Stages of personality development

A number of efforts have been made to chart the stages of personality development that are universal. In one view, for example, there are eight such stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, adolescence, genital, adulthood and senescence. These stages are the result of the epigenetic unfolding of the ground plan of personality that is genetically transmitted. The way in which they manifest will depend on the environmental experiences which occur at each stage. According to Jung, the psychological transition at mid-life is crucial, with the first and second half of life equivalent to the two phases of the individuation process; but eight major crises may be associated with the stages which the individual faces in the course of his lifetime. According to Erik H Erikson, the eight distinct stages, each with its own psychological conflict and resolution, contributing to a major aspect of personality, are: infancy (oral/sensory); early childhood (anal/muscular); play age (locomotor/genital); school age (latency); adolescence; early adulthood; adulthood; old age (maturity). These may be said to represent: trust/mistrust: autonomy/shame; initiative/guilt; industry/inferiority; identity/role confusion; intimacy/isolation; generativity/stagnation; and integrity/despair. The person must adequately resolve each crisis in order to progress to the next stage of his development in an adaptive and healthy fashion. In fact, each stage may be seen as a potentiality for change, when new possibilities open for mutual interaction with his surroundings. However, interactions with surroundings also open potentiality for change, in particular interaction within family and society. There is an interlocking between the generations so that, for example, being a parent whose children are developing through the childhood stages assists one in developing as an adult. Again according to Erikson, each individual stage may be seen as having eight sub-stages corresponding to the whole sequence, with the individual working through the same sequence but in a broader context at each successive major stage of life.