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MODULE 7: ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL THEORY OF DEVELOPMENT

“Healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity enough not to fear
death.” – Erick Erikson

At the end of this module, you should be able to:

• explain the 8 Stages of Life to someone you care about;

• write a short story of your life using Erikson’s stages as frame-work; and
• suggest at least 6 ways on how Erikson’s theory can be useful for you as a future
teacher.

INTRODUCTION

Erickson’s stages of psychosocial development is a very relevant, highly

regarded and meaningful theory. Life is a continuous process involving learning and
trials which help us to grow. Erickson’s enlightening theory guides us and helps to tell
us why.

ACTIVITY
Erik Erikson’s Stage Theory of Development Questionnaire
This contains selected items from Rhona Ochse and Cornelis Plug’s self-
report questionnaire assessing the personality dimensions associated with Erikson’s
first 5 stages of psychosexual development. It can serve to make the stages personally
relevant to you.
Indicate how often each of these statements applies to you by using the
following scale:

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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ANALYSIS
Plot your score for each stage. Encircle your score for each stage

What did you discover about yourself in this questionnaire?

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ABSTRACTION/GENERALIZATION
Introduction to the 8 Stages:

1. Erickson’s ‘psychosocial’ term is derived from the two source words – namely psychological (or
the root, ‘psycho’ relating to the mind, brain, personality, etc) and social (external relationships and
environment), both at the heart of Erikson’s theory. Occasionally you’ll see the term extended to
biopsychosocial, in which “bio” refers to life, as in biological.

2. Erikson’s theory was largely influenced by Sigmund Freud. But Erikson extended the theory and
incorporated cultural and social aspects into Freud’s biological and sexually-oriented theory.

3. It’s also interesting to see how his ideas developed over time, perhaps aided by his own journey
through the ‘psychosocial crisis’ stages model that underpinned his work.

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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4. Like other influential theories, Erikson’s model is simple and well-designed. The theory is a basis
for broad or complex discussion and analysis of personality and behavior, and also for
understanding and for facilitating personal development – of self and others. It can help the teacher
in becoming more knowledgeable and at the same time understanding of the various
environmental factors that affect his own and his students’ personality and behavior.

5. Erickson’s eight stages theory is a tremendously powerful model. It is very accessible and
obviously relevant to modern life, from several different perspectives for understanding and
explaining how personality and behavior develops in people. As such Erickson’s theory is useful for
teaching, parenting, self-awareness, managing and coaching, dealing with conflict, and generally
for understanding self and others.

6. Various terms are used to describe Erickson’s model, for example Erickson’s biopsychosocial or
bio-psycho-social theory (bio refers to biological, which in this context means life); Erickson’s
human development cycle or life cycle, and variations of these. All refer to the same eight stages
psychosocial theory, it being Erickson’s most distinct work and remarkable model.

7. The epigenetic principle. As Boeree explains, “This principle says that we develop through a
predetermined unfolding of our personalities in eight stages. Our progress through each stage is in
part determined by our success or lack of success, in all the previous stages. A little like the
unfolding of a rose bud, each petal opens up at a certain time, in a certain order, which nature,
through its genetics, has determined. If we interfere in the natural order of development by pulling a
petal forward prematurely or out of order, we ruin the development of the entire flower.” Erickson’s
theory delved into how personality was formed and believed that the earlier stages served as a
foundation for the later stages. The theory highlighted the influence of one’s environment,
particularly on how earlier experiences gradually build upon the next and result into one’s
personality.

8. Each stage involves a psychosocial crisis of two opposing emotional forces. A helpful term used
by Erickson for these opposing forces is ‘contrary dispositions’. Each crisis stage relates to a
corresponding life stage and its inherent challenges. Erickson used the words ‘syntonic’ for the
first-listed ‘positive’ disposition in each crisis (e.g., Trust) and ‘dystonic’ for the second-listed
‘negative’ disposition (e.g., Mistrust). To signify the opposing or conflicting relationship between
each pair of forces or dispositions, Erickson connected them with the word ‘versus’.

9. If the stage is managed well, we carry away a certain virtue or psychosocial strength which will
help us through the rest of the stages of our lives. Successfully passing through each crisis
involves ‘achieving’ a healthy ratio or balance between the two opposing dispositions that
represent each crisis.

10. On the other hand, if we don’t do so well, we may develop maladaptations and malignancies, as
well as endanger all our future development. A malignancy is the worse of the two. It involves too
little of the positive and too much of the negative aspect of the task, such as a person who can’t
trust others. A maladaptation is not quite as bad and involves too much of the positive and too
little of the negative, such as a person who trusts too much.

11. The crisis stages are not sharply defined steps. Elements tend to overlap and mingle from one
stage to the next and to the preceding stages. It’s a broad framework and concept, not a
mathematical formula which replicates precisely across all people and situations.
Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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12. Erikson was keen to point out that the transition between stages is ‘overlapping’. Crisis stages
connect with each other like inter-laced fingers, not like a series of neatly stacked boxes. People
don’t suddenly wake up one morning and be in a new life stage. Changes don’t happen in
regimented clear-cut steps. Changes are graduated, mixed-together and organic.

13. Erickson also emphasized the significance of ‘mutuality’ and ‘generativity’ in his theory. The terms
are linked. Mutuality reflects the effect of generations on each other, especially among families,
and particularly between parents and children and grandchildren. Everyone potentially affects
everyone else’s experiences as they pass through the different crisis stages. Generativity, actually
a named disposition within one of the crisis stages (Generativity v Stagnation, stage seven),
reflects the significant relationships between adults and the best interests of children – one’s own
children, and in a way everyone else’s children – the next generation, and all following generations.

Now you are ready to go over the eight stages. As you read, enjoy filling up the concept
map we made, found at the beginning of each stage. This will help you remember the
important terms in each stage and how these terms are interrelated. Use the side margins to
write your thoughts about the stage and how they connect to your own life now and as a
future teacher.

The Eight Psychosocial Stages of Development:

Stage 1

Psychosocial Crisis

The first stage, infancy, is approximately the first year or year and a half of life. The crisis is
trust vs. mistrust. The goal is to develop trust without completely eliminating the capacity for
mistrust. If the primary caregivers, like the parents can give the baby a sense of familiarity,
consistency, and continuity, then the bay will develop the feeling that the world is a safe place to
be, that people are reliable and loving. If the parents are unreliable and inadequate, if they reject
the infant or harm it, if other interests cause both parents to turn away from the infant’s needs to
satisfy their own instead, then the infant will develop mistrust. He or she will be apprehensive and
suspicious around people.

Maladaptation/Malignancy

Please understand that this doesn’t mean that the parents have to be perfect. In fact,
parents who are overly protective of the child, who are there the minute the first cry comes out, will
lead that child into the maladaptive tendency which Erickson calls sensory maladjustment:
Overly trusting, even gullible, this person cannot believe anyone would mean them harm, and will
use all the defenses at their command to find an explanation or excuse for the person who did him
wrong. Worse, of course, is the child whose balance is tipped way over on the mistrust side. They
will develop the malignant tendency of withdrawal, characterized by depression, paranoia, and
possibly psychosis.

Virtue

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. One of the signs that a
child is doing well in the first stage is when the child isn’t overly upset by the need to wait a
Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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moment for the satisfaction of his or her needs: Mom or Dad doesn’t have to perfect; I trust them
enough to believe that, if they can’t be here immediately, they will be here soon; things may be
tough now, but they will work out. This is the same ability that, in later life, gets us through
disappointments in love, our careers, and many other domains of life.

Stage 2

Psychosocial Crisis

The second stage is early childhood, from about eighteen months to three or four years
old. The task is to achieve a degree of autonomy while minimizing shame and doubt. If mom and
dad, or caregiver permits the child, now a toddler, to explore and manipulate his or her
environment, the child will develop a sense of autonomy or independence. The parents should not
discourage the child, but neither should they push. A balance is required. People often advise new
parents to be “firm but tolerant” at this stage, and the advice is good. This way, the child will
develop both self-control and self-esteem. On the other hand, it is rather easy for the child to
develop instead a sense of shame and doubt. If the parents come down hard on any attempt to
explore and be independent, the child will soon give up with the belief that he/she cannot and
should not act on his/her own. We should keep in mind that even something as innocent as
laughing at the toddler’s efforts can lead the child to feel deeply ashamed and to doubt his or her
abilities.

There are other ways to lead children to shame and doubt. If you give children unrestricted
freedom and no sense of limits, or if you try to help children do what they should learn to do for
themselves, you will also give them the impression that they are not good for much. If you aren’t
patient enough to wait for your child to tie his or her shoe-laces, your child will never learn to tie
them, and will assume that this is too difficult to learn!

Maladaptation/Malignancy

Nevertheless, a little “shame and doubt” is not only inevitable, but beneficial. Without it,
you will develop the maladaptive tendency Erickson calls impulsiveness, a sort of shameless
willfulness that leads you, in later childhood and even adulthood, to jump into things without proper
consideration of your abilities. Worse, or course, is too much shame and doubt, which leads to the
malignancy Erickson calls compulsiveness. The compulsive person feels as if their entire being
rides on everything they do, and so everything must be done perfectly. Following all the rules
precisely keeps you from mistakes, and mistakes must be avoided at all cost. Many of you know
how it feels to always be ashamed and always doubt yourself. A little more patience and tolerance
with your own children may help them avoid your path. And give yourself a little slack, too!

Virtue

If you get the proper, positive balance of autonomy and shame and doubt, you will develop
the virtue of willpower or determination. One of the most admirable – and frustrating – things
about two- and three-year- olds is their determination. “Can do” is their motto. If we can preserve
that “can do” attitude (with appropriate modesty to balance it) we are much better off as adults.

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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Stage 3

Psychosocial Crisis

Stage three is the early childhood stage, form three or four to five or six. 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, feeling purposeful. Parents can
encourage initiative by encouraging children to try out their ideas. We should accept and
encourage fantasy and curiosity and imagination. This is a time for play, not for formal education.
The child is now capable, as never before, of imagining a future situation, one that isn’t a reality
right now. Initiative is the attempt to make that non-reality a reality.
But if children can imagine the future, if they can plan, then they can be responsible as
well, and guilty. If my two-year-old flushes my watch down the toilet, I can safely assume that there
were no “evil intentions.” It was just a matter of a shiny object going round and round and down.
What fun! But if my five year old does the same thing… well, she should know what’s going to
happen to the watch, what’s going to happen to daddy’s temper, and what’s going to happen to
her! She can be guilty of the act and she can begin to feel guilty as well. The capacity for moral
judgment has arrived.
Erickson is, of course, a Freudian, and as such, he includes the Oedipal experience in this
stage. From his perspective, the Oedipal crisis involves the reluctance a child feels in relinquishing
his or her closeness to the opposite sex parent. A parent has the responsibility, socially, to
encourage the child to “grow up – you’re not a baby anymore!” But if this process is done too
harshly and too abruptly, the child learns to feel guilty about his or her feelings.

Maladaptation/Malignancy

Too much initiative and too little guilt means a maladaptive tendency Erickson calls
ruthlessness. To be ruthless is to be heartless or unfeeling or be “without mercy”. The ruthless
person takes the initiative alright. They have their plans, whether it’s a matter of school or romance
or politics or career. It’s just that they don’t care who they step on to achieve their goals. The goals
are the only things that matters, and guilty feelings and mercy are only signs of weakness. The
extreme form of ruthlessness is sociopathy.
Ruthlessness is bad for others, but actually relatively easy on the ruthless person. Harder
on the person is the malignancy of too much guilt, which Erickson calls inhibition. The inhibited
person will not try things because “nothing ventured, nothing lost” and, particularly, nothing to feel
guilty about. They are so afraid to start and take a lead on a project. They fear that if it fails, they
will be blamed.

Virtue

A good balance leads to the psychosocial strength of purpose. A sense of purpose is

something many people crave for in their lives, yet many do not realize that they themselves make
their purposes, through imagination and initiative. I think an even better word for this virtue would
have been courage, the capacity for action despite a clear understanding of your limitations and
past failings.

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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Stage 4

Psychosocial Crisis

Stage four is the school-age stage when the child is form about six to twelve. The task is to
develop a capacity for industry while avoiding an excessive sense of inferiority. Children must
“tame the imagination” and dedicate themselves to education and to learning the social skills their
society requires of them. There is a much broader social sphere at work now: The parents and
other family members are joined by teachers and peers and other members of the community at
large. They all contribute. Parents must encourage, teachers must care, peers must accept.
Children must learn that there is pleasure not only in conceiving a plan, but in carrying it out. They
must learn the feeling of success, whether it is school or on the playground, academic or social.
A good way to tell the difference between a child in the third stage and one in the fourth
stage is to look at the way they play games. Four-year-olds may love games, but they will have
only a vague understanding of the rules, may change them several times during the course of the
game, and be very unlikely to actually finish the game, unless it is by throwing the pieces at their
opponents. A seven-year-old, on the other hand, is dedicated to the rules, considers them pretty
much sacred, and is more likely to get upset if the game is not allowed to come to its required
conclusion.
If the child is allowed too little success, because of harsh teachers or rejecting peers, for
example, then he or she will develop instead a sense of inferiority or incompetence. Additional
sources of inferiority, Erickson mentions, are racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. If a
child believes that success is related to who you are rather than to how hard you try, then why try?

Maladaptation/Malignancy

Too much industry leads to the maladaptive tendency called narrow virtuosity. We see this
in children who aren’t allowed to “be children,” the ones that parents or teachers push into one area
of competence, without allowing the development of broader interest. These are the kids without a
life: child actors, child athletes, child musicians, child prodigies of all sorts. We all admire their
industry, but if we look a little closer, it’s all that stands in the way of an empty life.
Much more common is the malignancy called inertia. This includes all of us who suffer
from the “inferiority complexes” Alfred Adler talked about. If at first you don’t succeed, don’t every
try again! Many of us didn’t do well in mathematics, for example, so we’d die before we took
another math class. Others were humiliated instead in the gym class, so we never try out for sport
or play a game of basketball. Others never developed social skills – the most important skills of all
– and so we never go out in public. We become inert.

Virtue

A happier thing is to develop the right balance of industry and inferiority – that is, mostly
industry with just a touch of inferiority to keep us sensibly humble. Then we have the virtue called
competency.

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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Stage 5

Psychosocial Crisis

Stage five is adolescence, beginning with puberty and ending around 18 or 20 years old.
The task during adolescence is to achieve ego identity and avoid role confusion. It was
adolescence that interested Erickson first and most, and the patterns he saw here were the bases
for his thinking about all the other stages.
Ego identity means knowing who you are and how you fit in to the rest of society. It
requires that you take all you’ve learned about life and yourself and mold it into a unified self-
image, one that your community finds meaningful.
There are a number of things that make things easier: First, we should have a mainstream
adult culture that is worthy of the adolescent’s respect, one with good adult role models and open
lines of communication.
Further, society should provide clear rites of passage, certain accomplishments and
rituals that help to distinguish the adult from the child. In primitive and traditional societies, an
adolescent boy may be asked to leave the village for a period of time to live on his own, hunt some
symbolic animal, or seek an inspirational vision. Boys and girls may be required to go through
certain test of endurance, symbolic ceremonies, or educational events. In one way or another, the
distinction between the powerless, but irresponsible, time of childhood and the powerful and
responsible time of adulthood, is made clear.
Without these things, we are likely to see role confusion, meaning an uncertainty about
one’s place in society and the world. When an adolescent is confronted by role confusion, Erickson
says, he or she is suffering from an identity crisis. In fact, a common question adolescents in our
society ask is straight-forward question of identity: Who am I?”
One of Erickson’s suggestions for adolescence in our society is the psychosocial
moratorium. He suggests you take a little “time out.” If you have money, go to Europe. If you don’t,
bum around the Philippines. Quit school and get a job. Quit your job and go to school. Take a
break, smell the roses, get to know yourself. We tend to want to get to “success” as fast as
possible, and yet few of us have ever taken the time to figure out what success means to us. A little
like the young Oglala Lakota, perhaps we need to dream a little.
There is such a thing as too much “ego identity,” where a person is so involved in a
particular role in a particular society or subculture that there is no room left for tolerance. Erickson
calls this maladaptive tendency fanaticism. A fanatic believes that his way is the only way.
Adolescents are, of course, known for their idealism, and for their tendency to see things in black-
and-white. These people will gather others around them and promote their beliefs and life-styles
without regard to others’ rights to disagree.
The lack of identity is perhaps more difficult still, and Erickson refers to the malignant
tendency here as repudiation. To repudiate is to reject. They reject their membership in the world
of adults and, even more, they reject their need for an identity. Some adolescents prefer to go to
groups that go against the norms to form their identity: religious cults, militaristic organizations,
groups founded on hatred, groups that have divorced themselves from the painful demands of
mainstream society. They may become involved in destructive activities- drugs, or alcohol- or they
may withdraw into their own psychotic fantasies. After all, being “bad” or being “nobody” is better
than now knowing who you are!
If you successfully negotiate this stage, you will have the virtue Erickson called fidelity.
Fidelity means loyalty, the ability to live by societies standards despite their imperfections and
incompleteness and inconsistencies. We are not talking about blind loyalty, and we are not talking
about accepting the imperfections. After all, if you love your community, you will want to see it
Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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become the best it can be. But fidelity means that you have found a place in that community, a
place that will allow you to contribute.

Stage 6

Psychosocial Crisis
If you have made it this far, you are in the stage of young adulthood, which lasts from
about 18 to about 30. The ages in the adult stages are much fuzzier that in the childhood stages,
and people may differ dramatically. 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. Because you have a clear sense of who you are, you no longer need to fear “losing”
yourself, as many adolescents do. The “fear of commitment” some people seem to exhibit is an
example of immaturity in this stage. This fear isn’t always obvious. Many people today are always
putting off the progress of their relationships: I’ll get married (or have a family, or get involved in
important social issues) as soon as I finish school, as soon as I have a job, as soon as I have a
house as soon as… If you’ve been engaged for the last ten years, what’s holding you back?
Neither should the young adult need to prove him- or herself anymore. A teenage relationship is
often a matter of trying to establish identity through “couple-hood.” Who am I? I’m her boyfriend.
The young adult relationship should be a matter of two independent egos wanting to create
something larger than themselves. We intuitively recognize this when we frown on a relationship
between a young adult and a teenager: We see the potential for manipulation of the younger
member of the party by the older.

Maladaptation/Malignancy

Erickson calls the maladaptive form promiscuity, referring particularly to the tendency to
become intimate too freely, to easily, and without any depth to your intimacy. This can be true of
your relationships with friends and neighbors and your whole community as well as with lovers.
The malignancy he calls exclusion, which refers to the tendency to isolate oneself from love,
friendship, and community, and to develop a certain hatefulness in compensation for one’s
loneliness.
Virtue
If you successfully negotiate this stage, you will instead carry with you for the rest of your
life the virtue or psychosocial strength Erickson calls love. Love in the context of his theory means
being able to put aside differences and antagonisms through “mutuality of devotion.” It includes not
only the love we find in a good marriage, but the love between friends and the love of one’s
neighbor, co-worker, and compatriot as well.

Stage 7

Psychosocial Crisis
The seventh stage is that of middle adulthood. It is hard to pin a time to it, but it would
include the period during which we are actively involved in raising children. For most people in our
society, this would put it somewhere between the middle twenties and the late fifties. The task here
is to cultivate the proper balance of generativity and stagnation.
Generativity is an extension of love into the future. It is a concern for the next generation
and all future generations. As such, it is considerably less “selfish” than the intimacy of the previous
stage: Intimacy, the love between lovers or friends, is a love between equals, and it is necessarily
mutual. With generativity, the individual, like a parent, does not expect to be repaid for the love he

Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
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gives to his children, at least not as strongly. Few parents expect a “return on their investment”
from their children; if they do, we don’t think of them as very good parents!
Although the majority of people practice generativity by having and raising children, there
are many other ways as well. Erickson considers teaching, writing, invention, the arts and
sciences, social activism, and generally contributing to the welfare of the future generations to be
generativity as well- anything, in fact, that satisfies that old “need to be needed.” Stagnation, on
the other hand, is self-absorption, caring for no-one. The stagnant person stops to be a productive
member of society.

Maladaptation/Malignancy

It is perhaps hard to imagine that we should have any “stagnation” in our lives, but the
maladaptive tendency Erickson calls overextension illustrates the problem: Some people try to be
so generative that they no longer allow time for themselves, for rest and relaxation. The person
who is overextended no longer contributes well. I’m sure we all know someone who belongs to so
many clubs, or is devoted to so many causes, or tries to take so many classes or hold so many
jobs that they no longer have time for any of them!
More obvious, of course, is the malignant tendency of rejectivity. Too little generativity
and too much stagnation and you are no longer participating in or contributing to society. And much
of what we call “the meaning of life” is a matter of how we participate and what we contribute.
This is the stage of the “midlife crisis.” Sometimes men and women take a look at their
lives and ask that big, bad question “what am I doing all this for?” Notice the question carefully:
Because their focus is on themselves, they ask what, rather than whom, they are doing it for. In
their panic at getting older and not having experienced or accomplished what they imagined they
would when they were younger, they try to recapture their youth. Men are often the most
flambouyant examples: They leave their long-suffering wives, quit their humdrum jobs, buy some
“hip” new clothes, and start hanging around singles’ bars. Of course, they seldom find what they
are looking for, because they are looking for the wrong thing!

Virtue

But if you are successful at this stage, you will have a capacity for caring that will serve
you through the rest of your life.

Stage 8

Psychosocial Crisis

This last stage, referred to delicately as late adulthood or maturity or less delicately as old
age, begins sometime around retirement, after the kids have gone, say somewhere around 60.
Some older folks will protest and say it only starts when you feel old and so on, but that’s an effect
of our youth-worshipping culture, which has even old people avoiding any acknowledgement of
age. In Erickson’s theory, reaching this stage is a good thing, and not reaching it suggests that
earlier problems retarded your development!
The task is to develop ego integrity with a minimal amount of despair. This stage, seems
like the most difficult of all. First comes a detachment from society, from a sense of usefulness, for
most people in our culture. Some retire from jobs they’ve held for years; others find their duties as
parents coming to a close; most find that their input is no longer requested or required.
Then there is a sense of biological uselessness, as the body no longer does everything it
used to. Women go through a sometimes dramatic menopause. Men often find they can no longer
Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege
 DAVAO DEL NORTE STATE COLLEGE
Institute of Teacher Education 0
“rise to the occasion.” Then there are the illness of old age, such as arthritis, diabetes, heart
problems, concerns about breast and ovarian and prostate cancers. There come fears about things
that one was never afraid of before – the flu for example, or just falling down. Along with the
illnesses come concerns of death. Friends die. Relatives die. One’s spouse dies. It is, of course,
certain that you, too will have your turn. Faced with all this, it might seem like everyone would feel
despair.
In response to this despair, some older people become preoccupied with the past. After all,
that’s where things were better. Some become preoccupied with their failures, the bad decisions
they made, and regret that (unlike some in the previous stage) they really don’t have the time or
energy to reverse them. We find some older people become depressed spiteful, paranoid,
hypochondriacal, or developing the patterns of senility with or without physical bases.
Ego integrity means coming to terms with your life, and thereby coming to terms with the
end of life. If you are able to look back and accept the course of events, the choices made, your life
as you lived it, as being necessary, then you needn’t fear death. Although most of you are not yet
at this point in life, perhaps you can still sympathize by considering your life up to now. We’ve all
made mistakes, some of them pretty nasty ones; yet, if you hadn’t made these mistakes, you
wouldn’t be who you are. If you had been very fortunate, or if you had played it safe and made very
few mistakes, your life would not have been as rich as is.

Maladaptation/Malignancy

The maladaptive tendency in stage eight is called presumption. This is what happens
when a person “presumes” ego integrity without actually facing the difficulties of old age. The
person in old age believes that he alone is right. He does not respect the ideas and views of the
young. The malignant tendency is called disdain, by which Erickson means a contempt of life,
one’s own or anyone’s: The person becomes very negative and appears to hate life.

Virtue

Someone who approaches death without fear has the strength Erickson calls wisdom. He
calls it a gift to children, because “healthy children will not fear life if their elders have integrity
enough not to fear death.” He suggests that a person must be somewhat gifted to be truly wise, but
I would like to suggest that you understand “gifted” in as broad a fashion as possible. I have found
that there are people of very modest gifts who have taught me a great deal, not by their wise
words, but by their simple and gentle approach to life and death, by their “generosity of spirit.”

APPLICATION
1. Write your own life story using the stages of psychosocial development as framework. Go through
each of the stages that apply to you (most probably, stages 1-5 or 6). Ask information from your
parents and other significant persons in your life. Look at old baby books and photo albums. Also,
include the results of your questionnaire in the activity section. Write a narrative for each stage.

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Reference: Corpuz, Brenda, Lucas, Ma. Rita D, et al. (2015). Child & Adolescent Development. Quezon City: Lorimar Publishing, Inc.

Address: Davao del Norte State College Website: [Link]

Tadeco Road, New Visayas Email: president@[Link]
Panabo City, Davao del Norte, 8105 Facebook Page: [Link]/davnorstatecollege