Module 52 Adolescence: Social Development and Emerging Adulthood
Theorist Erik Erikson (1963) contended that each stage of life has its own psychosocial task, a crisis that needs resolution. Young children wrestle with issues of trust, then autonomy (independence), then initiative. School-age children strive for competence, feeling able and productive. But for people your age, the task is to synthesize past, present, and future possibilities into a clearer sense of self (Table 52.1). Adolescents wonder, “Who am I as an individual? What do I want to do with my life? What values should I live by? What do I believe in?” Erikson called this quest the adolescent’s search for identity.
| Stage (approximate age) | Issue | Description of Task |
|---|---|---|
| Infancy (to 1 year) | Trust vs. mistrust | If needs are dependably met, infants develop a sense of basic trust. |
| Toddlerhood (1 to 3 years) | Autonomy vs. shame and doubt | Toddlers learn to exercise their will and do things for themselves, or they doubt their abilities. |
| Preschool (3 to 6 years) | Initiative vs. guilt | Preschoolers learn to initiate tasks and carry out plans, or they feel guilty about their efforts to be independent. |
| Elementary school (6 years to puberty) | Competence vs. inferiority | Children learn the pleasure of applying themselves to tasks, or they feel inferior. |
| Adolescence (teen years into 20s) | Identity vs. role confusion | Teenagers work at refining a sense of self by testing roles and then integrating them to form a single identity, or they become confused about who they are. |
| Young adulthood (20s to early 40s) | Intimacy vs. isolation | Young adults struggle to form close relationships and to gain the capacity for intimate love, or they feel socially isolated. |
| Middle adulthood (40s to 60s) | Generativity vs. stagnation | Middle-aged people discover a sense of contributing to the world, usually through family and work, or they may feel a lack of purpose. |
| Late adulthood (late 60s and up) | Integrity vs. despair | Reflecting on their lives, older adults may feel a sense of satisfaction or failure. |
As sometimes happens in psychology, Erikson’s interests were bred by his own life experience. As the son of a Jewish mother and a Danish Gentile father, Erikson was “doubly an outsider,” reported Morton Hunt (1993, p. 391). He was “scorned as a Jew in school but mocked as a Gentile in the synagogue because of his blond hair and blue eyes.” Such episodes fueled his interest in the adolescent struggle for identity.