Whereas the psychoanalytic perspective emphasized the
intrapsychic world, the psychosocial perspective, as its name implies,
emphasizes the role of the social world. In this view, personality emerges
from and is most clearly manifest in transactions with the social
environment. The psychosocial perspective is perhaps best exemplified by
Erikson’s lifespan model of character development. Although the eight
developmental tasks Erikson highlighted are lifelong tasks, which one is
most critical for us changes over time as the nature of our interactions
with the world change. By resolving these critical issues in a positive way,
we acquire ego qualities or virtues that provide the foundation for further
character development.
In the current lesson we will focus on the development tasks
that tend to be focal in childhood. According to Erikson, the focal issue
during infancy is trust versus mistrust, and research on attachment in
infancy support this view. Physical maturation plus a sense of trust and
hope forged in infancy empowers toddlers to actively explore their world.
But new skills bring new responsibilities, such as feeding yourself and
using the potty, bringing the experiences of autonomy versus self-doubt to
the fore during those years. As you enter preschool and school environments,
you encounter an ever-widening array of academic, physical, and social
challenges. If you meet these challenges sense of hope and confidence, the
school years may forge in you new ego qualities—namely, purpose and
competence—that in turn can provide foundations for meeting the challenges
of adolescence and adulthood… challenges we will examine in the next lesson.
