22.6 Stages of emotional development

There must be appropriate loves and emotions in every cognitive stage in order to provide the purpose and motivation for thinking through all those cognitive details. Supporting evidence for the general validity of the theistic structure is therefore available when emotional as well as cognitive stages are structured in suitable way. Such emotional development is always directly related to the various loves which are in the foreground of operations at each stage. We are not like computers, driven to think without feeling or consciousness. In our minds, even the very smallest processes require the combined contributions of love and wisdom. Equivalently, we require emotions and thoughts. Or equivalently again, we require substance and form.^22.5Let us consider emotional development in more detail.

Table 22.4: Eight stages of psychosocial development, according to (Erikson 1956)

1. Oral-Sensory	Birth to 12 to 18 months	Trust vs. Mistrust	Feeding	The infant must form a first loving, trusting relationship with the caregiver, or develop a sense of mistrust.
2. Muscular-Anal	18 months to 3 years	Autonomy vs. Shame / Doubt	Toilet training	The child’s energies are directed toward the development of physical skills, including walking, grasping, and sphincter control.
3. Locomotor	3 to 6 years	Initiative vs. Guilt	Independence	The child continues to become more assertive and to take more initiative, but may be too forceful, leading to guilt feelings.
4. Latency	6 to 12 years	Industry vs. Inferiority	School	The child must deal with demands to learn new skills or risk a sense of inferiority, failure and incompetence.
5. Adolescence	12 to 18 years	Identity vs. Role Confusion	Peer relationships	The teenager must achieve a sense of identity in occupation, sex roles, politics, and religion.
6. Young Adulthood	19 to 40 years	Intimacy vs. Isolation	Love relationships	The young adult must develop intimate relationships or suffer feelings of isolation.
7. Middle Adulthood	40 to 65 years	Generativity vs. Stagnation	Parenting	Each adult must find some way to satisfy and support the next generation.
8. Maturity	65 to death	Ego Integrity vs. Despair	Reflection on & acceptance of one’s life	The culmination is a sense of oneself as one is, and of feeling fulfilled.

Table 22.5: The nine extended Erikson stages of psychosocial development, arranged in a 3-by-3 grid, after (Gowan 1972). The ages are only approximate and descriptive.

CREATIVITY
2 thou

THE OTHER

IDENTITY
1 I, me

THE EGO

LATENCY
3 it, they

THE WORLD

ADULT

Erikson

Age

9 (AGAPE-LOVE)

old age

8 EGO-INTEGRITY

Renunciation-wisdom

40 - 65

7 GENERATIVITY

Production-care

26-40 (?)

YOUTH

Erikson

Piaget

Erikson

Age

6 INTIMACY

(Creativity)

Love-affiliation

18-25

5 IDENTITY

Formal operations

Devotion-fidelity

13-17

4 INDUSTRY

Concrete operations

Method-competence

7-12

INFANT

Erikson

Piaget

Erikson

Age

3 INITIATIVE

Intuitive

Direction-purpose

4-6

2 AUTONOMY

Pre-operational

Self-control-willpower

2-3

1 TRUST

Sensorimotor

Drive-hope

0-1

The most useful classification of emotional development is that of Erik Erikson (1956) as displayed in Table 22.4. I now argue, with his widow Joan Serson Erikson (in Erikson and Erikson (1997)), for a ninth stage (old age), along with moving forward the years of young-adulthood to 19-25, middle-adulthood to 25-40, and maturity to 40-65, leaving old age for years 65 and beyond.

Table 22.6: A renaming for theistic science of the nine (extended) Erikson levels of psychosocial development, by a modification of Table 22.5. The cognitive content of level 6 has been changed from ‘creativity’ as suggested by Gowan, to ‘systematic’ as proposed by (Commons 2008). The numerical labels have been changed to the decimal system used in this book to describe sub-parts of degrees.

		LOVE 2 thou THE WILL	THOUGHT 1 I, me THE INTELLECT	ACTION 3 it, they THE WORLD
HIGHER RATIONAL	Erikson Erikson	2.11 AGAPE-LOVE	2.12 EGO-INTEGRITY Renunciation-wisdom	2.13 GENERATIVITY Production-care
SCIENTIFIC RATIONAL	Erikson Piaget Erikson	2.21 INTIMACY Systematic Love-affiliation	2.22 IDENTITY Formal operations Devotion-fidelity	2.23 INDUSTRY Concrete operations Method-competence
EXTERNAL MIND	Erikson Piaget Erikson	2.31 INITIATIVE Intuitive Direction-purpose	2.32 AUTONOMY Pre-operational Self-control-willpower	2.33 TRUST Sensorimotor Drive-hope

I agree with the observation of Gowan (1972) that these (now) nine stages can be usefully arranged in a 3-by-3 grid, as in Table 22.5. Let us examine separately the columns and rows of this new ennead and see what is common within the elements of these. The third column, labeled ‘latency’, is clearly concerned with actions in the world. The middle column is labeled ‘identity’ but is in all rows concerned with thinking and preparation of means. The first column, labeled ‘creativity’, is in all rows concerned with love, purpose and initiative. The three rows can again be readily identified with the three stages of mentality as displayed in Table 22.3. The lowest row concerns the outermost actions in the world, the middle row concerns the development of thought and autonomy, and the first row concerns the application of wisdom and love in our life. This suggests that Table 22.5 should, within our theistic science, be rewritten as the levels of Table 22.6. Here, the cognitive content of level 6 has been changed from ‘creativity’ as (suggested by Gowan (1972)), to ‘systematic’ (as proposed by Commons (2008a)) and the numerical labels have been changed to the decimal system used in this book to describe sub-parts of degrees. I claim that the excellent agreement of this new version with what should be expected within theistic science is good evidential support for the project of theistic science (noting, of course, that evidence is best taken from specific observations).