Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Erikson: Post−Freudian
Theory
(^270) © The McGraw−Hill
Companies, 2009
on a submarine. He wrote biographical portraits of Adolf Hitler, Maxim Gorky, Mar-
tin Luther, and Mohandas K. Gandhi, among others. In this section, we present two
approaches Erikson used to explain and describe human personality—anthropologi-
cal studies and psychohistory.
Anthropological Studies
In 1937, Erikson made a field trip to the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South
Dakota to investigate the causes of apathy among Sioux children. Erikson (1963) re-
ported on early Sioux training in terms of his newly evolving theories of psychosex-
ual and psychosocial development. He found that apathy was an expression of an ex-
treme dependency the Sioux had developed as a result of their reliance on various
federal government programs. At one time, they had been courageous buffalo
hunters, but by 1937, the Sioux had lost their group identity as hunters and were try-
ing halfheartedly to scrape out a living as farmers. Child-rearing practices, which in
the past had trained young boys to be hunters and young girls to be helpers and moth-
ers of future hunters, were no longer appropriate for an agrarian society. As a con-
264 Part II Psychodynamic Theories
TABLE 9.1
Summary of Erikson’s Eight Stages of the Life Cycle
Psychosexual Psychosocial Basic Core Significant
Stage Mode Crisis Strength Pathology Relations
8
Old age
7
Adulthood
6
Young adulthood
5
Adolescence
4
School age
3
Play age
2
Early childhood
1
Infancy
Generalization
of sensual
modes
Procreativity
Genitality
Puberty
Latency
Infantile
genital-
locomotor
Anal-urethral-
muscular
Oral-respiratory:
sensory-
kinesthetic
Integrity vs.
despair
Generativity vs.
stagnation
Intimacy vs.
isolation
Identity vs.
identity
confusion
Industry vs.
inferiority
Initiative vs.
guilt
Autonomy vs.
shame, doubt
Basic trust vs.
basic mistrust
Wisdom
Care
Love
Fidelity
Competence
Purpose
Will
Hope
Disdain
Rejectivity
Exclusivity
Role repudiation
Inertia
Inhibition
Compulsion
Withdrawal
All humanity
Divided labor
and shared
household
Sexual partners,
friends
Peer groups
Neighborhood,
school
Family
Parents
The mothering
one
From The Life Cycle Completed: A Reviewby Erik H. Erikson, Copyright © 1982 by Rikan Enterprises, Ltd. Reprinted by permission of W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc.