The Psychology Book (86 page)

1980
Building on Erikson’s

The first stage, which takes place

work, American psychologist

during a baby’s first year, is “trust

James Marcia explores identity

versus mistrust.” If the infant’s

formation in adolescence.

needs are badly or inconsistently

1996
In her bestselling book

met, feelings of mistrust develop

New Passages
, American

that can recur in later relationships.

Hope is both the earliest

writer Gail Sheehy notes that

The second stage, “autonomy versus

and the most indispensable

adults are prolonging their

shame and doubt,” takes place

virtue inherent in the

adolescence into their 30s,

from 18 months to 2 years. This is

when the child learns to explore,

state of being alive.

pushing back all of Erikson’s

but also for the first time must deal

Erik Erikson

stages of adulthood by

with feelings of shame and doubt as

approximately ten years.

a result of small failures or parental

reprimands. Healthy willpower

develops as a result of learning to

negotiate both success and failure.

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 273

See also:
G. Stanley Hall 46–47 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Kurt Lewin 218–23 ■

Jean Piaget 262–69 ■ Lawrence Kohlberg 292–93

Anything that grows has a ground

plan, and out of this the parts arise.

The human personality develops through eight
distinct

and predetermined stages
between birth and death.

Erik Erikson

Erik Erikson was born in

Frankfurt, Germany, as the

result of an extramarital affair.

He was given the surname of

his mother’s husband, never

Failure at any stage

knew his biological father,

By
negotiating each

results in a
mental

and his mother married again

stage successfully
,

deficiency
(such as lack of

when he was three years old.

we develop as mentally

trust or an overwhelming

Unsurprisingly, Erikson always

healthy individuals.

sense of guilt) that stays

struggled with identity issues.

with us throughout life.

He was encouraged to study

medicine, but rebelled and

studied art, touring Italy in his

youth as a “wandering artist.”

He then suffered what he

From here we enter adolescence

reflect on their lives, becoming

called an “aggravated identity

and the fifth stage of “ego-identity

either satisfied and at peace with

crisis” and went to Vienna,

versus role confusion.” This is when

their old age, or despairing over

where he taught art in a school

we develop a coherent sense of who

physical disintegration and the

run on psychoanalytic

we are, through consideration of our

reality of death. Successful

principles. Embracing these

past, present, and future. When

negotiation of this stage results

fully, he then trained as a

successfully negotiated, this stage

in the attainment of wisdom. ■

psychoanalyst under Anna

ensures a unified sense of self, but

Freud. In 1933, he married

problems here can lead to an “identity

Joan Serson and they

crisis”—a term coined by Erikson.

emigrated to Boston, where

During the sixth stage of

he became the first child

“intimacy versus isolation,” between

psychoanalyst in the city. He

the ages of 18 and 30, we build close

later taught at Harvard, Yale,

relationships and experience love.

and Berkeley. He changed his

surname to the self-chosen

The penultimate stage, “generativity

“Erikson” when he became an

versus stagnation,” from 35 to 60,

American citizen in 1933.

sees us working on behalf of future

generations, or contributing to

Key works

society through cultural activities

Erikson said that in our older years

or social activism.

we achieve a sense of completeness

1950
Childhood and Society

The final stage, “ego-integrity

and “personal wholeness” in direct

1964
Insight and Responsibility

versus despair,” starts at the age of

proportion to the degree to which we

1968
Identity: Youth and Crisis

around 60. It occurs when people

successfully negotiated earlier stages.

274

IN CONTEXT

EARLY EMOTIONAL APPROACH

Attachment theory

BONDS ARE AN

BEFORE

1926
Sigmund Freud presents

INTEGRAL PART

the psychoanalytic theory of

“cupboard love,” suggesting

that infants become attached

to caregivers because they

OF

fulfil physiological needs.

HUMAN NATURE

1935
Konrad Lorenz’s research

shows that non-humans form

JOHN BOWLBY (1907–1990)

strong bonds with the first

moving object they encounter.

AFTER

1959
Harry Harlow’s work

demonstrates that macaque

monkeys separated from their

mothers in infancy develop

social and emotional problems.

1978
Michael Rutter shows

that children can become

strongly attached to a variety

of attachment figures (such as

fathers, siblings, peers, and

inanimate objects).

I
n the 1950s, the prevailing

theory on how infants form

attachments was based on

the psychoanalytical concept of

“cupboard love.” This suggested

that babies form bonds with people

who fulfil their physiological needs,

such as feeding. At the same time,

the animal studies of Konrad

Lorenz suggested that animals

simply bond with the first moving

object they encounter, which is

usually the mother.

It was against this background

that John Bowlby took a distinctly

evolutionary perspective on early

attachment. He argued that because

newborn infants are completely

helpless, they are genetically

DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 275

See also:
Konrad Lorenz 77 ■ Sigmund Freud 92–99 ■ Melanie Klein 108–109 ■ Anna Freud 111 ■ Kurt Lewin 218–23 ■

Lev Vygotsky 270 ■ Bruno Bettelheim 271 ■ Harry Harlow 278 ■ Mary Ainsworth 280–81 ■ Michael Rutter 339

it should take place during the first

year, or at the very least before the

child is two years old. Bowlby

Infants and mothers are

…within the
critical period

thought that any attempts at

biologically programed

of the child’s life

mothering beyond the age of three

to form an attachment with

(the first 24 months).

would be useless, and the child

each other…

would be on course to suffer the

effects of maternal deprivation.

Maternal deprivation

In 1950, Bowlby was commissioned

by the World Health Organization

to study children who had suffered

If this attachment is broken

Attachment

within the critical period

maternal deprivation during World

behavior is an

it will cause
serious and

War II due to evacuation or being

integral part of

permanent
damage
to

made homeless. He was also asked

human nature.

the child’s development.

to investigate the effects of being

raised in residential nurseries and

other large institutions (such as

orphanages). The result of this early

programed to form an attachment

that, although an infant may have

work was Bowlby’s 1951 report,

with their mothers in order to ensure

more than one attachment figure,

Maternal Care and Mental Health
,

their survival. Mothers, he believed,

his attachment to a mother-figure

in which he observed that children

are also genetically programmed to

is simply different from and more

deprived of maternal care for

bond with their babies, feeling the

significant than any other

prolonged periods of time during

need to keep them in close proximity.

attachment he will form throughout

early childhood suffered some

Any conditions that threaten to

his life. Both the infant and his

degree of intellectual, social, or

separate mother and child activate

mother behave in ways that secure

emotional retardation later in life.

instinctive attachment behaviors

this attachment. An infant, for

Five years later Bowlby began a

and feelings of insecurity and fear.

instance, engages in sucking,

second study, this time investigating

These ideas formed the basis of

cuddling, looking, smiling, and

children who had spent five months

Bowlby’s theory, which developed

crying in order to shape and control

to two years in a tuberculosis ❯❯

to explain the lifelong significance

his caregiver’s behavior, and a

of the mother–infant bond as well

caregiver would be sensitive and

as the psychological difficulties

responsive to the infant’s needs.

that children suffer if this bond is

In this way the two behavioral

damaged or entirely broken.

systems—attachment and

caregiving—help to shape one

Mothers only

another and create a lifelong bond.

Mother love in infancy is as

One of the most controversial

Bowlby believes that this bond is

important for mental health

aspects of Bowlby’s theory is that

so deeply formative that if it fails to

as are vitamins and proteins

infants always attach to a female,

take place, or breaks down within

for physical health.

never a male. This female figure

the first few years of life, the child

John Bowlby

may not be the natural mother, but

will go on to suffer serious negative

she certainly represents a mother-