the fear of ego loss in
situations which call for self-abandon.
- The avoidance of these experiences leads to isolation and
- The counterpart of intimacy is distantiation, which is the
readiness to isolate and destroy forces and people whose essence
seems dangerous to one's own.
- Now true genitality can fully develop.
- The danger at this stage is isolation which can lead to sever
Erikson's listed criteria for "genital
Stage 7 - Generativity vs. Stagnation
- mutuality of orgasm
- with a loved partner
- of opposite sex
- with whom one is willing and able to share a trust, and
- with whom one is willing and able to regulate the cycles of
work, procreation, and recreation
- so as to secure to the offspring all the stages of
Stage 8 - Ego Integrity vs. Despair
- Generativity is the concern in establishing and guiding the
- Simply having or wanting children doesn't achieve generativity
- Ego integrity is the ego's accrued assurance of its proclivity
for order and meaning.
- Despair is signified by a fear of death.
- Healthy children won't fear life if their elders have
integrity enough not to fear death.