Erikson - Psychosocial Development in Childhood

Recall Erik Erikson's (1958) eight-stage model of psychosocial development.

Stage 1: Infants learn to trust or mistrust in the first 18 months of life. This experience of trust affects all later stages.

Stage 2: Independence/autonomy vs shame - as an infant explores new situations and environments, he or she takes risks and experiences failure. If criticised or over-controlled by caregivers, the infant's autonomy will be overwhelmed by shame.

Stage 3: Initiative vs guilt - from three to five years old, a child starts regularly interacting socially, which requires some assertiveness. If this is met with punishment or over-restriction, the child's initiative will be overwhelmed by guilt.

Stage 4: industry versus inferiority appears during the middle and late childhood.

• The term industry expresses a dominant theme of this period. Children become interested in how things are made and how they work.
• When children are encouraged in their efforts to make, build, and work - whether building a model airplane, constructing a tree hut, fixing a bike, solving an addition problem, or cooking - their sense of industry increases.
• However, if parents or other caregivers see the child's efforts at making things as 'mischief' or 'making a mess', this will build the child's sense of inferiority.