# 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

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

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.

Key points

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

Pick one, not all.

Video series[Crash Course Psychology: the development episodes ("The Growth of Knowledge" and "Monkeys and Morality")](https://thecrashcourse.com/topic/psychology/): Piaget, attachment and moral development in ~20 min total.

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

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


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*Source: https://manoatlas.com/development · Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Mano Atlas is an educational resource, not a diagnostic tool.*