This book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Licensethings. There are risks involved in working on these skills and qualities, because there can be no guarantee of
success with them in advance. If the child does succeed, therefore, he or she experiences the satisfaction of a job
well done and of skills well learned—a feeling that Eriks0n called industry. If not, however, the child risks feeling
lasting inferiority compared to others. Teachers therefore have a direct, explicit role in helping students to resolve
this crisis in favor of industry or success. They can set realistic academic goals for students—ones that tend to lead
to success—and then provide materials and assistance for students to reach their goals. Teachers can also express
their confidence that students can in fact meet their goals if and when the students get discouraged, and avoid
hinting (even accidentally) that a student is simply a “loser”. Paradoxically, these strategies will work best if the
teacher is also tolerant of less-than-perfect performance by students. Too much emphasis on perfection can
undermine some students’ confidence—foster Erikson’s inferiority—by making academic goals seem beyond reach.
The crisis of adolescence: identity and role confusion
As the child develops lasting talents and attitudes as a result of the crisis of industry, he begins to face a new
question: what do all the talents and attitudes add up to be? Who is the “me” embedded in this profile of qualities?
These questions are the crisis of identity and role confusion. Defining identity is riskier than it may appear for
a person simply because some talents and attitudes may be poorly developed, and some even may be undesirable in
the eyes of others. (If you are poor at math, how do you live with family and friends if they think you should be good
at this skill?) Still others may be valuable but fail to be noticed by other people. The result is that who a person
wants to be may not be the same as who he or she is in actual fact, nor the same as who other people want the
person to be. In Erikson's terms, role confusion is the result.
Teachers can minimize role confusion in a number of ways. One is to offer students lots of diverse role models—
by identifying models in students’ reading materials, for example, or by inviting diverse guests to school. The point
of these strategies would be to express a key idea: that there are many ways to be respected, successful, and satisfied
with life. Another way to support students’ identity development is to be alert to students’ confusions about their
futures, and refer them to counselors or other services outside school that can help sort these out. Still another
strategy is to tolerate changes in students’ goals and priorities—sudden changes in extra-curricular activities or in
personal plans after graduation. Since students are still trying roles out, discouraging experimentation may not be
in students’ best interests.
The crises of adulthood: intimacy, generativity, and integrity
Beyond the school years, according to Erikson, individuals continue psychosocial development by facing
additional crises. Young adults, for example, face a crisis of intimacy and isolation. This crisis is about the risk
of establishing close relationships with a select number of others. Whether the relationships are heterosexual,
homosexual, or not sexual at all, their defining qualities are depth and sustainability. Without them, an individual
risks feeling isolated. Assuming that a person resolves this crisis in favor of intimacy, however, he or she then faces
a crisis about generativity and stagnation. This crisis is characteristic of most of adulthood, and not
surprisingly therefore is about caring for or making a contribution to society, and especially to its younger
generation. Generativity is about making life productive and creative so that it matters to others. One obvious way
for some to achieve this feeling is by raising children, but there are also many other ways to contribute to the
welfare of others. The final crisis is about integrity and despair, and is characteristically felt during the final
years of life. At the end of life, a person is likely to review the past and to ask whether it has been lived as well as
Educational Psychology 53 A Global Text