... and the role of nature, Erikson focused on nurture and had a more optimistic view of development. For this reason, Erikson has become a prominent figure in developmental psychology and has helped to explore identity in a social sense. This essay hopes to investigate Erikson's eight stages of development and discuss whether they disregard race, gender and whether they are relevant in modern society. Erikson provides a comprehensive framework for human lifespan through a series of genetically influenced sequence of psychosocial stages. Each stage involves a battle between contradictory resultant personalities, and each stage has either adaptive or maladaptive qualities. To develop into a healthy, mature adult the adaptive must outweigh the maladaptive. (Richard Gross, 2005). Erikson breaks away from Freud here in that he identifies the importance of social influences through his research in different cultures and also the quest for identity as a mode of development. Like Freud though, ...

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