Erik H.

Erikson

Presented by :
Manish Mohan
Mitesh Jain
Monika Jain
Neha Behl
 Erik H. Erikson

Childho
od
And
8 Stages of
DevelopmentSociety
 Brief Biography

• Born in Frankfurt, Germany on June 15th , 1902

• Tormented Childhood : Mystery about his heritage
• From Erik Homberger to Erik Erikson -
a journey within self
• Immigrated to the USA in 1933
• Joined Harvard Medical School as child Psychoanalyst
• Taught at University of Yale, Berkley and California.
• Influenced by Sigmund and Anna Freud
• Propounded his theory of Psychoanalysis
 Major Contributions

• Eight Stages of Development

• Identity Crisis
• Psycho-social Development of Ego
• Psycho-biography
 Eight Stages of Development
• Development functions by the epigenetic principle. This principle says that
we develop through a predetermined unfolding of our personalities in eight
stages.
• One man in his time plays many psychosocial parts
 Stage 1: Infancy
Age : 0 – 1 year
Psychological Crisis : Trust VS Mistrust
Important Event : Parental Care

• Positive Outcome:
 Develops Trust for the social world around.

• Negative Outcome:
 Develops apprehension and suspicion
• A proper balance if achieved results in :
 Hope
 Strong Belief
 Stage 2: Toddler
Age : 1 - 2 year
Psychological Crisis : Independence (Autonomy) vs.
Shame (Doubt)
Important Event : Freedom

• Positive:
 Sense of achievement

• Negative:
 Feel ashamed to manipulate his or her environment
 Starts doubting his/her abilities

• If conflict resolved, develops virtues of :

 Will-Power
 Determination
 Stage 3: Early Childhood
Age : 2 - 6 year
Psychological Crisis : Initiative VS Guilt
Important Event : Encouragement of Fantasies,
imagination and Curiosity

• Positive:
 Capacity for Action. Desire to accomplished

• Negative:
 Develops a sense of guilt and aversion to independence
 Always looks for permission and support

• If conflict resolved, develops virtues of :

 Purpose
 Courage
 Stage 4 : Latency
Age : 6 – 12 year
Psychological Crisis : Industry vs. Inferiority
Important Event : School

• Positive:
 Discover pleasure in intellectual stimulation
 Develop a sense of industry
• Negative:
 Develop a sense of inferiority
• If conflict resolved, develops virtues of :
 Competency
 Stage 5: Adolescence
Age : 12 - 18 year
Psychological Crisis : Identity vs. Role Confusion
Important Event : Develop a strong devotion to friends
and causes

• Positive:
 Strong identity
 Ready to plan for the future

• Negative:
 Will sink into confusion
 Withdrawal from responsibilities

• If conflict resolved, develops virtues of :

 Fidelity
 Stage 6: Young Adulthood
Age : 18 to 35 year
Psychological Crisis : Intimacy Vs Isolation
Important Event : Significant relationships are with marital
partners and friends

• Positive:
 Achieve a sense of identity
 Form a close relationship

• Negative:
 Will retreat to isolation
 Will fear commitment

• If conflict resolved, develops virtues of :

 Love
 Stage 7: Middle adulthood
Age : 35 to 55 year
Psychological Crisis : Generativity Vs Stagnation
Important Event : Parenting

• Positive:
Helping the next generation

• Negative:
Self centered and stagnating

• If conflict resolved, develops virtues of:

Caring
 Stage 8: Late Adulthood
Age : 55 to 65 years or death
Psychological Crisis : Integrity vs. Despair
Important Event : Acceptance of one's life

• Positive:
 Accept death with sense of integrity
 Achieve a sense of fulfillment

• Negative:
 Despair and fear death
• If conflict resolved, develops virtues of : Wisdom
 Identity Crisis
•A person with a strong sense of identity has a sense of
uniqueness while also having a sense of belonging and
wholeness.

•According to Erikson, an identity crisis is a time in a person's life

when they lack direction, feel unproductive, and do not feel a
strong sense of identity.

•It may be first observed during the adolescent age

•He believed that we all have identity crises at one time or another
in our lives

•These crises do not necessarily represent a negative but can be

a driving force toward positive resolution. 
 Driving Forces
• His own Identity Crisis :
There is a little mystery about his heritage. His biological father was an
unnamed Danish man who abandoned Erik’s mother before he was born.
Raised Jewish, Erikson appeared very Scandinavian, and he felt like an
outsider to both the groups.
• Mentally Challenged Son :
His fourth child suffered from severe Down Syndrome and was
institutionalized right from birth with little (or no) parental care or contact.
His presence (or rather absence) contributed significantly to Erik’s work on
Eight Stage model of human life-cycle.
 Erikson & Freud
• Freud:
 Psychological growth is shaped during the formative early
years, 5 stages.
 Psychosexual stages of ego development.

• Erikson:
 Ego and the sense of identity are shaped over the entire life
span, 8 stages.
 Side by side with psychosexual stages of ego development,
were psychosocial stages of ego development, in which the
individual had to establish new basic orientations to himself
and social world.
 Literary Works
• Childhood and Society(1950 )
– Deals with individual identity, its development, its crises and its relation to the cultural
order.' Eight stages of life‘

• Identity: Youth and Crisis(1968 )

– Covers theoretical intersections of psychoanalysis, history and social sciences.

• Insight and Responsibility(1964)

– History, Psychoanalysis and the gap between them.
– Psychoanalytic insight into religion and ethics

• Life History and Historical Moment(1975 )

– Deals with the culture and political upheavals of the sixties.

Psychobiography:
• Young Man Luther(1958 )

• Gandhi’s Truth(1969): On the Origins of Militant Nonviolence

Winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National book Award.
CRITIQUES
•Difficult to create objectives to evaluate Erikson's identity theory.

•Favorite method: biographical case study - time consuming,

expensive and difficult.

•Many social scientists considered Mr. Erikson ill grounded in their

fields.

•Controversial aspect of Erikson's work is his agreement with Freud

that personality differences between sexes are biologically based.

•More attention is paid to infancy and childhood than to adult life,

despite the claim to be a life-span theory.
Children love and want to be loved and they very much
prefer the joy of accomplishment to the triumph of
hateful failure. Do not mistake a child for his symptom.
-Erik Erikson

Open Space…………..Thank You!!!

Sources:
1. Alan C. Elms, Erikson's History (Review of Identity's Architect By Lawrence J.
Friedman), “http://ulmus.net/library/articlespagee5c0.html?ID=89”

2. Elkind D., 5-04-1970, Erik Erikson’s Eight Ages of Man, The New York Times Magazine,
“http://www.ceed.pdx.edu/ectc_sscbt/pdfs/EriksonsEightAgesofMan.pdf”

3. ROBERT NISBET, The New York Times, February 28, 1965,A Gulf in Need of a Bridge, “
http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/22/specials/erikson-insight.html”

4. By ROBERT A. NISBET,A Sense of Personal Sameness, March 31, 1968,The New York
Times, "http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/22/specials/erikson-identity.html"

5. Ronald Wintrob, WCPRR July/October 2006, 1(3/4): 114-121,

“http://www.wcprr.org/pdf/JULOCT06/JULOCT06114121.pdf”

6. By Marshall Berman, March 30, 1975, Erik Erikson, the Man Who Invented Himself, “
http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/08/22/specials/erikson-history.html”

7. Erik Erikson's 8 Stages of Psychosocial Development,

“http://web.cortland.edu/andersmd/ERIK/welcome.HTML”

8. Erik Erikson, NNDB, “http://www.nndb.com/people/151/000097857/”