PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY

Freud’s Cultural Background? Freud’s Profile

Born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1856, Freud’s family moved to Vienna when he was
only 4 years old. He lived there until 1938, when Germany occupied Austria, and Freud, of
Jewish background, moved to England to escape the Nazis. During this time period, Europe
was in what is commonly known as the Victorian Age, named for Queen Victoria of Great
Britain. The Victorian Age was a time of sexual repression. People growing up in this period
were told by their church that sex should take place only in the context of marriage and then
only to make babies. To enjoy sexual inter- course was considered a sin.

Men were understood to be unable to control their “animal” desires at

times, and a good Victorian husband would father several children with his
wife and then turn to a mistress for sexual comfort, leaving his virtuous wife untouched.
Women, especially those of the upper classes, were not supposed to have sexual urges. It is
no wonder that many of Freud’s patients were wealthy women with problems stemming from
unfulfilled sexual desires or sexual repression. Freud’s “obsession” with sexual explanations
for abnormal behaviour seems more understand- able in light of his cultural background and
that of his patients.

Freud came to believe that there were layers of consciousness in the mind. His belief in the
influence of the unconscious mind on conscious behaviour, published in The
Psychopathology of Everyday Life (Freud, 1901),
shocked the Victorian world.

Levels of Consciousness

Freud believed that the mind was divided into three

parts: the preconscious, conscious, and unconscious
minds (Freud, 1904).

Freud viewed himself as a scientist, and he applied to the

task of understanding the human mind some of the then
emerging ideas about sensory thresholds and the
possibility of responding to stimuli we can’t report perceiving. Freud compared the human
mind to an iceberg.

He soon reached the startling conclusion that most of the mind lies below the surface of the
water—below the threshold of conscious experience. Above this boundary is the realm of the
conscious. This includes our current thoughts: whatever we are thinking about or
experiencing at a given moment.

Beneath this conscious realm is the much larger preconscious. This contains memories that
are not part of current thought but can readily be brought to mind if the need arises.

The much larger mass of the iceberg below the water represents the unconscious . Beneath
the preconscious, and forming the bulk of the human mind, is the unconscious: thoughts,
desires, and impulses of which we remain largely unaware. Although some of this material
has always been unconscious, Freud believed that much of it was once conscious but has
been actively repressed—driven from consciousness because it was too anxiety-provoking.

For example, Freud contended that shameful experiences or unacceptable sexual or

aggressive urges are often driven deep within the unconscious. The fact that we are not aware
of them, however, in no way prevents them from affecting our behaviour.

Indeed, Freud believed that many of the symptoms experienced by his patients were
disguised and indirect reflections of repressed thoughts and desires. This is why one major
goal of psychoanalysis—the method of treating psychological disorders devised by Freud—
is to bring repressed material back into consciousness. Presumably, once such material is
made conscious and patients gain insight into the early life experiences that caused them to
repress it in the first place, important causes of mental illness are removed.

Freud believed that one way of probing the unconscious was through the interpretation of
dreams. In dreams, Freud believed, we can give expression to impulses and desires we find
unacceptable during our waking hours. Unfortunately, there is little scientific evidence for
this view.
The Structure of Personality: the ID, Ego and Superego

Freud discovered that his iceberg model was too simple to describe the human personality, so
he went on to develop a structural model, which divided personality into three major systems
that interact to govern human behaviour: the id, the ego, and the superego.

The ID: “IF IT FEELS GOOD, DO IT”

The first and most primitive part of the personality,

present in the infant, is the id. Id is a Latin word that
means “it.” The id is a completely unconscious,
pleasure-seeking, amoral part of the personality that
exists at birth, containing all of the basic biological
drives: hunger, thirst, self-preservation, and sex, for
example.

Freud thought babies have sex drives by which he meant “pleasure drive,” the need to seek
out pleasurable sensations. People do seem to be pleasure-seeking creatures, and even infants
seek pleasure from sucking and chewing on anything they can get into their mouths. In fact,
thinking about what infants are like when they are just born provides a good picture of the id.
Infants are demanding, irrational, illogical, and impulsive. They want their needs satisfied
immediately, and they don’t care about any- one else’s needs or desires.

However, the fact that infant behaviour seems to fit Freud’s concept of the id is not proof that
the id exists. It simply means that Freud came up with the concept of the id to fit what he
already knew about infants.

Freud called this need for satisfaction the pleasure principle, which can be defined as the
desire for immediate gratification of needs with no regard for the con- sequences. The
pleasure principle can be summed up simply as “if it feels good, do it.”

Freud believed that the ID was energised by TWO instinctual forces i.e the Life Instinct and
Death Instinct. He paid less attention to the Death Instinct and focused more on the Life
(sexual) Instinct. The instinctual life forces that energizes the ID is called LIBIDO. It works
on the pleasure principle and seeks immediate gratification
EGO: “THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR ”

People normally try to satisfy an infant’s needs as quickly as possible. Infants are fed when
hungry, changed when wet, and tended to whenever they cry. But as infants begin to grow,
adults start denying them their every wish. There will be things they cannot touch or hold,
and they must learn to wait for certain things, such as food.

Freud would say that reality has reared its ugly head, and the id simply cannot deal with the
reality of having to wait or not getting what it wants. Worse still would be the possibility of
punishment as a result of the id’s unrestrained actions.

According to Freud, to deal with reality, a second part of the personality develops called the
ego. The ego, from the Latin word for “I,” is mostly conscious and is far more rational,
logical, and cunning than the id. The ego’s task is to hold the id in check until conditions
allow for satisfaction of its impulses. The ego works on the reality principle, which is the
need to satisfy the demands of the id only in ways that will not lead to negative
consequences. This means that sometimes the ego decides to deny the id its desires because
the consequences would be painful or too unpleasant.

For example, while an infant might reach out and take an object despite a parent’s protests, a
toddler with the developing ego will avoid taking the object when the parent says, “No!” to
avoid punishment—but may go back for the object when the parent is not looking. A simpler
way of stating the reality principle, then, is “if it feels good, do it, but only if you can get
away with it.”

The ego is partly conscious but not entirely so; thus, some of its actions—for example, its
eternal struggle with the id—are outside our conscious knowledge or understanding.

SUPEREGO: “THE MORAL WATCHDOG”

Freud called the third and final part of the personality, the moral center of personality, the
superego. The superego (also Latin, meaning “over the self ”) develops as a preschool-aged
child learns the rules, customs, and expectations of society. The super ego contains the
conscience, the part of the personality that makes people feel guilt, or moral anxiety, when
they do the wrong thing. It is not until the conscience develops that children have a sense of
right and wrong.

More generally, the superego is the internalized representation of the values and morals of
society. It is the individual’s conscience, as well as his or her image of the morally ideal
person (called the ego ideal).

Superego, like ego, too seeks to control satisfaction of id impulses; but, in contrast to the ego,
it is concerned with morality—with whether various ways that could potentially satisfy id
impulses are right or wrong.

The superego develops in response to parental rewards and punishments. Initially, parents
control children’s behaviour directly through reward and punishment. By incorporating
parental standards into the superego, children bring behaviour under their own control.
Children no longer need anyone to tell them it is wrong to steal; their superego tells them.
Violating the superego’s standards, or even the impulse to do so, produces anxiety –
beginning with anxiety over loss of parental love.

According to Freud, this anxiety is largely unconscious but may be experienced as guilt. If
parental standards are overly rigid, the individual may be guilt-ridden and inhibit all
aggressive or sexual impulses. In contrast, an individual who fails to incorporate any
standards for acceptable social behaviour will feel few behavioural constraints and may
engage in excessively self-indulgent or criminal behaviour. Such a person is said to have a
weak superego.

Difficulties associated with id, ego and superego

The superego is acquired from our parents and through experience and represents our
internalization of the moral teachings and norms of our society. Unfortunately, such teachings
are often quite inflexible and leave little room for gratification of our basic desires—they
require us to be good all the time.

Because of this fact, the ego faces another difficult task: It must strike a balance between our
primitive urges (the id) and our learned moral constraints (the superego). Freud felt that this
constant struggle among id, ego, and superego plays a key role in personality and in many
psychological disorders.
FREUDIAN SLIPS

Freud suggested that the constant struggle among id, ego and superego was often visible in
everyday behaviour in what have come to be known as Freudian slips—errors in speech that
actually reflect unconscious impulses that have “gotten by” the ego or super- ego. An
example: “She was tempting ... I mean attempting to....” According to Freud, the word
tempting reveals an unacceptable sexual impulse.

Working Together

The id makes demands, the superego puts restrictions on how those demands can be met, and
the ego has to come up with a plan that will quiet the id but satisfy the superego.

Sometimes the id or the superego does not get its way, resulting in a great deal of anxiety for
the ego itself. This constant state of conflict is Freud’s view of how personality works; it is
only when the anxiety created by this conflict gets out of hand that disordered behaviour
arises.
Example: For example, a boy wants an ice cream cone.

The id of the boy tells him to grab the cone and eat it.

His ego tells him that if he grabs the cone without asking, he may be punished. Working on
the reality principle, the boy knows that the best way to achieve gratification is to ask for
permission to eat the cone.

If he asks his mother for it, his superego will indicate that his behavior is morally correct.
This approach towards obtaining the ice cream will not create guilt, fear or anxiety in the boy.
Anxiety and Defense Mechanisms

Anxiety can be defined as intense feelings of nervousness, tension, or worry. In its constant
struggle to prevent the eruption of dangerous id impulses, the ego faces a difficult task. Yet
for most people, most of the time, the ego succeeds. Sometimes, though, id impulses grow so
strong that they threaten to get out of control. For example, consider the case of a middle-
aged widow who finds herself strongly attracted to her daughter’s boyfriend. She hasn’t had a
romantic attachment in years, so her sexual desire quickly rises to high levels. According to
Freud, when her ego senses that unacceptable impulses are about to get out of hand, it
experiences anxiety. These feelings occur because the unacceptable impulses are getting
closer and closer to consciousness, as well as closer and closer to the limits of the ego to hold
them in check. At this point, Freud contended, the ego may resort to one of several different
defense mechanisms.

Defense Mechanisms are the Techniques used by the ego to keep threatening and
unacceptable material out of consciousness, and so to reduce anxiety. Defense mechanisms
take many different forms. These defense mechanisms were mainly outlined and studied by
Freud’s daughter, Anna Freud, who was a psychoanalyst.

Defense Mechanism Definition Example

Denial refusal to recognize or Ben is an alcoholic who
acknowledge a threatening denies being an alcoholic
situation.
Repression “pushing” threatening or Elise, who was sexually
conflicting events or abused as a child, cannot
situations out of conscious remember the abuse at all.
memory.
Rationalization making up acceptable “If I don’t have breakfast, I
excuses for unacceptable can have that piece of cake
behaviour. later on without hurting my
diet.”
Projection placing one’s own Keisha is attracted to her
unacceptable thoughts onto sister’s husband but denies
others, as if the thoughts this and believes the
belonged to them and not to husband is attracted to her.
oneself.
Reaction formation forming an emotional Matt is unconsciously
reaction or attitude that is attracted to Ben but
the opposite of one’s outwardly voices an extreme
threatening or unacceptable hatred of homosexuals
actual thoughts.
Displacement expressing feelings that Sandra gets reprimanded by
would be threatening if her boss and goes home to
directed at the real target angrily pick a fight with her
onto a less threatening husband.
 substitute target.
Regression falling back on childlike Four-year-old Jeff starts
patterns as a way of coping wetting his bed after his
with stressful situations. parents bring home a new
baby.
Identification trying to become like Marie really admires Suzy,
someone else to deal with the most popular girl in
one’s anxiety. school, and tries to copy her
behaviour and dress.
Compensation trying to make up for areas Reggie is not good at
(substitution) in which a lack is perceived athletics, so he puts all of his
by becoming superior in energies into becoming an
some other area. academic scholar.
Sublimation turning socially Alain, who is very
unacceptable urges into aggressive, becomes a
socially acceptable professional hockey player.
behaviour.
Intellectualization The emotion connected with A person who has been
an upsetting event is rejected in an important
repressed, and the situation relationship talks in a highly
is dealt with as an rational manner about the
intellectually interesting “interesting unpredictability
event. of love relationships.”

Advantages of defense mechanisms

Defense mechanisms help the ego deal with the uncomfortable feelings produced by anxiety.

They reduce the anxiety temporarily and give time to view the problem from other
perspectives and to find ways of adjustments.
Disadvantage of defense mechanisms

Although some defense against anxiety is normal and adaptive people who use these
mechanisms to such an extent that reality is truly distorted develop various forms of
maladjustment.

PSYCHOSEXUAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT

For Freud, the three parts of the personality develop in a series of stages. Because he focused
heavily on the sex drive, he believed that the stages were determined by the developing
sexuality of the child. At each stage, a different erogenous zone, or area of the body that
produces pleasurable feelings, becomes important and can become the source of conflicts.
Two important concepts under this theory are LIBIDO and FIXATION.

Libido refers to the instinctual life force that energizes the id. Release of libido is closely
related to pleasure, but the focus of such pleasure—and the expression of libido—changes as
we develop. In each stage of development, we obtain different kinds of pleasure and leave
behind a small amount of our libido—this is the normal course of events.

If an excessive amount of libido energy is tied to a particular stage, however, fixation

results. This can stem from either too little or too much gratification during this stage, and in
either case the result is harmful. Because the individual has left too much “psychic energy”
behind, less is available for full adult development. \ To put it another way, if too much
energy is drained away by fixation at earlier stages of development, the amount remaining
may be insufficient to power movement to full adult development.

Because the personality, or psyche, develops as a result of sexual development, Freud called
these the psychosexual stages of personality development.

ORAL STAGE: WEANING AND ORAL FIXATION

The first stage is called the oral stage because the erogenous zone is the mouth. This stage

occurs from the birth of the infant to about 1 or 112 years and is dominated by the id.

The conflict that can arise here, according to Freud, will be over weaning (taking the
mother’s breast away from the child, who will now drink from a cup). Weaning that occurs
too soon or too late can result in too little or too much satisfaction of the child’s oral needs,
resulting in the activities and personality traits associated with an orally fixated adult
personality: overeating, drinking too much, chain smoking, talking too much, nail biting, gum
chewing, and a tendency to be either too dependent and optimistic (when the oral needs are
overindulged) or too aggressive and pessimistic (when the oral needs are denied).

ANAL STAGE: TOILET TRAINING AND ANAL FIXATION

As the child becomes a toddler (1 or 1 12 years to 3 years), Freud believed that the erogenous

zone moves from the mouth to the anus, because he also believed that children got a great
deal of pleasure from both withholding and releasing their feces at will. This stage is,
therefore, called the anal stage.

Freud thought that the main area of conflict here is toilet training, the demand that the child
use the toilet at a particular time and in a particular way. This invasion of reality is part of the
process that stimulates the development of the ego during this stage. Fixation in the anal
stage, from toilet training that is too harsh, can take one of two forms. The child who rebels
openly against the demands of the parents and other adults will refuse to go in the toilet,
instead defecating where and when he or she feels like doing it. According to Freud, this
translates in the adult as a person who sees messiness as a statement of personal control and
who is somewhat destructive and hostile. These anal expulsive personalities (so called
because as children they expelled their feces purposefully) are what most people would call
“slobs.” Some children, however, are terrified of making a mess and rebel passively—
refusing to go at all or retaining the feces. No mess, no punishment. As adults, they are
stingy, stubborn, and excessively neat. This type is called the anal retentive personality.

PHALLIC STAGE

As the child grows older (3 to 6 years), the erogenous zone shifts to the genitals. Children
have discovered the differences between the sexes by now, and most have also engaged in
perfectly normal self-stimulation of the genitals, or masturbation.

This awakening of sexual curiosity and interest in the genitals is the beginning of what Freud
termed the phallic stage. (The word phallic comes from the Greek word phallos and means
“penis.”) Freud believed that when boys realized that the little girl down the street had no
penis they developed a fear of losing the penis called castration anxiety, while girls
developed penis envy because they were missing a penis. Nearly all psychoanalysts have long
since abandoned the concept of penis envy. The conflict in the phallic stage centers on the
awakening sexual feelings of the child.

Oedipus Complex: Freud essentially believed that boys develop both sexual attraction to
their mothers and jealousy of their fathers during this stage, a phenomenon called the
Oedipus complex. (Oedipus was a king in a Greek tragedy who unknowingly killed his father
and married his mother.) The sexual attraction is not that of an adult male for a female but
more of a sexual curiosity that becomes mixed up with the boy’s feelings of love and
affection for his mother. Of course, his jealousy of his father leads to feelings of anxiety and
fears that his father, a powerful authority figure, might get angry and do something terrible,
leading to Castration Anxiety. To deal with this anxiety, two things must occur by the time
the phallic stage ends. The boy will repress his sexual feelings for his mother and identify
with his father. (Identification is one of the defense mechanisms used to combat anxiety.) The
boy tries to be just like his father in every way, taking on the father’s behaviour, mannerisms,
values, and moral beliefs as his own, so that the father won’t be able to get angry with the
boy.

Electra Complex: Girls go through a similar process called the Electra complex with their
father as the target of their affections and their mother as the rival. The result of identification
is the development of the superego, the internalized moral values of the same-sex parent.

If a child does not have a same-sex parent with whom to identify, or if the opposite-sex
parent encourages the sexual attraction, fixation can occur. Fixation in the phallic stage
usually involves immature sexual attitudes as an adult. People who are fixated in this stage,
according to Freud, will often exhibit promiscuous* sexual behaviour and be very vain. The
vanity is seen as a cover-up for feelings of low self-worth arising from the failure to resolve
the complex, and the lack of moral sexual behaviour stems from the failure of identification
and the inadequate formation of the superego. Additionally, men with this fixation may be
“mama’s boys” who never quite grow up, and women with this fixation may look for much
older father figures to marry.

LATENCY STAGE
By the end of the phallic stage, children have pushed their sexual feelings for the opposite sex
into the unconscious in another defensive reaction, repression. From age 6 to the onset of
puberty, children will remain in this stage of hidden, or latent, sexual feelings, so this stage is
called latency. In this stage, children grow and develop intellectually, physically, and socially
but not sexually. This is the age at which boys play with other boys, girls play only with girls,
and each thinks the opposite sex is pretty awful.

GENITAL STAGE

When puberty does begin, the sexual feelings that were once repressed can no longer be
ignored. Bodies are changing and sexual urges are once more allowed into consciousness, but
these urges will no longer have the parents as their targets. Instead, the focus of sexual
curiosity and attraction will become other adolescents or music stars, movie stars, and other
objects of adoration.

Since Freud tied personality development into sexual development, the genital stage
represented the final process in Freud’s personality theory, as well as the entry into adult
social and sexual behaviour.

Oral Stage Anal Stage Phallic Stage Latency Stage Genital Stage
(Birth to 1 (1 o r 1 1/2 to 3 (3 to 6 years (6 years old to (Puberty to
or 1 1/2 years old) years old ) old) puberty) death)

THE NEO-FREUDIANS

At first Freud’s ideas were met with resistance and ridicule by the growing community of
doctors and psychologists. Eventually, a number of early psychoanalysts, objecting to Freud’s
emphasis on biology and particularly on sexuality, broke away from a strict interpretation of
psychoanalytic theory, instead altering the focus of psychoanalysis (the term Freud applied
to both his explanation of the workings of the unconscious mind and the development of
personality and the therapy he based on that theory) to the impact of the social environment.
At the same time they retained many of Freud’s original concepts such as the id, ego,
superego, and the defense mechanisms. These early psychoanalysts became the neo-
Freudians, or “new” Freudian psychoanalysts.
JUNG: The Collective Unconcious

Carl Gustav Jung disagreed with Freud about the nature of the unconscious mind. Jung
believed that the unconscious held much more than personal fears, urges, and memories. He
believed that there was not only a personal unconscious, as described by Freud, but a
collective unconscious as well ( Jung, 1933).

According to Jung, the collective unconscious contains a kind of “species” or “racial”

memory, memories of ancient fears and themes that seem to occur in many folktales and
cultures. These collective, universal human memories were called archetypes by Jung. There
are many archetypes, but two of the more well known are the anima/animus (the feminine
side of a man/the masculine side of a woman) and the shadow (the dark side of personality,
called the “devil” in Western cultures). The animus is the masculine side of females, while
the anima is the feminine side of males. Jung believed that in looking for a mate, we search
for the person onto whom we can best project these hidden sides of our personality. When
there is a good match between such projections and another person, attraction occurs. The
side of one’s personality that is shown to the world is termed the persona.

ADLER

Alfred Adler was also in disagreement with Freud over the importance of sexuality in
personality development. Adler (1954) developed the theory that as young, helpless children,
people all develop feelings of inferiority when comparing themselves to the more powerful,
superior adults in their world. The driving force behind all human endeavours, emotions, and
thoughts for Adler was not the seeking of pleasure but the seeking of superiority. The defense
mechanism of compensation, in which people try to overcome feelings of inferiority in one
area of life by striving to be superior in another area, figured prominently in Adler’s theory.

Adler (1954) also developed a theory that the birth order of a child affected personality.
Firstborn children with younger siblings feel inferior once those younger siblings get all the
attention and often overcompensate by becoming overachievers. Middle children have it
slightly easier, getting to feel superior over the dethroned older child while dominating
younger siblings. They tend to be very competitive. Younger children are supposedly
pampered and protected but feel inferior because they are not allowed the freedom and
responsibility of the older children. Although some researchers have found evidence to
support Adler’s birth order theory and some have even linked birth order to career choices,
other researchers point to sloppy methodology and the bias of researchers toward the birth-
order idea.

HORNEY

Karen Horney did not study directly with Freud but studied his work and taught
psychoanalysis at the Psychoanalytic Institutes of Berlin and New York. She left the institute
because of disagreements with Freud over the differences between males and females and the
concept of penis envy, with which she strongly disagreed. She countered with her own
concept of “womb envy,” stating that men felt the need to compensate for their lack of
childbearing ability by striving for success in other areas (Burger, 1997).

Rather than focusing on sexuality, Horney focused on the child’s sense of basic anxiety, the
anxiety created in a child born into a world that is so much bigger and more powerful than the
child. While people whose parents gave them love, affection, and security would overcome
this anxiety, others with less secure upbringings would develop neurotic personalities and
maladaptive ways of dealing with relationships. Some children, according to Horney, try to
deal with their anxiety by moving toward people, becoming dependent and clingy. Others
move against people, becoming aggressive, demanding, and cruel. A third way of coping
would be to move away from people by withdrawing from personal relationships.

ERIKSON

Erik Erikson was an art teacher who became a psychoanalyst by studying with Anna Freud.
He also broke away from Freud’s emphasis on sex, preferring instead to emphasize the social
relationships that are important at every stage of life.

Erikson’s theory of Psycho-social Development

Erikson’s Theory Erik Erikson (1902–1994) was a stage theorist who took Freud’s
controversial theory of psychosexual development and modified it as a psychosocial theory.
Erikson emphasized that the ego makes positive contributions to development by mastering
attitudes, ideas, and skills at each stage of development. This mastery helps children grow
into successful, contributing members of society. During each of Erikson’s eight stages, there
is a psychological conflict that must be successfully overcome in order for a child to develop
into a healthy, well-adjusted adult. Stages Of Psychosocial Development Erikson’s stages of
psychosocial development are based on (and expand upon) Freud’s psychosexual theory.
Erikson proposed that we are motivated by the need to achieve competence in certain areas of
our lives. According to psychosocial theory, we experience eight stages of development over
our lifespan, from infancy through late adulthood. At each stage there is a crisis or task that
we need to resolve. Successful completion of each developmental task results in a sense of
competence and a healthy personality. Failure to master these tasks leads to feelings of
inadequacy. Erikson also added to Freud’s stages by discussing the cultural implications of
development; certain cultures may need to resolve the stages in different ways based upon
their cultural and survival needs.

o Trust vs. Mistrust

From birth to 12 months of age, infants must learn that adults can be trusted. This occurs
when adults meet a child’s basic needs for survival. Infants are dependent upon their
caregivers, so caregivers who are responsive and sensitive to their infant’s needs help their
baby to develop a sense of trust; their baby will see the world as a safe, predictable place.
Unresponsive caregivers who do not meet their baby’s needs can engender feelings of
anxiety, fear, and mistrust; their baby may see the world as unpredictable. If infants are
treated cruelly or their needs are not met appropriately, they will likely grow up with a sense
of mistrust for people in the world.

o Autonomy vs. Shame/Doubt

As toddlers (ages 1–3 years) begin to explore their world, they learn that they can control
their actions and act on their environment to get results. They begin to show clear preferences
for certain elements of the environment, such as food, toys, and clothing. A toddler’s main
task is to resolve the issue of autonomy vs. shame and doubt by working to establish
independence. This is the ―me do it‖ stage. For example, we might observe a budding sense
of autonomy in a 2-year-old child who wants to choose her clothes and dress herself.
Although her outfits might not be appropriate for the situation, her input in such basic
decisions has an effect on her sense of independence. If denied the opportunity to act on her
environment, she may begin to doubt her abilities, which could lead to low self-esteem and
feelings of shame.
 o Initiative vs. Guilt

Once children reach the preschool stage (ages 3–6 years), they are capable of initiating
activities and asserting control over their world through social interactions and play.
According to Erikson, preschool children must resolve the task of initiative vs. guilt. By
learning to plan and achieve goals while interacting with others, preschool children can
master this task. Initiative, a sense of ambition and responsibility, occurs when parents allow
a child to explore within limits and then support the child’s choice. These children will
develop self-confidence and feel a sense of purpose. Those who are unsuccessful at this stage
—with their initiative misfiring or stifled by over-controlling parents—may develop feelings
of guilt.

o Industry vs. Inferiority

During the elementary school stage (ages 6–12), children face the task of industry vs.
inferiority. Children begin to compare themselves with their peers to see how they measure
up. They either develop a sense of pride and accomplishment in their schoolwork, sports,
social activities, and family life, or they feel inferior and inadequate because they feel that
they don’t measure up. If children do not learn to get along with others or have negative
experiences at home or with peers, an inferiority complex might develop into adolescence
and adulthood.

o Identity vs. Role Confusion

In adolescence (ages 12–18), children face the task of identity vs. role confusion. According
to Erikson, an adolescent’s main task is developing a sense of self. Adolescents struggle with
questions such as ―Who am I?‖ and ―What do I want to do with my life?‖ Along the way,
most adolescents try on many different selves to see which ones fit; they explore various
roles and ideas, set goals, and attempt to discover their ―adult‖ selves. Adolescents who are
successful at this stage have a strong sense of identity and are able to remain true to their
beliefs and values in the face of problems and other people’s perspectives. When adolescents
are apathetic, do not make a conscious search for identity, or are pressured to conform to their
parents’ ideas for the future, they may develop a weak sense of self and experience role
confusion. They will be unsure of their identity and confused about the future. Teenagers who
struggle to adopt a positive role will likely struggle to ―find‖ themselves as adults.

o Intimacy vs. Isolation

People in early adulthood (20s through early 40s) are concerned with intimacy vs. isolation.
After we have developed a sense of self in adolescence, we are ready to share our life with
others. However, if other stages have not been successfully resolved, young adults may have
trouble developing and maintaining successful relationships with others. Erikson said that we
must have a strong sense of self before we can develop successful intimate relationships.
Adults who do not develop a positive self-concept in adolescence may experience feelings of
loneliness and emotional isolation.

o Generativity vs. Stagnation

When people reach their 40s, they enter the time known as middle adulthood, which extends
to the mid-60s. The social task of middle adulthood is generativity vs. stagnation.
Generativity involves finding your life’s work and contributing to the development of others
through activities such as volunteering, mentoring, and raising children. During this stage,
middle-aged adults begin contributing to the next generation, often through childbirth and
caring for others; they also engage in meaningful and productive work which contributes
positively to society. Those who do not master this task may experience stagnation and feel
as though they are not leaving a mark on the world in a meaningful way; they may have little
connection with others and little interest in productivity and self-improvement.

o Integrity vs. Despair

From the mid-60s to the end of life, we are in the period of development known as late
adulthood. Erikson’s task at this stage is called integrity vs. despair. He said that people in
late adulthood reflect on their lives and feel either a sense of satisfaction or a sense of failure.
People who feel proud of their accomplishments feel a sense of integrity, and they can look
back on their lives with few regrets. However, people who are not successful at this stage
may feel as if their life has been wasted. They focus on what ―would have,‖ ―should have,‖
and ―could have‖ been. They face the end of their lives with feelings of bitterness,
depression, and despair.