Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Erikson's theory of development explores lifespan development through the psychosocial lens. The theory offers a means of evaluating personality development through a series of tensions that arise during eight developmental stages from infancy through late adulthood. Successful mastery of each stage leads to a sense of identity and ego integrity, while failure to master a stage may reappear as dysfunction or psychopathology later in life. With parallels to Freud's stages of development, Erikson's theory captures the interplay between an individual's experiences with peers, caregivers and greater society with an individual's development.