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statements need to be scrutinized with moral development
in mind.

Social-Emotional Development

Social-emotional development is the
foundation upon which all healthy
relationships are built. It is linked to
early development and attachment
(see chapter on attachment). It is about the child's

experience with relatedness during early caregiving years
and about "give and take" experiences. It is associated with
the ability to form trusting relationships during a time when
the brain is undergoing the most dramatic growth. As basic
motor abilities form, language comes on-line, thinking gets
more complex and children begin to understand their own
feelings and of those of others.

Erikson (1950, 1959, 1968) developed a theory that
identifies eight stages in which a healthy developing person
passes through from infancy to late adulthood. It is thought
that all stages are present at birth but only begin to unfold
with one's ecological and cultural upbringing. At each stage,
the person confronts and hopefully masters new
challenges. Each stage builds on the successful completion
of the earlier one. It is theorized that if one does not meet
the challenge of a stage in a positive way, that stage will
reappear later as a social-emotional problem. If mastery of
a stage does not occur, one can move to the next stage and
be modified later.

Each stage is characterized by a psychosocial crisis of two
conflicting forces. If an individual does indeed successfully