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Dominance of Guilt Erik Erickson's theory of psychosocial development (Santrock and Yussen, 1987) offers a perspective on a child's social development. Erickson proposed that social development is the result of the interaction between internal biological forces and external cultural pressures. As such, he proposed eight stages of development throughout the life span. The conflicts one experiences at each stage can be resolved in either a positive (adaptive) or negative (mal-adaptive) way. The individual is provided with a "sensitive period" in which to successfully resolve each crisis before a new crisis is presented. I think that the various conflicts Pip goes through and retrospectively describes in Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations are the same psychosocial conflicts Erickson argues everyone experiences. The first chapters of the novel represent Erikson’s third stage of psychosocial development, Initiative vs. guilt. In this stage children take on new tasks and play, and feel guilty when their activities result in failure or criticism, the child learns what he/she can control and develops a sense of free will or a corresponding sense of regret and sorrow for inappropriate use of self-control. The book begins with