Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Erik Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development 

These stages always show up a couple of times on NCLEX questions. This post will have an easy to read table to reference for the stages of development and the tasks that correlate with each stage.

It is important to keep in mind each of these stages as we work with out patients. It will help us to understand their coping mechanisms and allow us to help them achieve success in each stage.

For instance if you have a toddler for a patient, try to give them a choice between two things as often as you can. They'll feel out of control (and they probably are out of control of their disease) so by giving them an option to choose between white milk or chocolate milk you are letting them develop their skills of autonomy.

STAGE	AGE	TASK
Trust vs Mistrust	0 - 2	Develops a sense of trust through interactions that provide reliability, care, and affection. Without properly developing this would lead to mistrust.
Autonomy vs Shame	2 - 4	Develops a sense of control over physical skills such as potty training. A failure to achieve this results in feelings of shame and doubt.
Initiative vs Guilt	4 - 5	Develops control and power over ones environment. Success lead to a sense of purpose while failure leads to guilt.
Industry vs Inferiority	5 - 12	Develops a conscience, and learns to cope with new social and learning demands. Failure to succeed results in feelings of inferiority.
Identity vs Role	13 - 19	Develops a sense of a personal identity and formulates a sense of belonging. Failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of oneself.
Intimacy vs Isolation	20 - 39	Forming of adulthood, the need to form intimate and meaningful relationships with others. Failure leads to loneliness and isolation
Generativity vs Stagnation	40 - 64	Developing a need to be productive and create things that will outlast oneself. Works to establish the next generation. Failure results in shallow involvement in the world.
Ego Integrity vs Despair	65 -Death	Accepts responsibility for one's self and life. Develops a need to look back on contributions and feel fulfilled. Failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Alright. I would suggest printing that table out and keeping it handy. I get about 4 questions that pertain to this whenever I take a mock NCLEX test. Now the questions don't come right out and say "What stage is 7 year old first grader going through and what tasks need to be achieved in this stage?"

No.

It'll be hidden underneath the surface of the question. Typically, it'll be a question where they state the patient says, "I feel so useless. I'm dying and there is no one around my bedside. I was a terrible person" How should the nurse respond?

Yep. I'm talking about those type of questions. I used to be terrible at them and then I realized I should start paying more attention to their psychosocial developmental stage. Now sometimes those questions are just your typical therapeutic communication, blah blah blah. But sometimes you can use think of Erikson's stages to lead you to the correct response.

What are some test questions you struggle with? Leave a comment below or send me an email!!

Xoxo,

Nightingale