Chapter 7 Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory 209moralistic or overly inhibited. Inhibition, which is the antipathy of purpose, consti-
tutes the core pathology of the play age.
Purpose: The Basic Strength of the Play Age
The conflict of initiative versus guilt produces the basic strength of purpose. Chil-
dren now play with a purpose, competing at games in order to win or to be on
top. Their genital interests have a direction, with mother or father being the object
of their sexual desires. They set goals and pursue them with purpose. Play age is
also the stage in which children are developing a conscience and beginning to
attach labels such as right and wrong to their behavior. This youthful conscience
becomes the “cornerstone of morality” (Erikson, 1968, p. 119).
School Age
Erikson’s concept of school age covers development from about age 6 to approx-
imately age 12 or 13 and matches the latency years of Freud’s theory. At this age,
the social world of children is expanding beyond family to include peers, teachers,
and other adult models. For school-age children, their wish to know becomes
strong and is tied to their basic striving for competence. In normal development,
children strive industriously to read and write, to hunt and fish, or to learn the
skills required by their culture. School age does not necessarily mean formalized
schools. In contemporary literate cultures, schools and professional teachers play
a major part in children’s education, whereas in preliterate societies, adults use less
formalized but equally effective methods to instruct children in the ways of society.
Latency
Erikson agreed with Freud that school age is a period of psychosexual latency.
Sexual latency is important because it allows children to divert their energies to
learning the technology of their culture and the strategies of their social interactions.
As children work and play to acquire these essentials, they begin to form a picture
of themselves as competent or incompetent. These self images are the origin of ego
identity—that feeling of “I” or “me-ness” that evolves more fully during adolescence.
Industry Versus Inferiority
Although school age is a period of little sexual development, it is a time of tre-
mendous social growth. The psychosocial crisis of this stage is industry versus
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.
As children learn to do things well, they develop a sense of industry, but if their
work is insufficient to accomplish their goals, they acquire a sense of inferiority—the
dystonic quality of the school age. Earlier inadequacies can also contribute to children’s
feelings of inferiority. For example, if children acquire too much guilt and too little
purpose during the play age, they will likely feel inferior and incompetent during the