Eric Erikson

Question 1

adolescence

Answer 1

 An important psychosocial stage when ego identity should be formed. Adolescence is characterized by puberty and the crisis of identity versus identity confusion.

Question 2

adulthood

Answer 2

The stage from about ages 31–60 that is characterized by the psychosexual mode of procreativity and the crisis of generativity versus stagnation.

Question 3

care

Answer 3

A commitment to take care of the people and things that one has learned to care for.

Question 4

core pathology

Answer 4

A psychosocial disorder at any of the eight stages of development that results from too little basic strength.

Question 5

dystonic

Answer 5

the negative element in each pair of opposites that characterizes the eight stages of development.

Question 6

early childhood

Answer 6

 The second stage of psychosocial development, characterized by the anal-urethral-muscular psychosexual mode and by the crisis of autonomy versus shame and doubt.

Question 7

exclusivity

Answer 7

The core pathology of young adulthood marked by a person’s exclusion of certain people, activities, and ideas

Question 8

genitality

Answer 8

Period of life beginning with puberty and continuing through adulthood and marked by full sexual identity.

Question 9

genital-locomotor 

Answer 9

term for the preschool child’s psychosexual mode of adapting.

Question 10

infancy

Answer 10

The first stage of psychosocial development—one marked by the oral-sensory mode and by the crisis of basic trust versus basic mistrust.

Question 11

Identity crisis 

Answer 11

crucial period or turning point in the life cycle that may result in either more or less ego strength. Identity crises can be found in those Eriksonian stages that follow the development of identity, ordinarily during adolescence.

Question 12

intimacy

Answer 12

The ability to fuse one’s identity with that of another person without fear of losing it. The syntonic element of young adulthood.

Question 13

isolation

Answer 13

The inability to share true intimacy or to take chances with one’s identity. The dystonic element of young adulthood.

Question 14

latency

Answer 14

The psychosexual mode of the school-age child. A period of little sexual development

Question 15

love

Answer 15

The basic strength of young adulthood that emerges from the crisis of intimacy versus isolation.

Question 16

old age

Answer 16

The eighth and final stage of the life cycle, marked by the psychosocial crisis of integrity versus despair and the basic strength of wisdom.

Question 17

oral-sensory 

Answer 17

the infant’s first psychosexual mode of adapting.

Question 18

play age

Answer 18

The third stage of psychosocial development, encompassing the time from about ages 3–5 and characterized by the genital-locomotor psychosexual mode and the crisis of initiative versus guilt.

Question 19

post-Freudian theory

Answer 19

 Erikson’s theory of personality that extended Freud’s developmental stages into old age. At each age, a specific psychosocial struggle contributes to the formation of personality.

Question 20

procreativity

Answer 20

The drive to have children and to care for them.

Question 21

pseudospecies

Answer 21

The illusion held by a particular society that it is somehow chosen to be more important than other societies.

Question 22

role repudiation

Answer 22

The inability to synthesize different self-images and values into a workable identity.

Question 23

school age

Answer 23

The fourth stage of psychosocial development; covers the period from about ages 6–12 or 13 and is characterized by psychosexual latency and the psychosocial crisis of industry versus inferiority.

Question 24

syntonic

Answer 24

term for the positive element in each pair of opposites that characterize his eight stages of development.

Question 25

young adulthood

Answer 25

The stage from about ages 18–30 during which a person gains mature genitality and experiences the crisis of intimacy versus isolation.

Question 26

basic strength 

Answer 26

The ego quality that emerges from the conflict between antithetical elements in Erikson’s stages of development.