Erikson Home Page*
Stage | Ages | Basic Conflict | Important Event | Summary |
1. Oral-Sensory | Birth to 12 to 18 months | Trust vs. Mistrust | Feeding | The infant must form a first loving, trustingrelationship with the caregiver, or develop a sense of mistrust. |
2.Muscular-Anal | 18 months to 3years | Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt | Toilet training | Thechild's energies are directed toward the development of physical skills,including walking, grasping, and rectal sphincter control. The child learnscontrol but may develop shame and doubt if not handled well. |
3. Locomotor | 3 to 6 years | Initiativevs. Guilt | Independence | The child continues to become more assertive and to take moreinitiative, but may be too forceful, leading to guilt feelings. |
4. Latency | 6 to 12 years | Industryvs. Inferiority | School | Thechild must deal with demands to learn new skills or risk a sense of inferiority,failure and incompetence. |
12 to 18 years | Identityvs. Role Confusion | Peer relationships | The teenager must achieve a sense of identity in occupation, sexroles, politics, and religion. | |
19 to 40 years | Intimacyvs. Isolation | Love relationships | The young adult must develop intimate relationships or sufferfeelings of isolation. | |
40 to 65 years | Generativityvs. Stagnation | Parenting | Eachadult must find some way to satisfy and support the next generation. | |
8. Maturity | 65 to death | EgoIntegrity vs. Despair | Reflection on andacceptance of one's life | The culmination is a sense ofoneself as one is and of feeling fulfilled. |