Psychology: Personality Development

Personality Development

Two widely cited approaches to personality development are those of Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson.

Sigmund Freud's stages of psychosexual development. Sigmund Freud developed a treatment theory called psychoanalysis, which is based upon a theory of psychosexual stages of development (Table 1 ).

TABLE 1

Freudian Psychosexual Stages of Development

Stage	Age	Erogenous Zone/Activities
Oral	0 to 18 months	Mouth/sucking, biting, chewing
Anal	18 to 36 months	Anus/bowel and bladder control
Phallic	3 to 6 years	Genitals/masturbation
Latency	6 years to puberty	—/repression of sexual feelings
Genital	puberty+	Maturation of sexual orientation

Erik Erikson's stages of development. Erik Erikson proposed a theory of development that continues throughout the life span. His theory states that there are universal life stages and that a specific psychosocial dilemma occurs at each phase of development. These problems (crises) must be resolved before an individual can move to the next developmental stage (Table 2 .) . Erikson's theory has been credited for accounting for continuity and changes in personality development. It has also been criticized for vagueness and has not stimulated a great deal of empirical research.

TABLE 2

Erik Erikson's Stages of Development

Age	Psychological Stage	Period
Birth to 1 year	Trust vs. Mistrust Learning that the provider of comfort is reliable, consistent, and predictable	Oral-sensory
2 to 3 years	Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt Learning to exercise independence and freedom of choice along with self-control	Muscular-anal
3 to 5 years	Initiative vs. Guilt Planning and executing a task for the sake of actively doing it	Locomotor-genital
6 to 11 years	Industry vs. Inferiority Developing as a worker and producer	Latency
Adolescence	Identity vs. Role Confusion Evolving a sense of self that is reliable and consistent, both for oneself and for others	Puberty
Young adulthood	Intimacy vs. Isolation Preparing for a commitment to affiliation with others and developing the ethical strength to abide by such commitments	Young adulthood
Middle age	Generativity vs. Stagnation Finding a way to support in the establishment and guidance of the next generation	Adulthood
Old age	Integrity vs. Despair Integrating the earlier stages into an acceptance of oneself and a sense of fulfillment rather than looking back in regret at what might have been	Maturity