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Psychology · Chapter 9

Erikson's Stages & Attachment

Erik Erikson mapped the whole lifespan as eight psychosocial stages. Each stage is a tension, or "crisis," between a healthy side and an unhealthy side. Working it out on the healthy side builds a lasting strength, which Erikson called a virtue. Step through all eight. Then use the Strange Situation coder to sort a baby's attachment style.

The psychosocial crisis

Healthy side-
Unhealthy side-
Eight stages across the lifespanpress Next to begin
Age-
Life stage-
Virtue gained-
Eight crisesPress Next to start with infancy.

Strange Situation coder

Mary Ainsworth built on John Bowlby's attachment theory. In her Strange Situation, a one-year-old is briefly separated from a caregiver and then reunited, with a stranger nearby. Pick what the baby does at each step. The coder sorts the pattern, the way a trained observer would. Or load an example baby.
1 · With the caregiver in the room
2 · When the caregiver leaves
3 · When the caregiver comes back
Waiting for your choicesCoders pay the most attention to step 3, the reunion. Pick an answer for each step.