Erikson's Stages of personality development

infancy: birth to 18 months

Ego Development Outcome: Trust vs. Mistrust

Basic strength: Drive and Hope

Oral Sensory Stage 

•  emphasis on the mother's positive and loving care for the child, big emphasis on visual contact and touch.
•  we will learn to trust 
•  If we fail to experience trust and our needs are not met, we may end up with a deep-seated feeling of worthlessness and a mistrust of the world in general.

Erikson

early childhood

18 months to 3 years

Ego Development Outcome: Autonomy vs. Shame

Basic Strengths: Self-control, Courage, and Will

•  master skills for ourselves.
• learn to walk, talk and feed ourselves, 
•  learning fine motor development 
•  toilet training. 
•  opportunity to build self-esteem and autonomy 
•  learning right from wrong.
• "Terrible Two's" is our ability to use the powerful word "NO!"
•  we can be very vulnerable.
• If we're shamed in the process of toilet training or in learning other important skills, we may feel great shame and doubt of our capabilities and suffer low self-esteem as a result.
• The most significant relationships are with parents

Erikson

Play Age: 3 to 5 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Initiative vs. Guilt

Basic Strength: Purpose

•  we experience a desire to copy the adults around us
•  take initiative in creating play situations.
• We make up stories with Barbie's and Ken's, toy phones, miniature cars
• playing out roles in a trial universe, experimenting with the blueprint for what we believe it means to be an adult.
• We also begin to use that wonderful word for exploring the world—"WHY?"

Erikson

School Age: 6 to 12 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Industry vs. Inferiority

Basic Strengths: Method and Competence

•  Latency, 
•  capable of learning, creating and accomplishing numerous new skills and knowledge,
• developing a sense of industry.
• This is also a very social stage and if we experience unresolved feelings of inadequacy and inferiority among our peers, we can have serious problems in terms of competence and self-esteem.
• most significant relationship is with the school and neighborhood. Parents are no longer the complete authorities, although they are still important.

Erikson

Adolescence: 12 to 18 Years

Ego Development Outcome: Identity vs. Role Confusion

Basic Strengths: Devotion and Fidelity

•  development depends primarily upon what we do.
• life is definitely getting more complex as we attempt to find our own identity, struggle with social interactions, and grapple with moral issues.
• Our task is to discover who we are as individuals separate from our family of origin and as members of a wider society.
• Unfortunately for those around us, in this process many of us go into a period of withdrawing from responsibilities, which Erikson called a "moratorium." And if we are unsuccessful in navigating this stage, we will experience role confusion and upheaval.
• A significant task for us is to establish a philosophy of life 
•  tend to think in terms of ideals, which are conflict free, rather than reality, which is not.
•  we don't have much experience and find it easy to substitute ideals for experience.
• develop strong devotion to friends and causes.
• It is no surprise that our most significant relationships are with peer groups

Erikson

Young adulthood: 18 to 35

Ego Development Outcome: Intimacy and Solidarity vs. Isolation

Basic Strengths: Affiliation and Love

• seek one or more companions and love.
•  find mutually satisfying relationships, primarily through marriage and friends,
•  begin to start a family,
•  If negotiating this stage is successful, we can experience intimacy on a deep level.
• If we're not successful, isolation and distance from others may occur.
• when we don't find it easy to create satisfying relationships, our world can begin to shrink as, in defense, we can feel superior to others.
• Our significant relationships are with marital partners and friends.

Erikson

Middle Adulthood: 35 to 55 or 65

Ego Development Outcome: Generativity vs. Self absorption or Stagnation

Basic Strengths: Production and Care

• Now work is most crucial.
• we tend to be occupied with creative and meaningful work and with issues surrounding our family.
• is when we can expect to "be in charge," the role we've longer envied.
• The significant task is to perpetuate culture and transmit values of the culture through the family (taming the kids) and working to establish a stable environment.
• Strength comes through care of others and production of something that contributes to the betterment of society, generativity,
• when we're in this stage we often fear inactivity and meaninglessness.
• As our children leave home, or our relationships or goals change, we may be faced with major life changes—the mid-life crisis—and struggle with finding new meanings and purposes.
• If we don't get through this stage successfully, we can become self-absorbed and stagnate.
• Significant relationships are within the workplace, the community and the family

Erikson

Late Adulthood: 55 or 65 to Death

Ego Development Outcome: Integrity vs. Despair

Basic Strengths: Wisdom

•  as older adults we can often look back on our lives with happiness and are content,
• feeling fulfilled with a deep sense that life has meaning and we've made a contribution to life, integrity.
• Our strengt h comes from a wisdom that the world is very large and we now have a detached concern for the whole of life, accepting death as the completion of life.
• some adults may reach this stage and despair at their experiences and perceived failures.
•  may fear death as they struggle to find a purpose to their lives, wondering "Was the trip worth it?"
•  they may feel they have all the answers (not unlike going back to adolescence) and end with a strong dogmatism that only their view has been correct.
• The significant relationship is with all of mankind—"my-kind."