0390435333.pdf

Feist−Feist: Theories of

Personality, Seventh

Edition

II. Psychodynamic

Theories

9. Erikson: Post−Freudian
   Theory

© The McGraw−Hill^257

Companies, 2009

people to give, they learn to trust or mistrust other people, thus setting up the basic
psychosocial crisisof infancy, namely, basic trust versus basic mistrust.

Basic Trust Versus Basic Mistrust
Infants’ most significant interpersonal relations are with their primary caregiver, or-
dinarily their mother. If they realize that their mother will provide food regularly,
then they begin to learn basic trust;if they consistently hear the pleasant, rhythmic
voice of their mother, then they develop more basic trust; if they can rely on an ex-
citing visual environment, then they solidify basic trust even more. In other words,
if their pattern of accepting things corresponds with culture’s way of giving things,
then infants learn basic trust. In contrast, they learn basic mistrustif they find no cor-
respondence between their oral-sensory needs and their environment.
Basic trust is ordinarily syntonic, and basic mistrust, dystonic. Nevertheless,
infants must develop both attitudes. Too much trust makes them gullible and

Chapter 9 Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory 251

FIGURE 9.2 Erikson’s Eight Stages of Development with Their Appropriate Basic
Strengths and Psychosocial Crises.
Reprinted from The Life Cycle Completed: A Reviewby Erik H. Erikson, by permission of W. W. Norton & Company,
Inc. Copyright © 1982 by Rikan Enterprises, Ltd.

H

Parts

A

Old age

8

Adulthood

7

Young

adulthood

6

Adolescence
5

School age

4

Play age

3

Early

childhood

2

Infancy

1

Stage BCDEFG

HOPE

Basic trust vs.

basic mistrust

WISDOM

Integrity vs.

despair,

disgust

CARE

Generativity

vs. stagnation

LOVE

Intimacy vs.

isolation

FIDELITY

Identity vs.

identity

confusion

COMPETENCE

Industry vs.

inferiority

PURPOSE

Initiative

vs. guilt

WILL

Autonomy vs.

shame, doubt