ERIKSON’S PSYCHOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE Erik Erikson (1963) built on
Freud’s ideas and extended his theory by stressing the psychosocial aspects
of development beyond early childhood. His theory of development holds that
psychosexual growth and psychosocial growth take place together, and that
at each stage of life we face the task of establishing equilibrium between ourselves
and our social world. He describes development in terms of the entire
life span, divided by specifi c crises to be resolved. According to Erikson, a crisis
is equivalent to a turning point in life when we have the potential to move forward
or to regress. At these turning points, we can either resolve our confl icts
or fail to master the developmental task. To a large extent, our life is the result
of the choices we make at each of these stages.
Erikson is often credited with bringing an emphasis on social factors to
contemporary psychoanalysis. Classical psychoanalysis is grounded on id
psychology, and it holds that instincts and intrapsychic confl icts are the basic
factors shaping personality development (both normal and abnormal). Contemporary
psychoanalysis tends to be based on ego psychology, which does
not deny the role of intrapsychic confl icts but emphasizes the striving of the
ego for mastery and competence throughout the human life span. Ego psychology
deals with both the early and the later developmental stages, for the
assumption is that current problems cannot simply be reduced to repetitions
of unconscious confl icts from early childhood. The stages of adolescence, midadulthood,
and later adulthood all involve particular crises that must be addressed.
As one’s past has meaning in terms of the future, there is continuity
in development, refl ected by stages of growth; each stage is related to the other
stages.
Viewing an individual’s development from a combined perspective that includes
both psychosexual and psychosocial factors is useful. Erikson believed
Freud did not go far enough in explaining the ego’s place in development and
did not give enough attention to social infl uences throughout the life span. A
comparison of Freud’s psychosexual view and Erikson’s psychosocial view of
the stages of development is presented in Table 4.2.
COUNSELING IMPLICATIONS By taking a combined psychosexual and psychosocial
perspective, counselors have a helpful conceptual framework for understanding
developmental issues as they appear in therapy. The key needs and
developmental tasks, along with the challenges inherent at each stage of life,
provide a model for understanding some of the core confl icts clients explore in
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