Theorists consider that emotional, social, cognitive and moral skills develop in stages.
- Psychosocial – Erik Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is most widely used. At each stage, children confront a crisis that requires the integration of personal needs and skills with social and cultural expectations. Each stage has two possible components, favorable and unfavorable.
- Psychosexual – Sigmund Freud considered sexual instincts to be significant in the development of personality. At each stage, regions of the body assume prominent psychologic significance as source of pleasure.
- Cognitive – Jean Piaget proposed four major stages of development for logical thinking. Each stage arises from and builds on the previous stage in an orderly fashion.
- Moral – Lawrence Kohlberg’s theory of moral development is based on cognitive development and consists of three major levels, each containing two stages.
| Stage | Erikson | Freud | Piaget | Kohlberg |
| Infancy
(birth to 1 year) |
Trust vs. mistrust | Oral | Sensorimotor (birth to 2 years) | |
| Toddlerhood
(1-3 years old) |
Autonomy vs. same and doubt | Anal | Sensorimotor (1-2 years); preoperational (preconceptual) (2-4 years) | Preconventional |
| Preschool
(3-6 years old) |
Initiative vs. guilt | Phallic | Preoperational (preconceptual) (2-4 years); preoperational (intuitive) (4-7 years) | Preconventional |
| School Age
(6-12 years) |
Industry vs. inferiority | Latency | Concrete operations
(7-11 years) |
Conventional |
| Adolescence
(12-18 years) |
Identity vs. role diffusion (confusion) | Genital | Formal operations
(11-15 years) |
Postconventional |
Source: Lippincott’s Review Series