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Henry (age 7-months) is a difficult baby who cries more than 6 hours of the day, and often does not respond to his parent's attempts to soothe him. Due to his irritability, his parents are conflicted over whether or not to soothe him at night when he cries, and decide to allow him to soothe himself rather than intervene. The crisis of this stage is the development of trust in Henry's environment and support system versus or the development of a lack of trust in the world. -
Henry (10-years-old) struggles to read, and performs poorly in school. Rather than providing additional support, Henry's father excessively critiques Henry's attempts at reading, leading to Henry feeling a lack of confidence in his ability to accomplish tasks. The main crisis of this period of development is the establishment of a sense of industry, or ability to accomplish necessary tasks, over succumbing to a sense of insufficiency or inability.
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Henry (now 17) experiences confusion about his role in society. He doubts his ability for accomplishment due to his parent's lack of support in the industry vs inferiority stage, and his parent's continued judgment of his choices, demands that he follow their plans, and lack of responsiveness to his perspective has lead him to reject their plans in order to spend time with friends and party. The primary crisis in this period of development defining an identity rooted in appropriate relation.