Which of the following is a major proponent associated with Ego Psychology?

• A. Sigmund Freud
• B. Erik Erikson
• C. B.F. Skinner
• D. Carl Rogers

Answer: (B)

Ego Psychology focuses on the ego as the adaptive, reality-testing part of the psyche that guides behavior and development in social contexts. Erik Erikson is the figure who most clearly embodies this approach by expanding development beyond internal drives to a lifelong, psychosocial perspective. He proposed eight stages spanning the entire life, each with a central crisis whose successful resolution builds a lasting ego strength or virtue—trust and hope in infancy, autonomy and will in early childhood, industry and competence in school age, and so on up to integrity in old age. This emphasis on how the ego grows through social experiences and cultural context is the core idea of Ego Psychology, and Erikson’s theory became the defining articulation of it. Freud laid important groundwork in psychoanalysis, but his focus is more on intrapsychic drives, whereas Erikson centers the ego’s ongoing development across the lifespan. Skinner represents behaviorism, and Rogers centers on self-concept in therapy rather than ego-focused development.