Theories Of Psychosocial Development

Throughout life, people go through a multitude of experiences that can heavily affect their mindsets, personalities, and lives in general. People are most prone to be influenced by these experiences from infancy up to the age of eighteen, during the developmental phases of life. Developmental phases are segments of time throughout life where humans are extremely susceptible to learning, allowing for the subconscious development of new skill sets, personality traits, and mannerisms that make them who they are. According to Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development, there are eight developmental phases, five of which take place before or during adolescence. Each phase develops on a basis of psychosocial crisis, such as intimacy versus

During this phase, infants are faced with the crisis of trust versus mistrust; infants are trying to determine whether the world is safe or if it should be feared, and the goal is to establish the virtue of hope in the infant. Given consistent and dependable care, infants will begin to gain a sense of trust in their caretaker. This trust will follow them into future relationships, allowing them to have secure, emotional bonds with others further into life. However, if harsh and unreliable care has been given, the child may become emotionally detached, lacking the ability to form bonds with others and leading to socially unacceptable behavior later in life. If a child is not attached – does not form a loving bond with the mother – he does not develop an attachment to the rest of mankind. The unattached child literally does not have a stake in humanity. (Magid & McKelvey) In less severe cases, children who experience neglect early on in life will grow to have anxiety, insecurities, and a general mistrust of the world around

This stage is especially crucial; children work to figure out their future.They want to find a place for themselves in the future’s society as far as terms as career, family, housing, and many other aspects. Children begin to reevaluate the information they had previously learned about themselves in an attempt to finalize their identities. All of them information they have gained about themselves in the previous stages is going through a semi-final review before adolescents make life-changing decisions based on their knowledge of themselves. They are using the information to find their role in society and their true identity. Once this is found, they will be able to accept themselves and those around them, even with differences in ideologies. If their role and identity is never truly confirmed, they will spend a great amount of time reevaluating themselves, spending a deal of time going through role confusion and identity crisis, thus the reason this stage’s crisis is referred to as identity versus role confusion. After this stage, three more stages are lived out, dealing with virtues of love, care, and wisdom that come with age. If all phases of life are successful, people will likely die happily, knowing that they have lived a fulfilling life. If this is not the case, they will likely die remorsefully, and look back on their life with a mind full