The 8-stage Personality Theory by Erik Erikson

Although Erik Erikson (Berkeley and Harvard University) is ranked among the so-called Freudian psychologists and in his 8-stage theory, like Freud, includes differing stages of development, his theoretical considerations go beyond adolescence into advanced adult age. Erikson places his focus less purely on instinctive urges or the subconscious, but additionally takes a psychosocial or psycho-historical component into account. Moreover, in his consideration of development he rather proceeds from so-called epigenetic stages, i.e. from a sequence in which coping with a development task and learning at one stage act as the foundation for the next stage. His theory postulates that any development task in itself may be linked to conflicts and crises and that sometimes no complete coping takes place at one stage, but that as complete a coping as possible with the development task at one stage facilitates entry to the next stage.

A closer scrutiny of the 8 stages shows that his model appears to go beyond a pure ego consideration, as the development tasks sketched on the different stages can hardly be attributed to an explicit, sequentially and analytically functioning ego alone. Rather, the identity development conflicts described indicate an expanded consideration of personality, additionally taking implicit aspects of the self into account.

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