Erikson's Theory of Psychosocial Development

Definitions of Identity

Identity is defined in many ways. Most often Erikson refers to ego identity, or the portion of personality that functions to direct, guide, and select thought and action. It is the part of personality that refers to the consistency and sameness that a person uses as a style of individuality and its meaning about the self for significant others like family members, teachers, or friends. Identity can be thought of as a form of relatively persistent character one shares with others.

In addition to ego identity, Erikson also refers to the stable and coherent, but yet evolving, character one develops with a group's ideals in the form of social identity. Social identity is most readily observed in the expectations and commitments to the values, goals, and ideals of institutions such as religion, politics, occupation, and the family. In particular, social identity is based on the ideology that is formed within a commitment to a particular institutional value. For example, an occupational identity based on the achievement motive of capitalism differs from an occupational identity based on the conformist motive of a communism ideology. Religious identities differ within Protestant, Catholic, Islamic, Hindu, Jewish, or other forms of religious social ideologies. Likewise, political identities vary among party, state, or group ideologies.

Families vary as to the values, goals, and aspirations that parents have for their children, and identification with family ideologies will vary widely within any given community. Many factors will contribute to whether youth will identify (or not) with their own family values and ideologies. Indeed, individuals strive toward psychology unity, where various domains of identity across the various institutional ideologies merge into a comfortable coherent and consistent sense of individuality. Extreme differences in values or incompatible goals or values in adopted commitments create angst or anxiety that links with self-consciousness and discomfort, leaving a person with a sense of fragmentation. A fragmented self (or incompatible elements within either an ego identity or a social identity) will lead to uncomfortable states of anxiety and a sense of inner conflict.

Eight Life Stages

The eight life stages that facilitate identity formation are set by societal expectations to accomplish specific developmental tasks. Each of these tasks, as it is successfully resolved, provides an innovative strength to both ego-and social-identity development. These stages are based on an epigenetic principle wherein the individual is driven toward, is aware of, and interacts with life dilemmas. Human growth is based on a dialectic struggle of inner (psychological) and outer (social) forces where each stage of life involves a crisis or turning point. Each of the life stages provides a critical point to increase potential for growth in identity based on an ontogenetic evolution. Healthy development is based on the assumption that every stage comes to its ascendance: A crisis is resolved and is, ideally, concluded with an effective and meaningful identity resolution. To complete a life stage, a person must synthesis (or resynthesize) early childhood identifications for novel and newly constructed identifications. Put another way, the individual must both selectively repudiate and assimilate childhood identifications with new configurations of ego identity.

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