Erik Erison's Stages

I was looking over chapter three and I decided to discuss the stages of psychoanalyst Erik H. Erikson. He believed that all individuals go through eight stages in their lives, and each stage is something that he considered a "crisis" that must be overcome before the individual continues development. Each stage matched with an age group and people have to overcome the obstacles of each stage to continue to develop. The stages are: 1~Trust versus mistrust, 2~Autonomy versus shame and doubt, 3~ Initiative versus guilt, 4~ Competence versus inferiority, 5~ Identity versus role confusion, 6~ Intimacy versus isolation, 7~ Generativity versus stagnation, and 8~Ego integrity versus despair. I'm not going to go into all the details of these stages because I'm sure everyone has read the chapter, but I will say that he believed that it wasn't only the culture people grew up in, but also the society that effected the way people progressed through these stages. I agree in a sense that people develop in stages, but not these exact ones. Everyone does things at their own pace, and since some people learn and grow (both mentally and pysically), at different speeds, then the age groups of each stage may not fit either. Eventually after some more research, Erikson realized that these stages are not "set in stone", meaning that they may occur out of order or at different rates depending on the person and their upbringing. I believe that these stages are important to everyone living in our modern society, but they are not something to base a whole life on. They are just good theories who no one else considered at the time. According to this section of the chapter, Erikson's stages remind us that development is ongoing. Do you believe that there is an end to development? Do you agree with these stages?