Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Erikson: Post−Freudian
Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^259
Companies, 2009some stubborn tendencies. They may retain their feces or eliminate them at will,
snuggle up to their mother or suddenly push her away, delight in hoarding objects or
ruthlessly discard them.
Early childhood is a time of contradiction, a time of stubborn rebellion and
meek compliance, a time of impulsiveself-expression and compulsivedeviance, a
time of loving cooperation and hateful resistance. This obstinate insistence on con-
flicting impulses triggers the major psychosocial crisis of childhood—autonomy
versus shame and doubt (Erikson, 1968).
Autonomy Versus Shame and Doubt
If early childhood is a time for self-expression and autonomy,then it is also a time
for shame and doubt.As children stubbornly express their anal-urethral-muscular
mode, they are likely to find a culture that attempts to inhibit some of their self-
expression. Parents may shame their children for soiling their pants or for making a
mess with their food. They may also instill doubt by questioning their children’s abil-
ity to meet their standards. The conflict between autonomy and shame and doubt be-
comes the major psychosocial crisis of early childhood.
Ideally, children should develop a proper ratio between autonomy and shame
and doubt, and the ratio should be in favor of autonomy, the syntonic quality of early
childhood. Children who develop too little autonomy will have difficulties in subse-
quent stages, lacking the basic strengths of later stages.
According to Erikson’s epigenetic diagrams (see Figures 9.1 and 9.2), auton-
omy grows out of basic trust; and if basic trust has been established in infancy, then
children learn to have faith in themselves, and their world remains intact while they
experience a mild psychosocial crisis. Conversely, if children do not develop basic
trust during infancy, then their attempts to gain control of their anal, urethral, and
muscular organs during early childhood will be met with a strong sense of shame
and doubt, setting up a serious psychosocial crisis. Shameis a feeling of self-
consciousness, of being looked at and exposed. Doubt,on the other hand, is the feel-
ing of not being certain, the feeling that something remains hidden and cannot be
seen. Both shame and doubt are dystonic qualities, and both grow out of the basic
mistrust that was established in infancy.
Will: The Basic Strength of Early Childhood
The basic strength of willor willfulness evolves from the resolution of the crisis of
autonomy versus shame and doubt. This step is the beginning of free will and
willpower—but only a beginning. Mature willpower and a significant measure of
free will are reserved for later stages of development, but they originate in the rudi-
mentary will that emerges during early childhood. Anyone who has spent much time
around 2-year-olds knows how willful they can be. Toilet training often epitomizes
the conflict of wills between adult and child, but willful expression is not limited to
this area. The basic conflict during early childhood is between the child’s striving for
autonomy and the parent’s attempts to control the child through the use of shame and
doubt.
Children develop will only when their environment allows them some self-
expression in their control of sphincters and other muscles. When their experiences
result in too much shame and doubt, children do not adequately develop this second
Chapter 9 Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory 253