Psychological development according to E. H. Erikson

Erik Homburger Erikson distinguishes the so-called eight ages of man in the mental development of man. In each of them, the individual must solve a developmental task.

first age

 * first year of life
 * corresponds to the oral period in Freud
 * the child's task is to gain a sense of confidence in life and to defend against feelings of insecurity

Second age

 * 2nd-3rd year of life
 * corresponds to the anal stage in Freud
 * the task is to manage the contradiction between one's feelings of autonomy (independence) and the feelings of shame that result from dependence on the environment and their demands

Third age

 * preschool age
 * corresponds to the phallic period in Freud
 * the task is to resolve the conflict between self-initiative and feelings of guilt over intended and actual goals
 * a conscience begins to develop

Forth age

 * until the beginning of adolescence (up to the age of 13)
 * corresponds to the period of latency in Freud
 * the task is to acquire a sense of self-effort in school work and to defend against feelings of inferiority

Fifth age

 * adolescence
 * corresponds to the genital period in Freud
 * the task is to find one's own identity and fight against feelings of insecurity about one's own role among people

Sixth age

 * young adulthood (under 30)
 * a person is willing to give up his own identity and let it merge with the identity of another person (intimacy); the danger is the feeling of isolation, i.e. the tendency to avoid intimate relationships

Seventh age

 * middle adulthood (up to 45 years)
 * the task is to give birth and raise the next generation, to take care of someone; to gain a sense of generativity and combat feelings of stagnation and personal impoverishment

Eighth age

 * late adulthood and old age
 * the task is to achieve personal integrity, a kind of life wisdom in which individuals accept their own life path as something that had to be the way it was; lack of integration manifests itself in the fear of death and feelings of despair that there is little time left to start another life

related articles

 * Child age distribution
 * Psychomotor development of the child