Designing for Erikson's Psychosocial Stages

Like Freud, Erik Erikson believed that human psychological development occurred in stages. The stages are framed by a certain internal conflict, where certain activities affect each person. In my mind, it is both nature and nurture here.

Each stage builds upon the other stages preceding it. While you will see age ranges, these markers are not hard rules. A person's development (or lack of development) occurs in their own time. Again, the age range is to give you the average personality development.

Read the stages below. I have some general observations about how these stages might be considered by UX designers.

Erikson's Stages of Psychosocial Development

Infancy (birth to 18 months)

• Trust vs. Mistrust
• Feeding
• Children develop a sense of trust when caregivers provide reliability, care, and affection. A lack of this will lead to mistrust.

Early Childhood (2 to 3 years)

• Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt
• Toilet Training
• Children need to develop a sense of personal control over physical skills and a sense of independence. Success leads to feelings of autonomy, failure results in feelings of shame and doubt.

Preschool (3 to 5 years)

• Initiative vs. Guilt
• Exploration
• Children need to begin asserting control and power over the environment. Success in this stage leads to a sense of purpose. Children who try to exert too much power experience disapproval, resulting in a sense of guilt.

School Age (6 to 11 years)

• Industry vs. Inferiority
• School
  
• Children need to cope with new social and academic demands. Success leads to a sense of competence, while failure results in feelings of inferiority.

Adolescence (12 to 18 years)

• Identity vs. Role Confusion
• Social Relationships
• Teens need to develop a sense of self and personal identity. Success leads to an ability to stay true to yourself, while failure leads to role confusion and a weak sense of self.

Young Adulthood (19 to 40 years)

• Intimacy vs. Isolation
• Intimate Relationships
• Young adults need to form intimate, loving relationships with other people. Success leads to strong relationships, while failure results in loneliness and isolation.

Middle Adulthood (40 to 65 years)

• Generativity vs. Stagnation
• Work and Parenthood
• Adults need to create or nurture things that will outlast them, often by having children or creating a positive change that benefits other people. Success leads to feelings of usefulness and accomplishment, while failure results in shallow involvement in the world.

Maturity(65+ Years)

• Ego Integrity vs. Despair
• Reflection on Life
• Older adults need to look back on life and feel a sense of fulfillment. Success at this stage leads to feelings of wisdom, while failure results in regret, bitterness, and despair.

Key Takeaways for UX Designers

As a usability professional or a UX designer, the stages provide useful insight into the various conflicts that affect psychological development. You can help alleviate some of the conflict:

1. Design products for each stage. For example, when someone enters the stage of Maturity, you can design products and services to help them with reflecting back on their life or deal with failure.
   
   
2. Design with empathy. While it is easier to understand a stage after going through it, you will still need to think about how an individual feels today. Are the pressures the same? How does technology impact your stage? What other forces (social, legislative, family) affect your stage?
   
   
3. Cross-marketing opportunities. You can design products to help parents teach their children to be successful in school. Or, you design products to help Middle Adults teach Young Adults how to deal with Infants or Preschoolers.