This is the Theory of psychosocial development of a person. Here we can discover also that there are actually 9 stages because the 9th one came from his main collaborator and wife Joan Erikson. This slide report was made for Continuing Professional Education at Colegio de Santa Teresa de Avila, Zabarte Subdivision, Novaliches, Quezon City

1. By: Levy Z. Galorpo
CPE 2017
Colegio de Sta. Teresa de Avila

2. “Life doesn't make any sense without interdependence. We need each
other, and the sooner we learn that, the better for us all.”
 Born in Frankfurt, Germany, as Erik Salomonsen (1st 6 years)
 German-born American developmental psychologist and
psychoanalyst
 Influenced by Sigmund Freud and Anna Freud
 Famous for coining the phrase ‘identity crisis’ and ‘lifespan
development’
 Teacher of art for the children of the Freud’s
psychoanalysis patients
 Studied at the Vienna Psychoanalytic Institute
 Studies were focused on child development and sexual
stages
 Became the first child psychoanalyst in Boston, USA
 Published the book ‘Childhood and Society’ in 1950

3.  Psychosocial derived from ‘psychological’ (mind, brain,
personality), and ‘social’ (environment). Also used is
‘biopsychosocial’ (bio = life).
 Theory influenced by Sigmund Freud but with extention to
cultural and social.
 Developed through Erikson’s own journey of ‘psychosocial
crisis’.
 It is based on the analysis of personality and behaviour for
understanding and facilitating personal development.
 Relevant to modern life and is useful for teaching,
parenting, self awareness, managing and coaching, dealing
with conflict, for understanding self and others.
 The epigenetic principle which states that our personality
was formed and is believed that earlier stages served as
foundation for later stages.

4.  Each stage involves psychosocial crisis of two opposing
emotional forces.
 A balanced or well managed stage follows a virtue or a
psychosocial strength.
 A malignancy or maladaptation shall manifest depending
on how we handle the psychosocial crisis stage.
 The crisis stages are not sharply defined and there’s the
tendency of overlapping from one stage to another.
 Changes don’t happen in clear-cut stages. They are
graduated, mixed together, and organic.
 Significance of mutuality and generativity.
Malignancy – involves too little of the positive and too much of the negative
aspect of the task, such as a person who cannot trust others.
Maladaptation – involves too much of the positive and too little of the negative
aspect of task, such as a person who trusts too much.

5.  WHAT IS IT?
 It explains eight stages that a
healthy human should pass
through during childhood all
the way through adulthood.
 In each stage, a person should
find newchallenges and
hopefully succeed through
them.

6. •Focuses on social and cultural environment and not onsexuality
•Continued throughout lifespan and not limited to first six years as
Freud’s
•Eight stages of development characterizedby crisis and resolution
and eachperson has the ability to choose his path
What is it?

7. (birth to 18 mos)

8. Psychosocial Crisis
The goal is to develop trust without
completely eliminating the capacity for
mistrust.

9. Psychosocial Crisis
Significant relationship: Mother
Existential question: Can I trust the
world?
Examples: Feeding, abandonment

10. MALADAPTATION
 Sensory maladjustment
– a maladaptive
tendency where due to
overly protecting, this
person cannot believe
that anybody would
harm him.
 Overly trusting, even
gullible
MALIGNANCY
 Withdrawal – a
malignant tendency
that is characterized
by depression,
paranoia, and possibly
psychosis.

11.  If the proper balance is achieved, the child
will develop the virtue of hope, the strong
belief that, even when things are not going
well, they will work out well in the end.
VIRTUE

12. (18 mos to 3 or 4 years old)

13. Psychosocial Crisis
 The task is to achieve a degree of autonomy while minimizing shame
and doubt.
 A child may develop a sense of shame and doubt manifested in
feelings of worthlessness and incoompetence.
 Significant relationship: Parents
 Existential question: Is it okay to be me?
 Examples: Toilent training, clothing themselves

14. MALADAPTATION
 Impulsiveness – a sort
of shameless
willfullness that leads
you, in a later
childhood and even
adulthood, to jump into
things without proper
consideration of your
abilities.
MALIGNANCY
 Compulsive - a
compulsive person feels
as if their entire being
rides on everything they
do, and so everything
must be done properly.

15.  A positive balance of autonomy and shame
and doubt, will develop a virtue of willpower
or determination.
 A can do motto of a 3 year old child is the
most admirable one.
VIRTUE

16. (3 or 4 to 5 or 6 years old)

17. Psychosocial Crisis
 The task is to learn initiative without too much guilt.
 Initiative means a positive response to the world’s
challenges, taking on responsibilities, learning new skills
and feeling purposeful.
 If children can plan or imagine the future, then they can
be responsible, and guilty.
 The Oedipal crisis involves the reluctance a child feels in
relinguishing his or her closeness to the opposite sex
parent.

18. Psychosocial Crisis
 Significant relationship: Family
 Existential question: Is it okay for me to do,
move, or act?
 Examples: Exploring, using tools or making art

19. MALADAPTATION
 Ruthlessness – a
maladaptive
tendency of too
much initiative and
too little guilt. To
be ruthless is to be
heartless or
unfeeling, or be
without mercy.
MALIGNANCY
 Inhibition - too
much guilt. The
inhibited person will
not try things
because ‘nothing
ventured, nothing
lost, and
particularly, nothing
to feel guilty
about’.

20.  A good balance leads to the psychosocial
strength of purpose.
 Courage – the capacity for action despite a
clear understanding of your limitations and
past failings.
VIRTUE

21. (6 to 12 years old)

22. Psychosocial Crisis
 The task is to develop a capacity for industry
while avoiding and excessive sense of inferiority.
 A child must dedicate himself/herself to
education and social skills with the help of
family, teachers, peers and community.
 Inferiority or incompetence may develop due to
racism, sexism and discrimination.

23. Psychosocial Crisis
 Significant relationship: neighbors, school
 Existential question: Can I make it in the world
of people and things
 Examples: school, sports

24. MALADAPTATION
 Narrow virtuosity – a
maladaptive tendency
of too much industry
that are common to
children who are ‘not’
children when parents
push them into one area
of competence.
MALIGNANCY
 Inertia – a malignancy
of inferiority complex.
 Never trying again if
failed at first.
 Never trying because
we don’t do well in
that area.
 Never trying in social
skills

25.  An industry balanced with inferiority to keep
the child sensibly humble and have the virtue
called competency.
VIRTUE

26. (13 to 18 or 20 years old)

27. Psychosocial Crisis
 Task is achieve ego identity and avoid role
confusion.
 Ego identity means knowing who you are and
how you fit in to the rest of the society.
 Role confusion means an uncertainty about
one’s place in the society and in the world.

28. Psychosocial Crisis
 Significant relationship: peers, role model
 Existential question: Who am I? Who can I be?
 Examples: Social relationships

29. MALADAPTATION
 Fanaticism – a person is
too much involved in a
particular role in a society
and there is no room left
for tolerance.
MALIGNANCY
 Repudiation – rejection,
like rejection in the
membership in the adult
world, hence, rejecting
their identity.
 As a result, they form
their own sadistic,
militaristic, etc., groups
that deviate the norms of
the society.

30.  Fidelity – means loyalty, ability to live by
societies standards despite their
imperfections and incompleteness and
inconsistencies.
 It means that you have found a place in that
community and that you will be allowed to
contribute.
VIRTUE

31. (18 to about 40 years old)

32. Psychosocial Crisis
 The task is to achieve some degree of intimacy,
as opposed to remaining in isolation.
 Intimacy is the ability to be close to others, as a
lover, a friend, and as a participant in society.
 The ‘fear of commitment’ is an example of
immarturity in this stage.

33. Psychosocial Crisis
 A teenage relationship is often a matter of trying
to establish identity through ‘couple-hood’.
 Significant relationship: friends, partner
 Existential question: Can I love?
 Examples: romantic relationship

34. MALADAPTATION
 Promisquity - the
tendency to become
intimate too freely,
too easily, and
without any depth to
your intimacy.
MALIGNANCY
 Exclusion – the
tendency to isolate
oneself from love,
friendship, and
community, and to
develop a certain
hatefulness in
compensation for
one’s loneliness.

35.  Being lack of both
socialization and
interaction with other
people can actually
lead to anxiety and
lack of confidence
that causes the brain
to become unhealthy.
Reference:
http://readanddigesthealth.
com/2017/08/23/10-habits-
that-could-potentially-
damage-ones-brain-if-not-
avoided/

36. Love – being able to put aside
differences and antagonisms
through ‘mutuality of devotion’.
VIRTUE

37. (around 40 to 65 years old)
(for most people : mid 20s to late 50s)

38. Psychosocial Crisis
 The task is to cultivate the proper balance of
generativity and stagnation.
 Generativity – the extension of love into the
next generation and all future generations.
 The individual like a parent, does not expect to
be repaid for the love he gives to his children.

39. Psychosocial Crisis
 Stagnation – self-absorption, caring for no one.
 Significant relationship: household, workmates
 Existential question: Can I make my life count?
 Examples: work, parenthood

40. MALADAPTATION
 Overextension –
when a person tries
to be so generative
that he no longer has
time for himself, for
rest and relaxation.
MALIGNANCY
 Rejectivity – when a
person no longer
participates in and
contributes to the
society.
 Answers the question
to self: What am i
doing all these for?

41.  If a person is successful in this stage, he will
have a capacity for caring that will serve
him through the rest of his life.
VIRTUE

42. (around 60 years old to death)

43. Psychosocial Crisis
 Integrity - According to Erikson's theory of adulthood, when a
person achieves integrity, then that person has established a
complete sense or feeling that his or her life has been meaningful
and worthwhile. This stage occurs in the latter years of life and is
reached when people do not look back on their lives and dwell on
mistakes, or feelings of regret for things they did or did not do.
The alternative in this stage according to Erikson's theory is
despair.
 The task is to develop ego integrity with a minimal amount of
despair.
 A detachment from society from a sense of usefullness.
 Biological uselessness due to decadence of the physical body.

44. Psychosocial Crisis
 People become preoccupied with past failures
and bad decisions, depression arises.
 Significant relationship: mankind, my kind
 Existential question: Is it okay to have been me?
 Examples: reflections on life

45. MALADAPTATION
 Presumption – This
what happens when a
person ‘presumes’
ego integrity without
actually facing the
difficulties of old age.
He does not respect
the ideas and views of
the young people.
MALIGNANCY
 Disdain – means a
contempt of life,
one’s own or
anyone’s. The person
becomes very
negative and appears
to hate life.

46. Wisdom – a strength of someone
when he/she approaches death
without fear.
Acceptance that no one is perfect.
Past is past. Change is constant.
Reflect and learn from mistakes.
VIRTUE

48. (around 65 to death)
 Joan M. Erikson, wife and main collaborator of Erik
Erikson, added this stage in ‘The Life Cycle Completed:
Extended Version’ in 1994 when she was 93 years old.
 Experienced during the age of 80s to 90s years old,
accompanied by a loss of physical health, friends, family
members, and independence, in addition to isolation from
society.
 Due to old age, one experiences physical body
deterioration, loss of memory, and mental decline, hence,
loss of trust, autonomy and self esteem.

49. Psychosocial Crisis
 All first eight stages in reverse quotient order
"Basic Mistrust vs. Trust: Hope"
In the ninth stage, "elders are forced to mistrust their own
capabilities" because one's "body inevitably weakens". Yet, Joan
Erikson asserts that "while there is light, there is hope" for a
"bright light and revelation".
"Shame and Doubt vs. Autonomy: Will"
Ninth stage elders face the "shame of lost control" and doubt
"their autonomy over their own bodies". So it is that "shame and
doubt challenge cherished autonomy".
"Inferiority vs. Industry: Competence"
Industry as a "driving force" that elders once had is gone in the
ninth stage. Being incompetent "because of aging is belittling"
and makes elders "like unhappy small children of great age".
"Identity confusion vs. Identity: Fidelity"
Elders experience confusion about their "existential identity" in
the ninth stage and "a real uncertainty about status and role".

50. Psychosocial Crisis
"Isolation vs. Intimacy: Love"
In the ninth stage, the "years of intimacy and love" are often
replaced by "isolation and deprivation". Relationships become
"overshadowed by new incapacities and dependencies".
"Stagnation vs. Generativity: Care"
The generativity in the seventh stage of "work and family
relationships", if it goes satisfactorily, is "a wonderful time to be
alive". In one's eighties and nineties, there is less energy for
generativity or caretaking. Thus, "a sense of stagnation may well
take over".
"Despair and Disgust vs. Integrity: Wisdom"
Integrity imposes "a serious demand on the senses of elders".
Wisdom requires capacities that ninth stage elders "do not usually
have". The eighth stage includes retrospection that can evoke a
"degree of disgust and despair". In the ninth stage, introspection
is replaced by the attention demanded to one's "loss of capacities
and disintegration".

51. What do they say about Erikson’s eight stages of
human development?
 Marcia,1980; Waterman, 1985 - "It hasbeen proven difficult to create objectives to
evaluate Erikson's identitytheory. Not only do many different threads enter into the
process of establishing an identity, but each person must create a unique synthesis
of all the disparate parts“
 According to Cole and Cole, one of Erikson's favorite methods for testing his theory
is the biographicalcase study, using such famous men as Martin Luther and Mahatma
Gandhi. It canbe time consuming, expensive and difficult to apply these methods to
an individual experiencing role confusion.
 Another controversial aspect of Erikson's work is his agreement with Freud that
personality differences between sexes are biologically based, originating in the
possession or lack of a penis. Erikson based his conclusion on researchwith children
in a study in which boys and girls from age 10 to 12 constructedvarious scenes with
toy figures and wooden blocks.
 Critics of Erikson's theory say that his theory is more applicable to boys than to girls,
and that more attention is paid to infancy and childhood than to adult life, despite
the claim to be a life-span theory. However, many have foundErikson's theory offers
a useful framework for analyzing developmentalhistories.

52. What do they say about Erikson’s eight stages of
human development?
 Erikson's eight stages don't mention of personal or
family spirituality (vs. religion) as an integral part of healthy human
development. This probably reflects his Era's psychiatric convention
of excluding spirituality from treating human dysfunction.
 A core question posed by Erikson's scheme is whether an adult who
has not "successfully resolved" one or more early developmental
conflicts can proactively "redo" the conflict-resolution process and
create a more "adaptive" outcome. Peter Gerlach (master of social
work, and Author of Who's Really Running Your Life?) and colleagues'
consistent clinical experience is that such "redoing" (recovery) is
feasible using inner-family therapy.
 Erikson's stages don't acknowledge or discuss..
 how parents and grandparents can influence kids in their confronting these
stages; or...
 how parents' own "maladaptive adaptations" are unconsciously passed on to
their kids; or...

53. What do they say about Erikson’s eight stages of
human development?
References
 Child and Adolescent Development, Brenda Corpuz, etc.
 wikipedia
 Cole, M. & Cole, S.R. (1989). The Development ofChildren.
New York: W.H. Freeman & Co.
 Marcia, J.E. (1980). Identity in adolescence. In J.Andelson
(Ed.), Handbook of adolescent psychology. New York:
Wiley.
 Waterman, A.S. (1985). Indentity in the context
ofadolescent psychology. In A.S. Waterman (Ed.), Indentity
in adolescence:Progress and contents: (New directions for
child development, No.30). SanFrancisco: Jossey-Bass.
 http://sfhelp.org/parent/erikson.htm