Examples Of Erikson's Psychosocial Theory

From infancy to now, one is learning and growing. When one first learns about Erikson’s psychosocial theory, it can be surprised to learn how much we actually learn in just our first few years of life. In our first year of life, infants are learning trust. After the first year, young toddlers are now learning how to do concepts by themselves. In Erikson’s theory, these two concepts can be found as the first two stages of Erikson’s eight stages of development known as trust vs mistrust and autonomy vs shame and doubt.
Trust vs mistrust is Erikson’s first stage, which can be seen in the first years of life. This is a time were infants become familiar with their environment. During this stage, infants will learn to trust not only their
One idea I instantly think of when I read about this stage, is infants and toddlers learning to feed themselves. Older infants are learning to either hold their own bottle or learning to drink out of sippy cups instead. Toddlers are learning to eat with their fingers at first and are also trying small forks and spoons. Another example from this stage, is allowing infants and toddlers to explore freely. Arranging large open spaces and forming boundaries will push them to see how far one is willing to let them go. An additional example for this stage, is that infants and toddlers are going to learn the word “NO!” As they become more and more independent, they will know what they want and giving them options they don’t agree with will result in lots of responses of ‘NO!’. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is a crucial part to early childhood development. It’s important to note that the stages of trust and independence come in a child’s first three years of life. Even though we went through the stages of trust and independence, one should understand that an infant and toddler will experience the other (mistrust and shame&doubt), but there should be no reason to be alarmed. According to Erikson, one needs to gain trust, then independence to continue through his eight different stages of