POST

ERIK
FREUDI
ERIKSON
AN
THEORY

Group 5
TAUMINI

Villanueva
Gallardo
Fuellas
Raymundo

OVERVIEW OF POST-FREUDIAN
THEORY
Erik Erikson coined the term identity
crisis.
Erikson intended his theory of
personality to extend rather than
repudiate Freuds assumptions and to
offer a new way of looking at things.
His post-Freudian theory extended
Freuds infantile developmental stages
into adolescence, adulthood and old age.

 Erikson suggested that at each

stage a specific psychosocial
struggle contributes to the
formation of personality. From
adolescence on, that struggle
takes the form of an identity
crisis a turning point in ones
life that may either strengthen
or weaken personality.
Erikson regarded his postFreudian theory as an extension

 In addition to elaborating on
psychosexual stages beyond
childhood, Erikson placed
more emphasis on both
social and historical
influences.
Eriksons post-Freudian
theory, like those of other
personality theorists, is a
reflection of his own

BIOGRAPHY OF ERIK ERIKSON

Born June 15, 1902, in Southern Germany,

Erikson was brought up by his mother and
stepfather, but he remained uncertain of the
true identity of his biological father.
To discover his niche in life, Erikson ventured
away from home during late adolescence,
adopting the life of a wandering artist and
poet. After nearly 7 years of drifting and
searching, he returned home confused,
exhausted, depressed and unable to sketch or
paint.
He received a letter from his friend Peter Blos
inviting him to teach children in a new school

 He stressed to Anna Freud that his most

difficult problem was searching for the
identity of his biological father. Ms. Freud
was less than empathic and told Erikson
that he should stop fantasizing about his
father.
When in Vienna, Erikson met and married
Joan Serson, a Canadian-born dancer,
artist, teacher who had also undergone
psychoanalysis.
They had four children: sons Kai, Jon and
Neil, and daughter Sue.
Eriksons search for identity took him
through some difficult experiences during

 According to Erikson, this stage

requires a person to take care of
children, products and ideas that he
or she has generated.
Erikson was deficient in meeting his
own standards. He failed to take
good care of his son Neil, who was
born with Down syndrome. Erik
agreed to place Neil in an
institution.
Erikson lied to his children much as
his mother had lied to him about the
identity of his biological father.

 In deceiving his children the way he

did, Erikson violated two of his
principles: Dont lie to people you
should care for, and Dont pit one
family member against another. To
compound the situation, when Neil died
at about age 20, the Eriksons who were
in Europe at that time, called Sue and
Jon and instructed them to handle all
the funeral arrangements for a brother
they had never met and who they only
recently knew existed.

 During his California period, Erikson

gradually evolved a theory of
personality, separate from but not
incompatible with Freuds. In 1950,
Erikson published Childhood and
Society, a book that at first glance
appears to be a hodgepodge of
unrelated chapters. Erikson himself
originally had some difficulty finding
a common them underlying such
topics as childhood in two Native
American tribes, the growth of the
ego, the eight staged of

 Childhood and Society, which

became a classic and gave
Erikson an international
reputation as an imaginative
thinker, remains the finest
introduction to his postFreudian personality theory.
Through all these changes,
Erikson continued to seek for
his fathers name.
He died May 12, 1994, at the

THE EGO IN POST-FREUDIAN

THEORY
Erikson held that our ego is a positive
force that creates a self-identity, a sense
of I. Our ego helps us adapt to the
various conflicts and crises of life and
keeps us from losing our individuality to
the leveling forces of society. He defines
ego as the persons ability to unify
experiences and actions in an adaptive
manner (Erikson, 1963).
Erikson (1968) identified three
interrelated aspects of ego: the body ego,

 Body ego: refers to experiences with

our body; a way of seeing our physical
self as different for other people. We
may be satisfied or dissatisfied with the
way our body looks and functions, but
we recognize that it is the only body we
will ever have.
Ego ideal: represents the image we
have of ourselves in comparison with an
established ideal; it is responsible for
our being satisfied or dissatisfied not
only with our physical self but with our
entire personal identity.
Ego identity: the image we have of

SOCIETYS INFLUENCE
To Erikson, the ego exists as potential at
birth, but it must emerge from within a
cultural environment. Different societies,
with their variations in child-rearing
practices, tend to shape personalities that fit
the needs and values of their culture.
Pseudo species: an illusion perpetrated
and perpetuated by a particular society that
is somehow chosen to be the human species.

EPIGENETIC PRINCIPLE

Erikson believed that the ego develops

throughout the various stages of life according
to an epigenetic principle, a term borrowed
from embryology. Epigenetic development
implies a step-by-step growth of fetal organs.

The ego follows the path of epigenetic

development, with each stage developing at its
proper time. Erikson (1968) described the
epigenetic principle by saying that anything
that grows has a ground plan and that out of this
ground plan the parts arise, each part having its
time of special ascendancy, until all parts have
arisen to from a functioning whole.

STAGES OF PSYCHOSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

First growth takes place according to the epigenetic

principle. That is, one component part arises out of
another and has its own time of ascendancy, but it does
not entirely replace earlier components.

Second interaction of opposites. That is, a conflict

between a syntonic (harmonious) element and a
dystonic (disruptive) element.

Third basic strength. It refers to the conflict between

the dystonic and syntonic elements produce ego quality or
ego strength.

Fourth too little basic strength at any one stage results

in a core pathology for that stage.

Concepts and Terminologies

Fifth, although Erikson referred to his eight
stages as psychosocial stages, he never lost
sight of the biological aspect of human
development.
Sixth, events in earlier stages do not cause
later personality development.
Seventh, during each stage, personality
development is characterized by an identity
crisis. During each crisis, a person is
susceptible to major modifications in
identity, positive or negative.

Eight Stages of Psychosocial development

Infancy
Approximately at the first year of life
time for incorporation with infants taking in
not only through the mouth but other vital
organs as well
As infants take in food and sensory
information, infants learn to trust or mistrust
the outside world.
Marked by oral-sensory psychosexual mode,
the psychosocial crisis of basic trust versus
mistrust, and the basic strength of hope.

Oral Sensory Mode

Infants principal psychosexual mode of
adapting.
Two modes of incorporation: Receiving
and Accepting
In receiving, infants can receive with
absence of other people like taking air
through lungs.
In accepting, infants must get while also
getting someone to give. This helps them
learn to trust or mistrust people.

1 Basic Trust versus Mistrust

Infants most important interpersonal
relation is with their primary caregiver. If
the mother gives food regularly, they
learn basic trust.
Basic mistrust happens if they find no
correspondence between their oralsensory needs and their environment.
If people successfully solves this crisis,
they acquire their first basic strength
hope.

Hope: The Basic Strength of Infancy

Emerges from the conflict between basic
trust and mistrust.
Painful and pleasurable experiences teach
infants to expect that future distresses
will meet with satisfactory results.
Failure causes the opposite of hope
withdrawal, the core pathology of infancy.
They will retreat from the outside world
and begin the journey toward serious
psychological disturbance.

Early Childhood
2nd and 3rd years of age.
Children receive pleasure not only from
mastering the sphincter muscle but also
mastering other bodily functions.
Children develop a sense of control in
their over their interpersonal environment
as well as a measure of self-control.
A time of experiencing doubt and shame
as they learn that many of their attempts
at autonomy are unsuccessful.

Anal-Urethral-Muscular Mode
Primary psychosexual adjustment.
Learn to control their body especially
in cleanliness and mobility.
Children likely to express stubborn
tendencies.
Obstinate insistence on conflicting
impulses triggers the major
psychosocial crisis of childhood
Autonomy versus Shame and Doubt.

2 Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt

Children stubbornly express their Anal-UretralMuscular Mode, they are likely to meet a culture
that inhibits their self-expression.
Should favor autonomy as too little of this will
have difficulties in subsequent stages.
Autonomy grows out of Basic Trust
Shame is a feeling of self-consciousness, of
being looked at and exposed.
Doubt is a feeling of not being certain, the
feeling that remains hidden and cannot be seen.
Shame and Doubt grows out of Basic Mistrust.

Will: The Basic Strength of Early Childhood

Beginning of free will and willpower but

only the beginning.
Develop when their environment allows
them some self-expression in their
control of shpincters and other muscles.
Opposite is compulsion when shame
and doubt is dominant. Causes lack of
self-confidence and purpose during the
play age.

Play Age
Same time as Freuds Phallic
stage.
In addition to identifying their
parents, preschool age children
are developing locomotion,
language skills, curiosity,
imagination and the ability to
set goals.

Genital-Locomotor Mode
Primary psychosexual mode
Oedipus complex is a drama played out in the childs
imagination.
Oedipus and castration complex are not always taken
literally.
Girls may envy boys, not because they have a penis, but
because society gives them more prerogatives because
they have a penis.
Children imagine what it is like growing up.
Oedipus complex produces no harmful effects on later
personality developments.
Fantasies of growing up produces guilt which contributes
to the psychosocial crisis of initiative versus guilt.

3 Initiative Versus Guilt

Develop head-on mode of approaching
world, beginning to adopt initiative in their
selection and pursuit of goals.
Taboo and inhibited goals generate guilt.
Initiative should be dominant but too much
may lead to chaos and lack of moral
principles.
If guilt is dominant, children would become
compulsively moralistic or overly inhibited.
Inhibition is the opposite of purpose.

School Age
Age 6 to approximately 12 or
13.
Social world of children is
expanding beyond family.
Wish to know becomes strong
and is tied to their basic striving
for competence.

Latency
Erikson agreed with Freud that school
age is a period of psychosexual latency.
Allows children to divert their energy to
learning the technology of their culture
and the strategies of their social
interactions.
They begin to form pictures of
themselves as competent or
incompetent which are the origins of ego
identity.

Industry Versus Inferiority

Little sexual development but tremendous social

growth.
Industry, a willingness to remain busy with
something to finish a job.
Learn to work and play at activities directed
toward acquiring job skills and toward learning
the rules of cooperation.
As children learn to do things well, they develop
a sense of industry.
Inferiority happens when they are insufficient to
accomplish their work.
Industry should be favored over inferiority.

4 - Industry vs. Inferiority

Industry- a syntonic quality means
industriousness, a willingness to
remain busy with something and to
finish a job.
School- age children learn to work
and play at activities directed
toward acquiring job skills and
toward learning the rules of
cooperation.

 Inferiority- it is a dystonic quality of

the school age. If their work is
insufficient to accomplish their goals
Earlier inadequacies can also
contribute to childrens feelings of
inferiority.
Ex. If children acquire too much guilt
and too little purpose during the play
age, they will likely feel inferior and
incompetent during the school age.

 However, failure is not

inevitable. Erikson was
optimistic in suggesting
that people can
successfully handle the
crisis of any given stage
even though they were
not completely

Competence: The Basic Strength of the School Age

From the conflict of industry versus

inferiority, school age children develop
the basic strength of competence: that
is, the confidence to use ones physical
and cognitive abilities to solve the
problems that accompany school age.
Competence lays the foundation for
co-operative participation in
productive adult life (Erikson, 1968)

Competence: The Basic Strength of the School Age [

The confidence to use ones

physical and cognitive
abilities to solve problems.
Opposite is inertia where the
child is unproductive from
oedipal fantasies.

Adolescence
Most crucial of developmental stages
because, by the end of the period, the
person must gain a firm sense of ego
identity.
Period of social latency
Permitted to experiment in a variety of
ways to try out new roles and beliefs
while seeking to establish a sense of ego
identity.
Period of trial and error.

Puberty
Is defined as genital maturation, plays a
relatively minor role in Eriksons concept
of adolescence. For most young people,
genital maturation presents no major
sexual crisis. Nevertheless, puberty is
important psychologically because it
triggers expectations of adult roles yet
ahead roles that are essentially social
and can be filled only through a struggle
to attain ego identity.

5 - Identity versus Identity Confusion

The search for ego

identity reaches a climax
during adolescence as
young people strive to
find out who they are and
who they are not.

According to Erikson (1982),

identity emerges from 2 sources:
1. Adolescents affirmation or
repudiation of childhood
identifications
2. Their historical and social
context, which encourage
conformity to certain standards.

 Identity confusion

is a syndrome of
problems that includes a divided self-image, an inability
to establish intimacy, a sense of time urgency, a lack of
concentration on required task, and a rejection of
family or community standards. As with the other
dystonic tendencies, some amount of identity
confusion is both normal and necessary. Young people
must experience some doubt and confusion about who
they are before they evolve a stable identity.
Although identity confusion is a necessary part of our
search for identity, too much confusion can lead to
pathological adjustment in the form of regression to
earlier stages of development. We may postpone the
responsibilities of adulthood and drift aimlessly from
one job to another or from one ideology to another.

Fidelity: The Basic Strength of Adolescence

Fidelity is faith in ones ideology.

The pathological counterpart of
fidelity is role repudiation, the core
pathology of adolescence that blocks
ones ability to synthesize various
self-images and values into a
workable identity. Role repudiation
can take the form of either diffidence
or defiance (Erikson, 1982).

 Diffidence is an extreme lack of

self-trust or self-confidence and is
expressed as shyness or hesitancy
to express oneself.
Defiance is the act of rebelling
against authority. Defiant
adolescents stubbornly hold to
socially unacceptable beliefs and
practices simply because these
beliefs and practices are
unacceptable.

Young Adulthood
A time from about age 19 to 30 is
circumscribed not so much by the acquisition
of intimacy at the beginning of the stage and
the development of generativity at the end.
For some people, this stage is a relatively
short time, lasting perhaps only a few years.
For others, young adulthood may continue
for several decades. Young adults should
develop mature genitality, experience the
conflict between intimacy and isolation, and
acquire the basic strength of love.

Genitality
Much of the sexual activity during
adolescence is an expression of ones
search for identity and is basically selfserving. True Genitality can develop only
during young adulthood when it is
distinguished by mutual trust and a stable
sharing of sexual satisfactions with a loved
person. It is a chief psychosexual
accomplishment of young adulthood and
exists only in an intimate relationship.
(Erikson, 1963)

6- Intimacy Vs. Isolation

Intimacy is the ability to fuse ones identity with
that of another person without fear of losing it.
Isolation - the social counterpart to intimacy
It is defined as the incapacity to take chances with
ones identity by sharing true intimacy. Some
people become financially or socially successful,
yet retain a sense of isolation because they are
unable to accept the adult responsibilities of
productive work, procreation, and mature love.

Love: The Basic Strength of Young Adulthood

Erikson (1968, 1982) defined love as

mature devotion that overcomes basic
differences between men and women.
Although love includes intimacy, it also
contains some degree of isolation,
because each partner is committed,
sexual passion, cooperation,
competition, and friendship.
The antipathy of love is exclusivity, the
core pathology of young adulthood.

Adulthood
When people begin to take their place
in society and assume responsibility for
whatever society produces. For most
people, this is the longest stage of
development, spanning the years from
about age 31 to 60. Adulthood is
characterized by the psychosexual
mode of procreativity, the psychosocial
crisis of generativity versus stagnation,
and the basic strength of care.

Procreativity
Procreativity refers to more than a genital
contact with an intimate partner. It includes
assuming the responsibility for the care of
offspring that result from that sexual
contact.
Eriksons psychosexual theory assumes an
instinctual drive to perpetuate the species.
This drive is the counterpart of an adult
animals instinct toward procreation and is
an extension of the genitality that marks
young adulthood (Erikson, 1982)

7 - Generativity VS. Stagnation

Generativity - defined as the generation of new
beings as well as products and new ideas
It is concerned with establishing and guiding the
next generation, includes the procreation of
children, Production of work, and the creation of
new things and ideas that contribute to the
building of a better world.
Self- absorption and Stagnation is the
antithesis of generativity.
The generational cycle of productivity and
creativity is crippled when people become too
absorbed in themselves, too self- indulgent.

Care: Basic Strength of Adulthood

Care as defined by Erikson is a

widening commitment to take care
of the persons, the products, and
the ideas one has learned to care
for.
Care is not a duty or obligation but
a natural desire emerging from the
conflict between generativity and
stagnation or self- absorption.

 Rejectivity the core pathology of adulthood.

It is the unwillingness to take care of certain
persons or groups.
It is manifested as self- centeredness,
provincialism, or pseudospeciation: that is the
belief that other groups of people are inferior
to ones own.
It is responsible for much of human hatred,
destruction, atrocities, and wars. As Erikson
said, rejectivity has far- reaching implications
for the survival of the species as well as for
every individuals psychosocial
developmement.

Old Age
Erikson was in his early 40s when he first
conceptualized this stage and arbitrarily
defined it as the period from about age 60 to
the end of life.
Old age can be a time of Joy, playfulness,
and wonder;but it is also a time of senility,
depression, and despair.
The psychosexual mode of Old age is
generalized sensuality; the psychosocial
crisis is integrity versus despair, and the
basic strength is Wisdom.

Generalized Sensuality
The final psychosexual stage is generalized
sensuality. Erikson had little to say about this
mode of psychosexual life, but one may infer
that it means to take pleasure in a variety of
different physical sensations sights, sounds,
tastes, odors, embraces, and perhaps genital
stimulation.
A generalized sensual attitude, however,
is dependent on ones ability to hold
things together, that is, to maintain
integrity in the face of despair.

8 - Integrity VS. Despair

Integrity means a feeling of wholeness and
coherence, an ability to hold together ones
sense of I-ness despite diminishing
physical and intellectual powers.
Despair literally means to be without hope.
Despair, the last dystonic quality of life cycle, is
in the opposite corner from hope, a persons first
basic strength. From Infancy to old age, hope can
exist, once hope is lost, despair follows and life
ceases to have meaning.

 This phase occurs during old age and is

focused on reflecting back on life.
Those who are unsuccessful during this stage
will feel that their life has been wasted and
will experience many regrets. [The individual
will be left with feelings of bitterness and
despair.]
Those who feel proud of their
accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity.
[Successfully completing this phase means
looking back with few regrets and a general
feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will
attain wisdom, even when confronting death.]

Wisdom: The Basic Strength of Old Age

The evitable struggle between integrity
and despair produces WISDOM.
For Erikson, wisdom is informed and
detached concern with life itself in the
face of death itself
With MATURE WISDOM, they maintain
their integrity
In this stage, people are concerned with
ultimate issues, including nonexistence.

 Disdain reaction to feeling

(and seeing others) in an
increasing state of being
finished, confused, helpless
DISDAIN continuation of
injectivity
Erikson became less optimistic
as he aged.
His wife described a 9th stage
but died before she could ever
complete the stage she made.

Eriksons Methods of Investigation

Personality product of history, culture
and biology
1. ANTHROPOLOGICAL STUDIES
. Apathy expression of an extreme
dependency
. Erikson was able to show that early
childhood training was consistent with
this strong cultural value and that history
and society helped shape personality.

2. PSYCHOHISTORY
Controversial field that combines
psychoanalytic concepts with historical
methods
study of individual and collective life with
the combined methods of psychoanalysis
and history (Erikson, 1974)
He used it to demonstrate his fundamental
beliefs that each person is a product of his or
her historical time and that those historical
times were influenced by exceptional leaders
experiencing a personal identity conflict.

 Erikson has a strong emotional

attachment to Gandhi, which he
attributed to his own lifelong search
for the father he had never seen.
In Gandhis Truth, Erikson revealed
strong positive feelings for Gandhi as
he attempted to answer the question
of how healthy individuals such as
Gandhi work through conflict and
crisis when other people are
debilitated by lesser strife.

RELATED RESEARCH

Eriksons major contributions

was to extend personality
development into adulthood
by expanding Freuds notion
of development all the way
into old age.

 GENERATIVITY AND PARENTING

- generation of new beings as well as
products and new ideas
- Brings new knowledge into existence
and pass on old knowledge to the next
generation
- Parents who have a HIGH SENSE OF
GENERATIVITY should put a great deal
of effort and care into raising children
- The opposite of generativity is selfabsorption and stagnation

 CRITIQUE OF ERIKSON
- Erikson a way of looking at things
- Eriksons books are subjective and
personal, which people can definitely
relate to.
- FIRST CRITERION ability to
generate research
- Despite this active research, we rate
Eriksons theory only average on the
criterion of falsifability.

 Ability to organize
knowledge
Limitations to the theorys
ability to shed meaning of
what is currently known
about human personality
As a guide to action
provides general guidelines
His theory is simple.

Eriksons Concept of Humanity

1. Free will vs. Determinism

MIDDLE

POSITION

Although personality is
molded in part by culture and history,
people retain some limited control over
their destiny.
2. Optimistic vs. Pessimism

OPTIMISTIC Humans are not

inevitably doomed to continue a
pathological existence in later stages.
Although weaknesses in early life make it
more difficult to acquire basic strengths

3. CAUSALITY vs. TELEOLOGY

CAUSALITY Eriksons view on
humanity suggests that people are
influenced more by biological and
social forces than their view of the
future
4. CONSCIOUS vs. UNCONSCIOUS
MIDDLE POSITION Prior to
adolescence, personality is largely
shaped by unconscious motivation.
From adolescence forward, however,
people ordinarily are aware of their

5. BIOLOGICAL vs. SOCIOLOGICAL

SOCIOLOCIAL Each
psychosexual mode has a clear
biological component. Social
influences become increasingly
more powerful.
6. UNIQUENESS vs. UNIVERSALITY
UNIQUENESS Each person
resolves psychosocial crises in a
unique manner, and each uses the