Part of Lesson Plan: Erikson's Psychosocial Theory of Development

Activity Overview / Details

Display Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial development on the board or overhead in alphabetical order:

Explain to students that, according to a theorist named Erick Erikson, almost everyone will experience all of these stages at some point in their life. Tell students to read over the eight stages and make an educated guess about which stage they think they might be experiencing right now. Tell students that it's okay if they do not know what each stage represents or means—their task here is to simply make an initial guess about which stage they might be in.

Students should respond to the following writing prompt:

Which of the above eight “stages” do you think you might be experiencing most intensely in life right now? Explain what each of the words (in the chosen stage) means to you and what events, feelings, or experiences made you think that you might be in this stage.

Give students 5-10minutes to respond to this writing prompt.

When students have been given sufficient time to respond to the prompt, choose 3-5 students to share with the class which stage they think that they might be in and why.