Erikson's stages of development

What it says

Erikson's claim is that development is social all the way through, and that each stretch of a life puts one question in front of a person. Infancy asks whether the world can be relied on. Adolescence asks who you are. Old age asks whether the life you had was yours.

Each stage is written as a tension between two outcomes, and the point is not to win it. A person works out a balance that leans the right way, and Erikson said each balance leaves behind a strength: hope, will, purpose, competence, loyalty, love, care, wisdom.

The tensions do not close for good. A person who settled the identity question at twenty meets it again after a job ends or a marriage does. The order is the claim. The schedule is a rough guide.

The eight stages

The age bands are Erikson's own, and he treated them loosely.

1. Trust against mistrust, first year

   Care that arrives when it is needed builds a sense that the world can be relied on. The strength is hope.

2. Autonomy against shame, 1 to 3

   A toddler allowed to try things builds a sense of having a will of their own.

3. Initiative against guilt, 3 to 5

   A child who may start things and ask about them builds purpose.

4. Industry against inferiority, 6 to 11

   School and friends ask whether you can do things well. The strength is competence.

5. Identity against role confusion, adolescence

   Working out who you are and what you hold to. The strength is loyalty.

6. Intimacy against isolation, young adult

   Being close to somebody without losing yourself in it. The strength is love.

7. Generativity against stagnation, middle years

   Making or raising something that outlasts you. The strength is care.

8. Integrity against despair, late life

   Reading your own life as one that made sense. The strength is wisdom.

Where it came from

Erikson trained in Vienna and moved to the United States in 1933. Childhood and Society, in 1950, set out the eight stages. Identity: Youth and Crisis followed in 1968 and made the adolescent stage the famous one.

He worked from case material, from fieldwork with Sioux and Yurok communities, and from biography, not from experiments. The scheme was an argument about a whole life rather than a set of measurements.

What holds up, and what does not

One stage has been tested properly. James Marcia turned the identity stage into four measurable positions in 1966. One young person has explored and committed. Another has committed without exploring. A third is in the middle of exploring, and a fourth is doing neither. Those four statuses have been studied for fifty years and they predict things.

The rest of the scheme is harder to test. The ages are a frame, not a measured schedule, and the eight tensions are described rather than scored. There is life span research that fits the later stages, on generativity in the middle years in particular, but nobody has tested the sequence as a whole. Treat it as a map that has proved useful for talking about a life.

What it does not mean

A stage is not a deadline and nobody fails one. The scheme describes questions people meet, not a schedule to measure yourself against. An old tension returning is part of the account rather than a sign of something wrong.

Check yourself

Three questions on what is above. Each answer says why.

1. Which tension does Erikson put in adolescence?

   1. Industry against inferiority
   2. Identity against role confusion
   3. Intimacy against isolation
   Show the answer

   Answer: B. Adolescence is the identity stage, the one the scheme is best known for. Intimacy comes after it, in young adulthood.

2. Pick the statement that describes what Marcia added in 1966.

   1. Four measurable identity statuses
   2. A ninth stage for very old age
   3. Evidence that the stages run in a different order
   Show the answer

   Answer: A. Marcia turned the identity stage into four statuses built on exploration and commitment, which made that part of the scheme testable.

3. What does Erikson say a person gets from working out one of the tensions?

   1. A score on a scale
   2. A strength, such as hope or competence
   3. A fixed personality type
   Show the answer

   Answer: B. Each balance leaves a strength behind, and his list runs hope, will, purpose, competence, loyalty, love, care and wisdom.

Sources

1. Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and Society. W. W. Norton.
2. Erikson, E. H. (1968). Identity: Youth and Crisis. W. W. Norton.
3. Marcia, J. E. (1966). Development and validation of ego identity status. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 3(5).

Practice it on Learn

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