Erikson's 8 Life Stages

Influences on our personality as we grow

Personality does not stand still

It moves through the influence of 8 life stages

Understand these stages how they affect your personality and your performance at work

Personality develops

Erik Erikson saw our personality as continuing its development as we grow older.

Whilst recognising the influence of early childhood on such concepts as:

  • Trust and
  • Initiative

he did not place the emphasis on this early stage of our development in the same way as others such as Freud.

8 Life Stages

Erikson saw 8 Life Stages through which our personality developed. 

The development of our personality through each stage is influenced by the tensions and conflicts that affect us as we grow older.

Each Life Stage was characterised by competing ends of a spectrum, for instance stage 1 would be characterised by the development of our self concept of trust at one end of the spectrum to mistrust at the other. 

Each Life Stage is therefore defined by these competing opposite-end characteristics.

Erikson's work falls under the broader heading of Idiographic research and is presented here in that broader context.

Join and use this and other topics on the Idiographic approach to personality to understand your own and others' behaviours and approaches to change

 

See also: 
Change Roadmap and Emotions
Locus of Control
My Performance Mapping
Nomothetic Research - Traits

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