Section 05about 5 min · no rush

Human development & human needs

If you have ever wondered whether you are on track, or worried you fell behind, this page is for you.

A counselor reads every client against a map of what is normal for that age and stage. The curriculum asks for three things: the determinants of development, Maslow's hierarchy of needs, and Erikson's eight psychosocial stages.

Determinants of development · Maslow's hierarchy

CTEVT PSC curriculum

Development is driven by four interacting determinants: biological (genes, nutrition, health), cognitive (thinking processes maturing over time), socio-cultural (family, caste/ethnic context, norms, schooling), and environmental (poverty or security, village or city, disaster exposure). Human needs follow a rough order: Maslow's insight is that counselling a hungry, unsafe person about self-esteem skips the floors the building stands on.

Maslow's hierarchy. In psychosocial work the bottom two floors are often the intervention: linking a flood-displaced family to shelter and cash support IS mental health care.

Erikson's eight psychosocial stages

CTEVT PSC curriculum

Each stage is a crisis between two poles; resolving it grows a strength ("virtue"), failing it leaves a hazard the counselor will meet years later. Ages are approximate.

Stage · age	Crisis	Virtue	If it fails: what walks into your room
1 · 0–1½	Trust vs mistrust	Hope	Difficulty trusting anyone: including the counselor
2 · 1½–3	Autonomy vs shame & doubt	Will	Chronic shame, indecision, over-control
3 · 3–5	Initiative vs guilt	Purpose	Guilt at wanting anything for oneself
4 · 6–12	Industry vs inferiority	Competence	"I am not capable": school failure identity
5 · 12–18	Identity vs role confusion	Fidelity	Drift, peer-pressure vulnerability, identity crises
6 · 18–40	Intimacy vs isolation	Love	Loneliness, failed closeness, even inside marriage
7 · 40–65	Generativity vs stagnation	Care	"What is my life for?": midlife emptiness
8 · 65+	Integrity vs despair	Wisdom	Bitterness and despair when looking back

Amina, 4, wants to help her mother cook but is told to sit still. She feels guilty for wanting to contribute. This is Initiative vs. Guilt; the virtue at stake is Purpose.

Test yourself

Three friendly questions to settle what you just read. This is reassurance, not a test: a wrong answer is part of learning, and you can try again.

1) Which Erikson stage is a school-refusing 8-year-old negotiating, and which virtue is at stake?

2) A father abroad for 12 of his son's 15 years: trace the possible impact through stages 1, 4 and 5.

3) Why does Maslow explain the failure of "just counsel her" for a woman in an unsafe marriage?

Key points

Development is shaped by biology, thinking, culture and environment acting together.
Maslow: basic needs (food, safety) come before self-esteem; sometimes shelter and cash are the counselling.
Erikson: each age has a task (trust, autonomy, identity, intimacy...); read the client against their stage.

Quick check

Three friendly questions to settle what you just read. This is reassurance, not a test: a wrong tap is part of learning, and you can try again.

Which Erikson stage is a school-refusing 8-year-old negotiating, and which virtue is at stake?

Why does Maslow explain the failure of "just counsel her" for a woman in an unsafe marriage?

A father abroad for 12 of his son's 15 years: which stages does this affect, and how?

Learn more

Pick one, not all.

Video seriesCrash Course Psychology: the development episodes ("The Growth of Knowledge" and "Monkeys and Morality"): Piaget, attachment and moral development in ~20 min total.

BookErik Erikson, Childhood and Society: ch. 7 ("The Eight Ages of Man"): the original statement of the eight stages, only ~30 pages.

PaperHarlow (1958), "The nature of love": the monkey experiments behind everything we teach about attachment.

This page will still be here tomorrow, and it reads differently once you have met its ideas in real life.