TABLE 1
SOURCE: Virgina D. Allhusen.
understand and explain children’s development in
this domain. By far the most notable and global stage
theory of social development comes from the work of
Erik Erikson. A psychoanalyst by training, his stage
model had roots in Freudian theory but took as its
points of departure a lifespan approach to under-
standing development and a recognition of the im-
pact of culture and society on development.
Erikson characterized social development as pro-
ceeding through eight distinct stages that cover the
entire lifespan; these stages are summarized briefly in
Table 1. Within each stage, a central crisis presents it-
self. Typically this crisis relates to some important
issue confronting the individual at that point of devel-
opment. Erikson identified a positive and a negative
possible outcome for each stage. If development is to
proceed favorably, each stage must be resolved in
such a way that the positive outweighs the negative.
Otherwise, the individual carries the burden of that
negatively resolved stage throughout life, constantly
facing it but perhaps eventually resolving it in a more
favorable direction.
Erikson also recognized that culture and society
play an important, ever-expanding role in directing
the course of development and determining the out-
come of each crisis. At first, the infant’s ‘‘society’’ con-
sists primarily of the mother. As the child grows and
goes out into the world, however, that circle of influ-
ence is expanded to include other adults, peers, and
social institutions such as school, churches, and politi-
cal structures.
In Erikson’s theory, the individual is constantly in
search of an identity. People seek to define them-
selves at each stage of development; that definition
varies with the stage, but in the best-case scenario
there is always a positive ‘‘reinvention’’ of the self such
that the person decides that he or she is inherently
good, worthy, capable, and lovable. Development in
one stage is influenced by the positive or negative out-
comes of all the previous stages, much in the same
way that Piaget’s successive stages of cognitive devel-
opment were thought to build upon previous stages.
Thus, for example, in the scenario where all crises are
resolved positively, babies in their first year of life
(through experiences with the mother or other pri-
mary caretaker) learn to trust that their needs will be
met. This gives them the courage and confidence to
go out and explore the world once they are able to
crawl or walk away from the mother, and to do things
for themselves. With support and success in these ef-
forts, by age four or so they develop a desire to go384 STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT