Erickson's age periodization is a doctrine of the psychosocial development of the personality, developed by a German-American psychologist. In it, he describes 8 stages, focusing on the development of the "I-individual". In his theory, he paid great attention to the concept of the ego. When Freud's theory of development was limited to childhood, Erickson believed that the personality continues to develop throughout one's life. Moreover, each stage of this development is marked by a specific conflict, only with a favorable resolution of which there is a transition to a new stage.
Erickson table
Erickson reduces age periodization to a table in which he indicates the stages, the age at which they occur, virtues, favorable and unfavorable exit from the crisis, basic antipathies, a list of significant relationships.
Separate psychologistnotes that any personality traits cannot be interpreted as good or bad. At the same time, strengths are highlighted in the age periodization according to Erickson, which he calls the qualities that help a person solve the tasks assigned to him. The weak refers to those who hinder him. When a person, following the results of the next period of development, acquires weak qualities, it becomes much more difficult for him to make the next choice, but it is still possible.
| Stages | Age | Strengths | Weaknesses | Meaningful relationships |
| Infancy | up to 1 year | Basic trust | Basic mistrust | Mother's personality |
| Childhood | 1-3 years | Autonomy | Doubt, shame | Parents |
| Preschool | 3-6 years old | Enterprise, initiative | Guilt | Family |
| School | 6-12 years old | Hard work | Inferiority | School, neighbors |
| Youth | 12-20 years old | Identity | Role mess | Different leadership models, grouppeers |
| Youth, early maturity | 20-25 years old | Intimacy | Insulation | Sex partners, friends, cooperation, competition |
| Maturity |
26-64 years old |
Performance | Stagnation | Housekeeping and division of labor |
| Old age | after 65 | Integration, integrity | Despair, despair | "Own circle", humanity |
Biography of a scientist
Erik Homburger Erikson was born in Germany in 1902. As a child, he received a classical Jewish upbringing: his family ate only kosher food, regularly attended the synagogue, and celebrated all religious holidays. The problem of identity crisis that interested him was directly related to his life experience. His mother hid the secret of his origin from him (he grew up in a family with his stepfather). He appeared because of his mother's extramarital affair with a Dane of Jewish origin, about whom there is practically no information. It is only known that his last name was Erickson. She was officially married to Valdemar Salomonsen, who worked as a stockbroker.
He was constantly teased at Jewish school for his Nordic appearance, as his biological father was Danish. ATpublic school he was punished for the Jewish faith.
In 1930, he married a dancer from Canada, Joan Serson, with whom he emigrated to the United States three years later. In his work in America, he contrasted Freud's theory, in which the psychological development of the individual was divided into only five stages, with his own scheme with eight stages, adding three stages of adulthood.
Also, it is Erickson who owns the concept of ego psychology. According to the scientist, it is our Ego that is responsible for the organization of life, he althy personal growth, harmony with the social and physical environment, becoming the source of our own identity.
In the US in the 1950s, he became a victim of McCarthyism, as he was suspected of having links with the communists. He left Berkeley University when he was required to sign a loy alty oath. After that, he worked at Harvard and a clinic in Massachusetts. In 1970, he won the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction for The Truth of Gandhi.
The scientist died in Massachusetts in 1994 at the age of 91.
Infancy
The very first stage in the age periodization of E. Erickson is infancy. It continues from the birth of a person to the first year of his life. It is on it that the foundations of a he althy personality appear, a sincere sense of trust appears.
Erickson's age periodization notes that if an infant develops this basic sense of basic trust, then he begins to perceive hisenvironment as predictable and reliable, which is very important. At the same time, he is able to endure the absence of his mother without undue anxiety and suffering about separating himself from her. The main ritual at this stage of its development in the age periodization of E. Erickson is mutual recognition. It lasts a lifetime, defining relationships with others.
It is noteworthy that the methods of teaching suspicion and trust differ depending on the culture. At the same time, the method remains universal, as a result of which a person trusts others, depending on how he treated his mother. A feeling of fear, mistrust and suspicion arises if the mother is suspicious, rejects the child, showing her failure.
During this period of Erickson's age periodization, an initial positive quality is formed for the development of our Ego. This is a belief in the best, based on the attitude towards the cultural environment. It is acquired in case of successful resolution of the conflict, based on trust or distrust.
Early childhood
Early childhood is the second stage of Erickson's periodization of age development, which develops from one to three years. It can be exactly related to the anal phase in Freud's theory. The ongoing biological maturation provides the basis for the manifestation of the child's independence in various areas - movement, food, dressing. In his periodization of age development, E. Erikson noted that a collision with the norms and requirements of society does not occuronly during potty training. Parents should expand and encourage the independence of the baby, develop his sense of self-control. Reasonable permissiveness contributes to the formation of his autonomy.
Important at this stage is critical ritualization, which is based on specific examples of evil and good, bad and good, forbidden and permitted, ugly and beautiful. With a successful development of the situation, a person develops self-control, will, and with a negative outcome, weak will.
Preschool
The next stage in Erickson's periodization of age development is preschool age, which he also calls the age of play. From three to six years old, kids are actively interested in all kinds of work activities, try something new, and establish contact with peers. The social world at this time insists that the child behave actively, it becomes important to acquire the skills to solve certain problems. There is a fundamentally new responsibility for pets, younger children in the family, oneself.
The initiative that appears at this age is associated with enterprise, the child begins to experience the joy of independent actions and movements. Easy to educate and train, willingly makes contact with other people, focuses on a specific goal.
In the age periodization of Erik Erickson, at this stage, a Superego is formed in a person, a new form of self-restraint appears. Parents are encouraged to recognize his rights to fantasy and curiosity, independent endeavors. It should develop itcreativity, the limits of independence.
If instead children are overcome with guilt, they will not be productive in the future.
School age
Giving a brief description of Erickson's age periodization, let's dwell on each of the stages. Stage 4 develops between the ages of six and twelve. Here already there is a confrontation with a father or mother (depending on gender), the child goes beyond the family, joining the technological side of culture.
The main terms of this stage of E. Erickson's theory of age periodization are "taste for work", "hard work". Children are absorbed in the knowledge of the world around them. The ego-identity of a person is expressed in the formula "I am what I have learned." At school, they are introduced to discipline, develop industriousness, striving for achievements. At this stage, the child will have to learn everything that can prepare him for a productive adult life.
He begins to develop a sense of competence, if he is praised for the results he has achieved, he gains confidence that he can learn something new, talents for technical creativity appear. When adults see only pampering in his desire for activity, there is a possibility of developing a sense of inferiority, doubts about his own abilities.
Youth
No less important in the age periodization of E. Erickson is the stage of developmentyouth. It lasts from 12 to 20 years old, considered the main period in the psychosocial development of a person.
This is the second attempt to develop autonomy. A teenager challenges social and parental norms, learns about the existence of previously unfamiliar social roles, reflects on religion, an ideal family, and the structure of the world around him. All these questions often cause him a feeling of concern. The ideology is presented in an overly simplified form. His main task at this stage in Erickson's theory of age periodization is to collect all the knowledge about himself that was available at that time, to embody it in an image of himself, forming an Ego-identity. It must include a conscious past and an envisioned future.
The emerging changes manifest themselves in the form of a struggle between the desire to remain dependent on the care of loved ones and the desire for one's own independence. Faced with such confusion, a boy or girl strives to become like his peers, he develops stereotypical ideals and behaviors. Perhaps the destruction of strict norms in behavior and clothing, a passion for informal movements.
Dissatisfaction with social values, abrupt social changes, the scientist considers as a factor that hinders the development of identity, the emergence of a sense of uncertainty and inability to continue education, choose a career.
A negative way out of the crisis can be expressed in poor self-identity, a feeling of uselessness, aimlessness. Teenagers rush towards delinquent behavior. Due to excessive identification with representativescounterculture and stereotypical heroes suppress the development of their identities.
Youth
In the periodization of Erickson's developmental psychology, the sixth stage is youth. Between the ages of 20 and 25 marks the actual start of true adulthood. A person gets a profession, an independent life begins, an early marriage is possible.
The ability to participate in love relationships includes most of the previous stages of development. Without trusting others, it will be difficult for a person to trust himself, because of insecurity and doubt, it will be difficult for him to allow others to cross his borders. Feeling inadequate, it will become difficult to get close to others, to take the initiative yourself. And in the absence of hard work, there will be inertia in relationships, mental discord can cause problems with determining a place in society.
The capacity for intimacy is perfected when a person succeeds in building partnerships, even if this requires significant compromises and sacrifices.
The positive resolution of this crisis is love. Among the main principles of age periodization according to Erickson at this stage are the erotic, romantic and sexual components. Intimacy and love can be seen as an opportunity to start believing in another person, to remain the most faithful in a relationship, even if for this you have to make self-denial and concessions. This type of love is manifested in mutual respect, care, responsibility for another person.
Striving to avoid intimacy may be out of fear of losing independence. This threatens self-isolation. The inability to build trusting and calm personal relationships leads to a feeling of social vacuum, loneliness and isolation.
Maturity
Seventh stage, the longest. It develops from 26 to 64 years. The main problem is the choice between inertia and productivity. An important point is creative self-realization.
This stage includes an intense work life, formally a new style of parenting. At the same time, there arises the ability to show interest in universal human problems, the fate of others, to think about the structure of the world, future generations. Productivity can manifest itself as the next generation caring for young people, wanting to help them find their place in life and take the right direction.
Difficulties at the stage of productivity can lead to an obsessive desire for pseudo-intimacy, a desire to protest, to resist letting your own children go into adulthood. Adults who fail to become productive withdraw into themselves. Personal comforts and needs become the main subject of concern. They focus on their own desires. With the loss of productivity, the development of the individual as an activity of a member of society ends, interpersonal relationships become poorer, satisfaction of one's own needs ends.
Old age
After 65the final stage begins - old age. It is characterized by a conflict of hopelessness and wholeness. This may mean accepting oneself and one's own role in the world, realizing human dignity. By this time, the main work of life is over, it's time for fun with the grandchildren and reflection.
At the same time, a person begins to imagine his own life as too short to achieve everything that was planned. Because of this, there may be a feeling of discontent and hopelessness, despair that life has not turned out the way you wanted, and it’s too late to start anything over. The fear of death appears.
Psychologists in reviews of Erik Erikson's theory of psychosocial development constantly compare his work with Sigmund Freud's classification, which includes only five stages. At all stages of the development of modern science, Erickson's ideas were treated with increased attention, since the scheme he proposed made it possible to study the development of the human personality in more detail. The main claims were related to the fact that human development continues into adulthood, and not only in childhood, as Freud claimed. The main doubts expressed by critics of Erickson's work are connected with this.
