{"id":28996,"date":"2021-03-15T12:02:28","date_gmt":"2021-03-15T16:02:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=28996"},"modified":"2021-03-22T21:13:32","modified_gmt":"2021-03-23T01:13:32","slug":"erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/","title":{"rendered":"Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory of Development"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Who is Erik Erikson? How is Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of development different from Freud’s Psychosexual theory?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was a German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst who is best known for his theory of psychosocial identity development. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory marked a shift from Freud’s Psychosexual Theory in that it conceptualized psychosocial development across the entire lifespan instead of just childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is an overview of Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory of Development Through the Lifespan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory posits that personality takes shape in a predetermined order through 8 stages of psychosocial development. Each stage comes with a crisis that the person must face before moving on to the next. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Infant: trust vs. distrust\u2014at this stage the infant is almost totally helpless and is completely dependent upon his or her caregivers. Whether those caregivers provide reliable and adequate care for the infant will have a large impact on his ability to trust people later in life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Toddler: independence<\/a> vs. doubt\u2014the child is beginning to discover his own abilities, but if overly criticized or coddled during this time, he may come to doubt his self-sufficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Preschooler: drive vs. guilt\u2014the child will start interacting with others, inventing various forms of play and asking many questions. However, if these tendencies are repressed or if the child is treated as a nuisance, he may develop feelings of guilt around \u201cbothering\u201d others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

4. School age: competence vs. incompetence\u2014for perhaps the first time, the child’s skills are being rigorously developed and tested in a controlled environment. His self-esteem will depend in large part on whether he is seen as competent and encouraged or discouraged by peers and adults. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

5. Adolescent: identity vs. confusion\u2014at this stage the child is starting to develop a sense of personal identity. If he\/she isn\u2019t able to establish a clear role\u2014such as a person who doesn\u2019t know what he wants to do when he grows up\u2014this can lead to confusion about his identity throughout his life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

6. Young adult: intimacy vs. loneliness\u2014the person is beginning to think about forming long-term, intimate bonds with people other than family members. If the person shies away from commitment or fears intimacy, it can lead to an isolated and lonely life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

7. Middle age: creativity vs. stagnation\u2014the person experiences a growing desire to leave something behind that will outlast him or her. This could be a great scientific discovery, a famous book, or even a child. Someone who doesn\u2019t feel accomplished, or doesn\u2019t believe that he\u2019s left a mark on the world, may experience a lack of connection to or interest in the world around him. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

8. Old age: ego integrity vs. despair\u2014as the end of life approaches, the person looks back at what he or she has done (or not done). Someone who is satisfied with his life will feel what Erikson calls integrity<\/em>: acceptance of his life as a whole and a sense of completeness.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who is Erik Erikson? How is Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of development different from Freud’s Psychosexual theory? Erik Erikson (1902-1994) was a German-American psychologist and psychoanalyst who is best known for his theory of psychosocial identity development. Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory marked a shift from Freud’s Psychosexual Theory in that it conceptualized psychosocial development across the entire lifespan instead of just childhood. Here is an overview of Erik Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,160],"tags":[233],"class_list":["post-28996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-science","tag-maybe-you-should-talk-to-someone","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nErik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory of Development - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Theory posits that personality takes shape in a predetermined order through 8 stages of psychosocial development.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory of Development\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Theory posits that personality takes shape in a predetermined order through 8 stages of psychosocial development.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-15T16:02:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-23T01:13:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/blink-what-is-priming-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"774\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"473\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory of Development\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-15T16:02:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-23T01:13:32+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/\"},\"wordCount\":518,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/blink-what-is-priming-1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Maybe You Should Talk to Someone\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Science\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/erik-erikson-psychosocial-theory\/\",\"name\":\"Erik Erikson: Psychosocial Theory of Development - 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