The first stage of Erikson’s psychosocial theory is trust versus mistrust, which takes place during infancy, from birth to approximately 18 months old. During this stage babies will either trust that that their basic needs will be cared for or they will develop mistrust about the care of others (Berger, 2014, p.24). Piaget’s first stage of cognitive theory is sensorimotor, which takes place from birth to approximately two years of age. Piaget breaks down sensorimotor into six stages. …show more content…
The easiest difference to see is that psychosocial theory has eight stages where cognitive theory only has four. Another difference is Piaget felt that learning declined with age, and Erikson’s view was that everyone experiences a series of psychosocial crises as they mature. Erikson believes that a person will face each developmental crisis and may not resolve crisis, but can pass to the next stage, where Piaget believes if person does not pass previous developmental stage they will never achieve complete maturation. Per Light (1973), ”Piaget treats affective development as an adjunct to cognitive development, while Erikson deals with affective development in its own