Feist−Feist: Theories of
Personality, Seventh
EditionII. Psychodynamic
Theories- Erikson: Post−Freudian
Theory
© The McGraw−Hill^261
Companies, 2009goals, such as marrying their mother or father or leaving home, must be either re-
pressed or delayed. The consequence of these taboo and inhibited goals is guilt. The
conflict between initiative and guilt becomes the dominant psychosocial crisis of the
play age.
Again, the ratio between these two should favor the syntonic quality—initia-
tive. Unbridled initiative, however, may lead to chaos and a lack of moral principles.
On the other hand, if guilt is the dominant element, children may become compul-
sively moralistic or overly inhibited. Inhibition,which is the antipathy of purpose,
constitutes the core pathology of the play age.
Purpose: The Basic Strength of the Play Age
The conflict of initiative versus guilt produces the basic strength of purpose.Chil-
dren now play with a purpose, competing at games in order to win or to be on top.
Their genital interests have a direction, with mother or father being the object of
their sexual desires. They set goals and pursue them with purpose. Play age is also
the stage in which children are developing a conscience and beginning to attach la-
bels such as right and wrong to their behavior. This youthful conscience becomes the
“cornerstone of morality” (Erikson, 1968, p. 119).
School Age
Erikson’s concept of school agecovers development from about age 6 to approxi-
mately age 12 or 13 and matches the latency years of Freud’s theory. At this age, the
social world of children is expanding beyond family to include peers, teachers, and
other adult models. For school-age children, their wish to know becomes strong and
is tied to their basic striving for competence. In normal development, children strive
industriously to read and write, to hunt and fish, or to learn the skills required by
their culture. School age does not necessarily mean formalized schools. In contem-
porary literate cultures, schools and professional teachers play a major part in chil-
dren’s education, whereas in preliterate societies, adults use less formalized but
equally effective methods to instruct children in the ways of society.
Latency
Erikson agreed with Freud that school age is a period of psychosexual latency.Sex-
ual latency is important because it allows children to divert their energies to learn-
ing the technology of their culture and the strategies of their social interactions. As
children work and play to acquire these essentials, they begin to form a picture of
themselves as competent or incompetent. These self images are the origin of ego
identity—that feeling of “I” or “me-ness” that evolves more fully during adoles-
cence.
Industry Versus Inferiority
Although school age is a period of little sexualdevelopment, it is a time of tremen-
dous socialgrowth. The psychosocial crisis of this stage is industry versus inferior-
ity. Industry,a syntonic quality, means industriousness, a willingness to remain busy
Chapter 9 Erikson: Post-Freudian Theory 255