Psychosocial Theory: Erikson
Clifton, Haverford '95
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 implicitly
present at birth (at least in latent form), but unfold according to
both an innate scheme and one's up-bringing in a family that
expresses the values of a culture. Each stage builds on the preceding
stages, and paves 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
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
"a" "b" and "c" identify the oral, anal, and gential zones,
respectively; and numbers "1" through "5" pertain to the passive and
active incorporative, the retentive and eliminative, and the
intrusive modes, respectively.
Erikson's illustration of "the interplay of one zone with all the
modes" (1950, p. 73ff.) by means of circles and arrows is among the
most confusing moments in his book. Here are the diagrams (Erikson,
1950, p. 89), at the point male and female development are said to
diverge in locomotor/intrusive/"phallic"/Oedipal Stage 3:
Each cell of the diagram represents a child at some moment of
Note that the dark-bordered, stair-case-like, trend of developmet
for the boy (Figure 4) is turned back in the case of the girl (Figure
5), but that each has the other's dominent mode in latent
(dotted-border) form. The boy seems to give up much of his
incorporativeness, and the girl much of her intrusiveness, at the
fourth level (i.e., early in the "Initiative/Guilt"
Here are the concepts in chart form
(You should be able to reproduce and explain each
Here's an expanded chart
(extrapolating from Erikson) that may help as you use Erikson for the
Trust vs. Mistrust
Autonomy vs. Shame, Doubt
Inititative vs. Guilt
Industry vs. Inferiority
Identity vs. Role Confusion
Intimacy vs. Isolation
Generativity vs. Stagnation
Stage 1 - Basic Trust vs. Mistrust
Stage 2 - Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
- Developing trust is the first task of the ego, and it is never
- 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 him/herself
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
- 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
- The child 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 use 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 (or
- 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
utopia" illustrate his insistence on the role of many modes and
modalities in harmony:
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
- Socially-valued work and disciples are also expressions of
- Ego integrity is the ego's accumulated assurance of its
capacity for order and meaning.
- Despair is signified by a fear of one's own death, as well as
the loss of self-sufficiency, and of loved partners and
- Healthy children, Erikson tells us, won't fear life if their
elders have integrity enough not to fear death.