Live Life Team
Erik Homburger Erikson, born June 15, 1902, in Frankfurt, Germany, is a well-known psychoanalyst and developmental psychologist. He formulated the theory on social development of human beings. His lifetime interest in the aspect of ones identity reflects his childhood experiences. He was the product of his mother’s extramarital affair, and the details about his birth were concealed to him by his mother.
Erikson’s great concern with ones identity led to his work that refined Freud’s theory. According to his developmental stage theory, a person’s developmental progress is greatly influenced by his or hers successes or failures as they grow older. He said that every stage of ones life involves a positive and a negative task with which an individual must struggle. If the positive tasks are not achieved, maladaptation occurs.
Erikson explains the eight psychological developmental stages by which the vitality of human development goes from infancy through late adulthood. These includes: infancy (birth to 18 months), wherein a child develops either trust or mistrust; toddlerhood (18 months to three years), wherein a child either learns autonomy or doubt; preschool (3-5years), a child will start to struggle from the task of initiative vs. inadequacy; during school age (6-12years), the child encounter the task of industry vs. inferiority; in adolescence stage, (12-20’s), a person either develops identity or will suffer from role confusion; in young adulthood stage (20’s-40years), a person enters into the world of either intimacy or isolation; in middle adulthood (40-60years), a person will either become productive or stagnant, then in late adulthood (60 years until death), a person either develops integrity or will go through despair.
