Analysis of Erikson's Stages: Trust, Mistrust, Autonomy, and Shame

This essay delves into Erik Erikson's stages of psychosocial development, specifically examining the initial stages of trust versus mistrust and autonomy versus doubt and shame. It outlines how the trust versus mistrust stage, occurring in infancy, is shaped by the infant's dependence on caregivers and how consistent care fosters trust, while inconsistency leads to mistrust. The essay then discusses the autonomy versus doubt and shame stage, which emerges in early childhood, highlighting how children develop abilities and the importance of allowing them to exercise their will, while parental overcontrol can lead to self-doubt. Real-life examples are provided to illustrate positive and negative outcomes of each stage, reinforcing the impact of these early experiences on personality development. The essay references Schultz & Schultz (2017) to support the theoretical framework.

Running head: ERIKSON’S STAGES OF LIFE
ERIKSON’S STAGES OF LIFE
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1ERIKSON’S STAGES OF LIFE
The stages of psychosocial development by Erikson are influenced and
expanded by Freud’s psychosexual theory. The theory proposed by Erikson
mentioned that people as human beings have a tendency or need to achieve
competence in certain areas of life. With reference to the psychosocial theory,
there are eight stages of development within a life span, which starts from infancy
through late adulthood. It has also been mentioned that with each stage there has
been regular arrival of crisis that needs to be resolved. The paper below discusses
the two stages of life and describes them by comparing the stages on their positive
and negative aspect. Lastly, the paper also further shows examples of real life
instances of positive and negative outcomes of the respective two mentioned stages
(Schultz & Schultz, 2017). Amongst the eight stages of psychosocial development,
the stages that are discussed in the paper are Trust versus Mistrust and Autonomy
versus doubt and shame.
Firstly, the trust versus mistrust is considered as the oral-sensory stage of
psychosocial development. This stage is mainly considered the initial year of a
person’s life, which is also considered as the main time of a person’s helplessness.
The baby or the infant is observed to be completely dependent on the mother or the
care giver present at the primary level. The infant starts getting dependent on the
caregiver for survival and seeking affection as well as to have proper security.
During this particular stage of mouth plays a very vital role. The relationship

2ERIKSON’S STAGES OF LIFE
between the infant and the world outside is not considered as biological and neither
is considered as social (Schultz & Schultz, 2017). The interaction between the
mother and the baby completely helps in influencing the attitude the child develops
for future dealings within the environment and shall be incorporated into the
infant’s growing personality. The baby when responds to the mother’s physical and
ample affection along with getting affected by love and security can help in
developing a sense of trust and attitude that helps the child to develop a better view
about himself or herself. Whereas, if the mother has a very rejecting, inconsistent
behaviour towards the child, the child starts to develop a negative, mistrusting and
suspicious relationship with his or her mother. Erikson also mentioned that
mistrust also develops when the mother behaves aloof from the child. The mother
lacks focus on the child, which ultimately leads to the rise in the risks of promoting
mistrust in the child’s mind and heart.
Secondly, the stage discussed here is autonomy versus doubt and shame, the
stage, which appears at the second and third years of a life span. The children are
seen to grow rapidly with developing a varied range of abilities that are involved in
the development of physical and mental abilities of a child. These also helps them
in doing many things for themselves. The trait helps in making the child learn to
climb, walk, push or pull effectively and helps in further letting go of the pride.
Erikson had also mentioned that amongst the entire most important thing is to

3ERIKSON’S STAGES OF LIFE
process the way to let go of things and hold on to them (Schultz & Schultz, 2017).
The child shall learn to exercise their ways of choice as well as experience the
power of autonomous will. Even though being dependent on their own parent’s
will, the child still regard his or her parents as their strengths and help them relax
further. The negative trait or the crisis displayed in between the parent and the
child at this stage happens during the toilet training, which is seen as the first
pioneer step to make the child understand when to hold on or to let go. The parents
thereby forbid the child’s free will by forcing the training and showcases anger and
frustration when the child disobeys. Thereby the thwarting and the impatience
from the parents can make the child doubt his or her ownself and a sense of shame
may develop in dealing with other people.
The real life examples can be considered for Erikson’s trust versus mistrust
as when the child is in their first year, they completely are dependent on the mother
for feeding and protection. The child is fully dependent on the mother as they
develop a trusting relationship. Whereas, Erikson’s autonomy versus shame and
doubt can be described with the example, during this stage children begin to assert
their independence, by walking away from their mother, picking which toy to play
with, and making choices about what they like to wear, to eat.

4ERIKSON’S STAGES OF LIFE
References:
Schultz, D & Schultz, E. (2017). Theories of Personality (11th Ed.). Wadsworth
Cengage Learning