Key Takeaways
- Integrity is feeling satisfied with your life and accepting how it was lived.
- Despair involves regret and disappointment when looking back on life.
- People face integrity or despair in their later years by reflecting on their past experiences.
Integrity vs. despair is the eighth and final stage of Erik Erikson’s stage theory of psychosocial development. This stage begins at approximately age 65 and ends at death. Psychologists, counselors, and nurses today use the concepts of Erikson’s stages when caring for aging patients.
As people reflect back on the life they’ve lived, they either find a sense of wisdom and fulfillment (aka integrity) or experience disappointment and regret (despair). This stage of Erikson’s theory is shaped by past experiences, choices, relationships, and meaning that a person has built throughout life. People who can embrace their life story usually find a sense of peace and acceptance as they face the final years of their lives. For those who dwell on mistakes or missed opportunities, this time is often filled with bitterness and resentment.
Verywell / Nusha Ashjaee
Erikson’s theory suggests that people pass through eight distinct developmental stages as they grow and change throughout life. While many developmental theories tend to focus purely on childhood events, Erikson was one of the few theorists to examine development across the entire lifespan. He was also one of the first to view the aging process itself as part of human development.
At each stage of psychosocial development, people face a crisis that acts as a turning point. Successfully resolving the crisis leads to developing a psychological virtue that contributes to overall psychological well-being.
At the integrity versus despair stage, the key conflict centers on questioning whether or not the individual has led a meaningful, satisfying life.
What to Know
- Psychosocial Conflict: Integrity versus despair
- Major Question: “Did I live a meaningful life?”
- Basic Virtue: Wisdom
- Important Event(s): Reflecting back on life
What Is Integrity vs. Despair?
Integrity and despair represent two opposing outcomes in Erikson’s final stage of development. Each one represents a different possibility when it comes to how an individual sees their life and comes to terms with their life experiences.
Integrity vs. despair involves a retrospective look back at life and either feeling satisfied that life was well-lived (integrity) or regretting choices and missed opportunities (despair). To understand this stage, it is essential to learn more about what Erikson meant by integrity and despair.
Integrity, also known as ego integrity, refers to a person’s ability to reflect on their life with a sense of accomplishment and fulfillment. Characteristics of integrity include:
- Acceptance
- A sense of wholeness
- Lack of regret
- Feeling at peace
- A sense of success
- Feelings of wisdom
Despair, according to Erikson, involves looking back on life with feelings of regret, shame, or disappointment. Characteristics of despair include:
- Bitterness
- Regret
- Ruminating over mistakes
- Feeling that life was wasted
- Feeling unproductive
- Depression
- Hopelessness
The integrity versus despair stage begins as the aging adult begins to tackle the problem of his or her mortality. The onset of this stage is often triggered by life events such as retirement, the loss of a spouse, the loss of friends and acquaintances, facing a terminal illness, and other changes to major roles in life.
Recap
During the integrity versus despair stage, people reflect back on the life they have lived and come away with either a sense of fulfillment from a life well lived or a sense of regret and despair over a life misspent.
Integrity Has Many Benefits
By embracing integrity in later life, people are able to foster a deep sense of wisdom, fulfillment, and inner peace. It allows them to look back on their life journey and feel like they’ve lived a meaningful life full of satisfying experiences.
There are many benefits to successfully achieving feelings of integrity at this stage of life. These benefits include:
- Ego integrity: Successfully resolving the crisis at this stage leads to the development of what Erikson referred to as ego integrity.
- Peace and fulfillment: People can look back at their lives with a sense of contentment and face the end of life with a sense of wisdom and no regrets.
- Wisdom: Erikson defined this wisdom as an “informed and detached concern with life itself even in the face of death itself.”
Those who feel proud of their accomplishments will feel a sense of integrity. Completing this phase means looking back with few regrets and a general feeling of satisfaction. These individuals will attain wisdom, even when confronting death.
Despair Has Serious Consequences
Despair can have serious consequences for a person’s health and well-being as they face the end of life. When this feeling takes hold, it can lead to feelings of anger, bitterness, and hopelessness. It makes it harder for people to find satisfaction and peace during their later years. Research suggests that ego integrity and despair are critical developmental indicators of well-being for people over the age of 65.
Some of the consequences of despair include:
- Increased depressive symptoms: Feelings of despair at this stage of life can be marked by feelings of low mood, hopelessness, sadness, and feelings of worthlessness, which are also symptoms of depression.
- Increased regret: People who look back on their lives with despair are more likely to ruminate over mistakes and feel regret for the life they have lived.
- Decreased life satisfaction: When people feel despair at this stage, they are less likely to feel satisfied with their lives going forward. This can have an effect on their ability to cope with stress and decrease their resilience at the end of life.
Older adults face many challenges during this time of their lives. They often experience periods of bereavement, including the loss of spouses and long-time friends. They may struggle more with health problems, changes in their ability to care for themselves, and increased loneliness. Those who experience despair in this stage are less equipped to cope with such challenges.
Those who are unsuccessful during this phase will feel that their life has been wasted and will experience many regrets. The individual will be left with feelings of bitterness and despair.
What Causes Integrity vs. Despair, Exactly?
Integrity and despair are shaped by a lifetime of experiences and personal reflections. But it’s not just about the events of our lives; it’s also about the meaning that we assign to these events and relationships.
Several different factors can influence the integrity versus despair stage of psychosocial development. Some factors that influence the outcome of this stage include:
- Family: Supportive relationships are important for well-being and health all throughout life, and play an essential part in the development of integrity and wisdom.
- Work: People who feel a sense of pride in their work and accomplishments are more likely to experience feelings of fulfillment at this stage of life.
- Contributions: Those who reach this stage feeling that they have made valuable contributions to the world are more likely to achieve a sense of integrity. This often involves contributing to things that will outlast them through their children, friendships, mentorships, work, or community involvement.
How to Improve Integrity
This stage of psychosocial development often depends on many of the events that occurred during earlier periods of life. However, there are things that you can do to help develop a greater sense of ego integrity as you age.
- Start early: The things you do during middle age will play a role in your feelings about life as you age. Focus on doing things that will support your emotional wellness as you grow older, such as getting involved in your community and strengthening relationships to ensure you have a strong social support network.
- Seek meaningful relationships: High-quality relationships with people you care about and who care about you are important. Focus on those relationships and work on making peace with relationships that may not be as strong.
- Reframe your thinking: Rather than ruminating over regrets or wishing you could change the past, focus on reframing how you think about those events. For example, you might focus on what you learned from those experiences rather than dwelling on what you wish you could do differently.
- Practice gratitude: Focus on the positive aspects of your life rather than paying excessive attention to the negative.
Research has found that while all the previous stages impact later development, the stage immediately preceding integrity vs. despair (aka generativity vs. stagnation) has the most significant effect on later life outcomes. That means even if there are things in your youth that you regret or wish you could change, making positive adjustments during adulthood is what’s going to have the greatest influence on how you feel about your life in the final stage of development.
If there are things you want to accomplish or believe will give your life meaning, start taking steps *now* to make them happen.
How to Decrease Despair
If you find yourself experiencing a sense of despair as you age, there are steps that you can take to improve your well-being. Some of the steps you can take include:
- Reach out to others: Focus on building social support. Discussing your feelings with friends and family can help, or look for new connections by participating in community groups or organizations.
- Focus on the positive: Think about the memories and events that brought you feelings of pride and happiness.
- Explore new experiences: Seek out activities that bring you pleasure and joy in the here-and-now.
- Engage in spiritual practice: Find ways to explore your spirituality, which may help bring feelings of peace and well-being.
- Get help: If you continue to struggle with feelings of despair, consider talking to your doctor or mental health professional. You may be experiencing symptoms of a condition such as depression or anxiety. Your doctor can recommend treatments that will help.
Verywell Mind uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
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Additional Reading
Erikson EH. The Life Cycle Completed; 1982.
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