Adult+Stages

__ Stage 6: Young Adulthood __ This stage is characterized by the two poles of Intimacy vs. Isolation and represents individuals who are between the ages of 20-35. During the earlier stages, strengths allowed the opposing genders to merge in cooperative communication. For example, teens who are “in love” see themselves as being reflected in another idealized other, but do not actively attempt to try and distinguish themselves from the other person. During this stage though, biological differences come to the forefront and so that genders that are similar in language and consciousness become different in the "mature quest" for procreation and love. One pole of this stage is intimacy, which is seen as the ability to fuse your identity with another individual’s without the fear that you will be losing something yourself within the process. With this broad definition in mind, Erikson foresaw new theories pertaining to marital success. He believed that intimacy is what makes possible a truly meaningful marriage. Isolation is the other pole in the crisis within this stage. It is characterized by the failure to gain close and cooperative relationships with the same and especially the opposing gender, such that partners’ identities are important to the other individual, but also separate and discrete from one’s own. Isolation hinders the individual to “infantile fixations and prevailing immature tendencies, which interfere with work and love. Intimacy brings the strength of this period where love is seen as the guardian of cultural and personal style, which bonds the affiliations of competition and cooperation for example, into a “way of life.”

__ Stage 7: Mature Adulthood __

The crisis at this stage is generativity vs. stagnation. Within this stage, an individual begins to take one’s place in society and to also help in the development of whatever it is that society produces. Individuals within this stage are 60-75 years old according to Erikson and it is during the maturity of adulthood that the accumulation of wisdom leads to the assumption of the “teacher” role. During this stage is where individuals strive for generativity, which is defined as the concern for establishing and guiding the next generation. The failure of this pole leads to stagnation, which is the arrest of the ripening process that is characterized as the inability to channel previous development into the creation of the next generation. Inevitably, the failure of this pole comes through in the next generation as the “aggravation of estrangements” in childhood, adolescence and early adulthood. Care, which is described as the strength of maturity is the driving force behind the utilization of methods that are proven, which help to meet the needs of the next generation.

__ Stage 8: Old Age __ The crisis at this time, which is age 75 till death focuses on contributing to the continuity of the human condition versus distraction. The poles for this stage are associated with wholeness and completeness vs. disintegration and defeat. Integrity is described as “an emotional integration faithful to the image bearers of the past and ready to take leadership in the present.” Integrity is the continuity that comes from having a solid foundation from the past, which contributes to the present and then will project into the future. A lack of resolution in this stage leads to despair, which is a feeling that time is too short for the attainment of integrity and the subsequent contributions to the connection between other generations. Despair can lead to bitterness and eventually leads to psychological death. The strength that comes from this crisis is wisdom, which is a “detached and yet active concern with life in the face of death.” With wisdom, individuals are able to accept death and one’s role is then assured. The main point within this stage is a developmental one, where only in old age can true wisdom actually develop in those who are gifted in that sense. In old age, some wisdom must develop further, if only to the extent that an old person comes to appreciate and typify the "wisdom of ages."