Mapping the Stages of Self to Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of Development

Derrick Toups, M.Ed.

Sense of self refers to the ways a person comes to understand himself over time. Drawing upon the psychological and developmental literature, Marion (2019) outlines four components that comprise a child’s sense of self: self-awareness, self-concept, self-control, and self-esteem. Children begin to develop their sense of self during infancy (self-awareness) and gradually develop more sophisticated ways of understanding their personalities (self-concept), emotions (self-control), and place in the world (self-esteem) as they mature.

Rooted in his work as a psychoanalyst, Erik Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development outline how humans progress through eight distinct stages throughout their life, with each stage adding “a new ego quality, a new criterion of accruing human strength” (Erikson, 1950, p. 270). Erikson defines these stages as each having a particular crisis, that is, depending on one’s experiences, he will either develop a positive or negative psychological feature, such as trust or mistrust in infancy or identity or role confusion in adolescence. While Erikson’s stages are linear, the four components of self overlap; however, we can understand the development of the four parts of self in a more nuanced light when we map Erikson’s stages to them and discuss ways to positively support children in developing their sense of self in the early childhood classroom.

Self-Awareness

The first part of self that children develop is self-awareness. During infancy, the child begins to view herself as a unique individual and separate from others and that she can make things happen, such as summoning a caregiver with a cry. Self-awareness maps to Erikson’s first stage of trust vs. mistrust, which posits that infants develop a sense of trust in the world through consistent routines and when their needs are attended to. Erikson explains that “the general state of trust … implies not only that one has learned to rely on the sameness and continuity of the outer providers, but also that one may trust oneself … and that one is able to consider oneself trustworthy” (Erikson, 1950, p. 248). To support a child’s self-awareness and sense of trust in the classroom, caregivers can:

• Create and follow consistent routines and respond to infants’ bids for attention (cries, glances). Research from Gee and Cohodes (2021) shows that predictability from caregivers is associated with safety and develops the part of the brain associated with emotional regulation.

• Encourage infants to see themselves as unique individuals by frequently calling them by their name and by introducing pictures of children and their families.

• Introduce mirrors and help label body parts. Most babies recognize themselves in mirrors by 1.5 years old and those who are prompted to touch their faces develop self-awareness earlier (Chinn et al., 2024).

Self-Concept

The second part of self is self-concept which is knowledge about one’s physical characteristics, personality, and interests. This maps to Erikson’s stage of autonomy vs. shame and doubt which posits that as toddlers begin to move and act more autonomously, they should be given the opportunity to explore the world, or they will lose self-control and experience shame and doubt. Toddlers develop a crucial part of their self-concept as they learn to view themselves as either powerful and capable of doing things for themselves or not. To promote a child’s

self-concept and autonomy in the classroom, teachers can:

• Promote authentic hands-on experiences such as having children clean their own plates after lunch or roll out their own nap mats.

• Slow down and allow time for children to do things on their own, such as set the table at snack time or push a cart from the classroom to the kitchen, even if it takes more time or if an adult could do it more efficiently.

Self-Control

The third part of self is self-control, which involves self-regulation, impulse control, and delayed gratification. A longitudinal study by Moffitt et al. (2011) showed that self-control predicted a child’s future wealth, health, and proclivity for crime, underscoring the importance of supporting children with self-regulation and control in the early years. Self-control maps to Erikson’s stage of initiative vs. guilt where children “gradually develop a sense of moral responsibility, [and] where he can gain some insight into the institutions, functions, and roles which will permit his responsible participation” (Erikson, 1950, p. 256). While self-control is not fully developed until early adulthood when the prefrontal cortex is fully formed, it is nonetheless important for teachers to teach children strategies for self-control so they can positively channel their initiative and avoid feeling guilt or exclusion. Teachers can do this by:

• Helping children label and understand emotions and ways to appropriately deal with them through social stories, books, or role playing. This aligns with “interpersonal skills” of Louisiana’s Early Learning & Development Standards.

• Setting clear boundaries and expectations and highlighting the reasons why these are in place. It can also be very empowering to involve children in setting rules when appropriate.

Self-Esteem

The final part of self is self-esteem, or what a child thinks about herself. Marion outlines that self-esteem consists of a sense of competence, control, and worth (Harter, 2006; Mruk,

2013). Self-esteem maps to Erikson’s stages of industry vs. inferiority and identity vs. role confusion. For the first of these stages, Erikson refers to a child’s self-esteem or “ego boundaries” as “his tools and skills” explaining that if “he despairs of his tools and skills or of his status among his tool partners [peers], he may be discouraged from identification with them” (Erikson, 1950, pp. 259-260). That is to say, children inherently compare themselves to others, so we must find ways to celebrate their worth. Self-esteem is further developed in the identity vs. role confusion stage since youth are “primarily concerned with what they appear to be in the eyes of others as compared to with what they feel they are” (Erikson, 1950, p. 261). To support children’s development of positive self-esteem, teachers can:

• Champion the uniqueness of each child by finding ways to celebrate their skills and contributions, such as “shout outs” during circle time or one-on-one affirmative comments.

• Promote supportive communities by focusing on the unique qualities of children as strengths.

References

Chinn, L. K., Noonan, C. F., Patton, K. S., & Lockman, J. J. (2024). Tactile localization promotes infant self-recognition in the mirror-mark test. Current biology, 34(6), 1370–1375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.02.028

Erikson, E. H. (1950). Childhood and society. W. W. Norton and Company.

Gee, D. G., & Cohodes, E. M. (2021). Caregiving influences on development: A sensitive period for biological embedding of predictability and safety cues. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 30(5), 376–383. https://doi.org/10.1177/09637214211015673

Harter, S. (2006). The self. In N. Eisenberg (Ed.), Handbook of child psychology: Vol. 3. Social, emotional, and personality development (6th ed., pp. 505-570). Wiley.

Marion, M. C. (2019). Guidance of young children (10th ed.). Pearson.

Mruk, C. (2013). Self-esteem research, theory, and practice: Toward a positive psychology of self-esteem (4th ed.). Springer.

Derrick Toups teaches education and child development courses at Tulane and multiple Louisiana community colleges and is a Ph.D. student at LSU. Derrick works at Agenda for Children and helps oversee public funding and contracts to increase access to quality early care and education in New Orleans. He can be contacted at derricktoups@gmail.com.