Erikson's stages of psychosocial development

A theory of eight life-span stages, each organized around a psychosocial conflict. Erikson proposed that how people negotiate these conflicts shapes identity, relationships, and personality.

Psychosocial development: Development shaped by the interaction of psychological processes and social relationships. Erikson framed each stage as a negotiation between personal capacities and social demands.
Trust versus mistrust: The first Eriksonian conflict, in which infants develop expectations about care and the reliability of their world. It begins the sequence with the infant’s dependence on caregivers.
Erik Erikson: A German-American developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst who proposed the eight-stage psychosocial theory. He developed the theory and described its stages across the life span.
Freud's psychosexual stages: A developmental theory in which personality forms through successive stages centered on bodily pleasure and conflict. Erikson retained a staged model but emphasized psychosocial challenges across the whole life span.
Psychosocial crisis: A developmental turning point involving tension between competing psychological needs and social expectations. Each of Erikson’s eight stages centers on one such conflict.
Autonomy versus shame and doubt: The early-childhood conflict between growing independence and feelings of shame or doubt about one’s abilities. It follows basic trust as toddlers test their capacity for self-control and choice.
Anna Freud: An Austrian-British psychoanalyst known for developing the study of children’s psychoanalysis and defense mechanisms. Erikson trained in child psychoanalysis within the Vienna circle shaped by Anna Freud.
Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development: A theory describing how children’s reasoning develops through four distinct cognitive stages. Piaget focused on changes in thinking, whereas Erikson organized stages around social-emotional conflicts.
Identity: A person’s sense of self, including continuity over time and a place within society. Identity formation is Erikson’s central adolescent conflict and a continuing developmental concern.
Initiative versus guilt: The preschool conflict between taking purposeful action and feeling guilty about one’s intentions or activity. It describes how children’s expanding plans and play meet social limits.

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