Identity Development in the Tradition
8-Stage Personality Theory
Although Erik Erikson (Berkeley and Harvard University) Although Erik Erikson (Berkeley and Harvard University) is considered one of the so-called Freudian ego psychologists, and like Freud takes different stages of development into account in his 8-stage theory, his theoretical perspective extends beyond adolescence into later adulthood. Erikson places less emphasis on instinctual drives or the unconscious alone, and also takes psychosocial and psychohistorical factors into account. Furthermore, his view of development is based more on so-called epigenetic stages—that is, a sequence of stages in which mastering a developmental task and learning at one stage serve as the foundation for the next.
His theory posits that each developmental task may involve conflicts and crises, and that it may not be fully mastered at a given stage. Rather, mastering the developmental task as fully as possible at one stage makes it easier to move on to the next.
