Erikson's Psychosocial Stages Summary Chart

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson described development that occurs throughout the lifespan. Learn more in this
chart summarizing Erikson's stages of psychosocial development.

Stage

Basic
Conflict
Infancy (birth to Trust vs.
18 months)
Mistrust

Important
Events
Feeding

Early
Autonomy vs. Toilet Training
Childhood (2 to Shame and
3 years)
Doubt

Preschool (3 to Initiative vs.

5 years)
Guilt

Exploration

School Age (6
to 11 years)

School

Industry vs.
Inferiority

Adolescence
Identity vs.
(12 to 18 years) Role
Confusion

Social
Relationships

Young
Adulthood (19
to 40 years)

Intimacy vs.
Isolation

Relationships

Middle
Adulthood (40
to 65 years)

Generativity Work and

vs. Stagnation Parenthood

Maturity(65 to
death)

Ego Integrity
vs. Despair

Reflection on
Life

Outcome
Children develop a sense of trust when
caregivers provide reliabilty, care, and
affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.
Children need to develop a sense of
personal control over physical skills and a
sense of independence. Success leads to
feelings of autonomy, failure results in
feelings of shame and doubt.
Children need to begin asserting control and
power over the environment. Success in this
stage leads to a sense of purpose. Children
who try to exert too much power experience
disapproval, resulting in a sense of guilt.
Children need to cope with new social and
academic demands. Success leads to a
sense of competence, while failure results in
feelings of inferiority.
Teens need to develop a sense of self and
personal identity. Success leads to an ability
to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to
role confusion and a weak sense of self.
Young adults need to form intimate, loving
relationships with other people. Success
leads to strong relationships, while failure
results in loneliness and isolation.
Adults need to create or nurture things that
will outlast them, often by having children or
creating a positive change that benefits
other people. Success leads to feelings of
usefulness and accomplishment, while
failure results in shallow involvement in the
world.
Older adults need to look back on life and
feel a sense of fulfillment. Success at this
stage leads to feelings of wisdom, while
failure results in regret, bitterness, and
despair.

Mcleod Saul.(2013). Simply Psychology:Erik Erikson.Retrieved from

http://www.simplypsychology.org/Erik- Erikson.html

Kohlberg's Level Two - Conventional Morality

... so-called because people at this stage conform to the conventions / rules of a society.
C
h
ar
t
of
K
o
hl
b
er
g'
s
T
h
e
or
y
of
M
or
al
D
e
v
el
o
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m
e
nt

Stage 1: PunishmentObedience Orientation

Level One:
Pre-conventional Morality
Stage
2: Instrumental Relativist
Stage 3: Good Boy-Nice Girl
Orientation
Orientation
Lawrence Kohlberg: "Good behavior is that which pleases or helps others and is approved
Stage 3:
Boy-Nice
Girl of what is majority or 'natural'
by them. There is much conformity
to Good
stereotypical
images
Level
Two:
Orientation
behaviour. Behavior is frequently judged by intention. 'He means well' becomes important for
Conventional
Morality
the
first time. One
earns approval by being 'nice.'" (Duska, R. and Whelan, M., 1975)
Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation
Summary: The concern is "What
peopleContract
think of me?"
and the desire is for group
Stagewill
5: Social
Orientation
Level
Three:
approval. Right action is one that would please or impress others. This often involves selfPost-Conventional
sacrifice
but it provides the psychological
pleasure
of 'approval
Stage 6: Universal
Ethical
Principleof others.' Actions are also
judged inMorality
relation to their intention.
Orientation

Possible Stage 3 responses to Heinz Dilemma:

Yes, Heinz should steal the drug. He probably will go to jail for a short time for
stealing but his in-laws will think he is a good husband.

Brown, the police officer should report that he saw Heinz behaving suspiciously and
running away from the laboratory because his boss would be pleased.
[ See Scenario 2 of Heinz Dilemma ]

Officer Brown should not report what he saw because his friend Heinz would be
pleased.

The judge should not sentence Heinz to jail for stealing the drug because he meant
well ... he stole it to cure his wife. [ See Scenario 3 of Heinz Dilemma ]

Note: Opposite responses could be given at each stage or different reasons could be given
for
the
same
response.
Inadequacy of Stage 3 reasoning:

Same

person,

different

roles OR Different

groups,

different

expectations

What should Heinz do if he is in the same Medical Association as the doctor

scientist? Family members will think he is a good husband if he stole the drug but he
may not be able to face any member of the Association again. If he does not steal,
his family members will think he is heartless. How can Heinz resolve these conflicting
expectations?
Another example of "different groups, different expectations" would be a teenager
struggling with the expectations of his peer group and those of his parents. From
which group does he seek approval?

Different
As

people,
good

husband,

Heinz

different
should

steal

the

drug

roles
to

cure

his

wife.

But Brown, the police officer who saw Heinz behaving suspiciously and running away
from the laboratory, also has a role to play. Does not that role demand that he report
what
he
saw?
Then there is the judge who has the responsibility to uphold justice. Does not that
role demand that he sentence Heinz to jail?

People

not

living

up

to

their

duties

or

roles

What if Heinz doesn't love his wife and does not want to steal the drug?
As filial sons and daughters, we should provide financial support for our needy
parents. But what if people, who are capable of supporting their parents, don't?
Should laws be legislated (like the Maintenance of Parents Act) to "force" expected
action?

Another question: Should the doctor scientist be forced to turn the drug over to Heinz
at half price? Why or why not?

Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation

Lawrence Kohlberg: "Right behavior consists in doing one's duty, showing respect for
authority and maintaining the given social order for its own sake." A person in this stage
"orients to society as a system of fixed rule, law and authority with the prospect of any
deviation from rules as leading to social chaos." (Duska, R. and Whelan, M., 1975)
Summary: The concern now goes beyond one's immediate group(s) to the larger society ...
to the maintenance of law and order. What is right is obeying the law of society. One's
obligation to the law overrides one's obligations of loyalty to one's family, friends and groups.
To put it simply, no one or group is above the law.
Possible Stage 4 responses to Heinz Dilemma:

As her husband, Heinz has a duty to save his wife's life so he should steal the drug.
But it's wrong to steal, so Heinz should be prepared to accept the penalty for
breaking the law.

The judge should sentence Heinz to jail. Stealing is against the law! He should not
make any exceptions even though Heinz' wife is dying. If the judge does not
sentence Heinz to jail then others may think it's right to steal and there will be chaos
in the society.

An example of Stage 4 reasoning in a school setting would be a prefect who found his best
friend who is also the head prefect breaking a school rule. The prefect said he was sorry that
he had to book him (his best friend) as he could not make any exceptions. The law is the
same
for
everybody.
Inadequacy of Stage 4 reasoning:

Unquestioning

obedience

toward

authority

is

unhealthy

Marshall Applewhite of Heaven's Gate asked his followers to commit suicide so as to

shed their earthly bodies (or "containers") and depart in an UFO to a higher plane of
existence. The UFO was supposedly travelling behind the Hale-Bopp comet. In late
March 1997, all 39 cult members obeyed and took their own lives in a mass suicide
( Source: CNN Interactive ).

Accepted social order may not be the best possible order. The laws of society may
even
be
bad.
For example, Hitler introduced a decree suspending the basic rights of citizens and
imposing the death sentence for arson, sabotage, resistance to the decree, and
disturbances to public order ( Source: The First Steps Leading to the Final Solution ).

Alan SL Wong.(2000). Kohlberg's Level Two - Conventional Morality.Retrieved from

http://www.vtaide.com/blessing/Kohl2.htm

Concrete Operational
Stage
by Saul McLeod published 2010
Piaget considered the concrete stage a major turning point in the child's
cognitive development, because it marks the beginning of logical or
operational thought.
The child is now mature enough to use logical thought or operations (i.e.
rules) but can only apply logic to physical objects
(hence concrete operational).
Children become less egocentric and better at conservation tasks. This
means that the child understands that although the appearance of
something changes, the thing itself does not. For example, if you take two
pieces of string that are the same length and scrunch one up, a child will
reply that the scrunched one is shorter, if conservation hasn't yet been
reached.
Definition: Conservation:
The understanding that something stays the same in quantity
even though its appearance changes. To be more technical (but
you dont have to be) conservation is the ability to understand
that redistributing material does not affect its mass, number or
volume.

Conservation of Liquid and Number

Children in the concrete operational stage are typically ages 7 to 11.
They gain the abilities of conservation (number, area, volume, orientation)

and reversibility. Their thinking is more organized and rational. They can
solve problems in a logical fashion, but are typically not able to think
abstractly or hypothetically.
By around seven years the majority of children can conserve liquid (see
video below), because they understand that when water is poured into a
different shaped glass, the quantity of liquid remains the same, even
though its appearance has changed. Five-year-old children would think
that there was a different amount because the appearance has changed.
Conservation of number develops soon after this. Piaget set out a row of
counters in front of the child and asked her/him to make another row the
same as the first one. Piaget spread out his row of counters and asked the
child if there were still the same number of counters. Most children aged
seven could answer this correctly, and Piaget concluded that this showed
that by seven years of age children were able to conserve number.

Evaluation of Concrete Stage

Features
Several aspects of the conservation tasks have been criticized, for example
that they fail to take account of the social context of the child's
understanding.
Rose and Blank (1974) argued that when a child gives the wrong answer
to a question, we repeat the question in order to hint that their first answer
was wrong. This is what Piaget did by asking children the same question
twice in the conservation experiments, before and after the transformation.
When Rose and Blank replicated this but asked the question only once,
after the liquid had been poured, they found many more six-year-olds gave
the correct answer. This shows children can conserve at a younger age
than Piaget claimed.
Another feature of the conservation task which may interfere with children's
under-standing is that the adult purposely alters the appearance of
something, so the child thinks this alteration is important. McGarrigle and

Donaldson (1974) devised a study of conservation of number in which the

alteration was accidental.
When two identical rows of sweets were laid out and the child was satisfied
there were the same number in each, a 'naughty teddy' appeared. Whilst
playing around, teddy actually messed up one row of sweets. Once he was
safely back in a box the children were asked if there were the same number
of sweets. The children were between four- and six-years-old, and more
than half gave the correct answer. This suggests that, once again, Piaget's
design prevented the children from showing that they can conserve at a
younger age than he claimed.

Mcleod Saul .(2010).SimplyPsychology:Concrete Operational Stage

http://www.simplypsychology.org/concrete-operational.html