Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development
Erik Erikson (1902–1994) was a German-born psychoanalyst and a pioneer of the life-span perspective. Erikson viewed ego development as occurring across one’s entire lifetime, and his theory of psychosocial development covers eight stages spanning the full life span. Each stage involves a ‘crisis’ in personality — important at that time, and one that remains an issue to some degree for the rest of life. Each stage balances a positive tendency against a corresponding negative one; resolving the crisis successfully builds a specific virtue.
For example, in the stage of Initiative vs. Guilt, children face a conflict between their urge to form and carry out goals; failing to reach those goals produces guilt, while resolving the crisis builds the virtue of purpose — the courage to envisage and pursue valued goals. Erikson’s final stage, Ego Integrity, has wisdom as its virtue. Unlike Freud, Erikson’s theory doesn’t focus on unconscious sexual repression — it focuses on social interaction across the whole lifespan, which is how Erikson extended Freud’s theory beyond childhood into a genuinely lifelong model.
The eight stages, in the sequence Erikson proposed, are widely summarised as follows:
| Stage | Approximate Age | Crisis | Virtue on Success |
| 1 | Infancy (0–1 yr) | Trust vs. Mistrust | Hope |
| 2 | Early Childhood (1–3 yrs) | Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt | Will |
| 3 | Preschool (3–6 yrs) | Initiative vs. Guilt | Purpose |
| 4 | School Age (6–12 yrs) | Industry vs. Inferiority | Competence |
| 5 | Adolescence (12–18 yrs) | Identity vs. Role Confusion | Fidelity |
| 6 | Young Adulthood | Intimacy vs. Isolation | Love |
| 7 | Middle Adulthood | Generativity vs. Stagnation | Care |
| 8 | Late Adulthood | Ego Integrity vs. Despair | Wisdom |
Freud’s Psychosexual Development Theory
Sigmund Freud proposed that people are born with biological drives that must be redirected to live in society. A child’s personality is formed as they deal with unconscious conflicts between these inborn urges and the demands of civilised life — conflicts that occur in an unvarying sequence of five maturational stages. Across these stages, the site of sexual pleasure shifts: from the mouth, to the anus, and then to the genitals. Freud’s major contribution was the idea that a person can repress thoughts, later expressing that repression through maladaptive behaviour — though his framing has been criticised for over-emphasising sexual impulse as an explanation that may not apply in every situation.
| Stage | Age Range | Focus |
| Oral Stage | Birth to 12–18 months | The mouth is the primary source of pleasure; relates to feeding, crying, teething, biting, thumb-sucking. The mother-child relationship here shapes the unconscious mind. |
| Anal Stage | 18 months to 3 years | The anus is the chief source of pleasure, tied to withholding and expelling faeces. Real experiences during this stage shape unconscious behaviour. |
| Phallic Stage | 3 to 6 years | Pleasure derives from the genital region; normal sexual aspects of personality develop, and conflicts related to reproductive issues are resolved. |
| Latency Stage | 6 years to puberty | A stage of learning skills rather than psychosexual development — no active sexual development occurs; a relative calm between more turbulent stages. |
| Genital Stage | Puberty onward | Sexual interests mature and become focused on age-appropriate relationships, as earlier unresolved conflicts from previous stages resurface and are ideally integrated into a stable adult personality. |
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development
Jean Piaget’s theory focused on how a child thinks, rather than how an adult thinks — arguing that a child’s thought processes mature just as their physical state does. He split cognitive development into four stages:
| Stage | Age Range |
| Sensorimotor Stage | 0–2 years |
| Pre-operational Stage | 2–7 years |
| Concrete Operational Stage | 7–11 years |
| Formal Operational Stage | 12–15 years |
Kohlberg’s Theory of Moral Development
Similar in spirit to Piaget’s theory, Lawrence Kohlberg developed a theory focused specifically on the moral aspects of human nature. He claimed humans develop across six stages directly associated with moral influence and the capacity for moral reasoning — the core idea being that development progresses as a person learns to distinguish right behaviour from wrong (something as simple as an individual learning not to lie to others). These six stages are commonly organised into three broader levels, each containing two stages:
| Level | Stages | Moral Reasoning Is Based On |
| Preconventional | 1. Obedience and punishment; 2. Self-interest / exchange | Avoiding punishment and pursuing personal reward |
| Conventional | 3. Good interpersonal relationships; 4. Maintaining social order | Living up to social expectations and rules |
| Postconventional | 5. Social contract; 6. Universal ethical principles | Abstract, self-chosen ethical principles |
Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
Where the theories above focus on internal stages, John Bowlby’s theory focuses on the role of caregivers in a child’s development — how early relationships shape development for the rest of life. Bowlby pointed out that humans not only need different types of social interaction throughout life, but also form deep attachments that shape their attachment style into adulthood: some individuals strive to maintain a reliant connection in adult relationships, while others are more avoidant. This basic reliant-vs-avoidant distinction is commonly elaborated into four recognised attachment styles: Secure, Avoidant, Ambivalent (Resistant), and Disorganised — each describing a different pattern of how a child (and later, adult) relates to close relationships based on their early caregiving experience.
