According to Eric Erikson, there are eight different social stages that a person must go through as they grow up. Each stage has a positive and a negative characteristic. If the positive characteristics are met, their future looks bright. So how might the lack of reinforcement of the positive characteristics of Erikson's psychosocial developmental stages affect you? The effects can be quite horrific. Especially if all the stages, the only characteristics fulfilled are the negative aspects. Erikson's first stage was trust versus distrust and it occurred from zero to 18 months. The goal of this step is to establish trust. Erikson believed it was the most important time in a person's life. Since a baby is completely dependent on his or her parents, the care provided plays an important role in how this stage unfolds (Cherry, 2011). If the child can develop trust, he or she will feel safe in the world, but this lack can lead to thinking about an inconsistent and unpredictable world (Cherry, 2011). In the business world, lack of trust can create a whole new problem. Lack of trust can result in “…an invisible cost in life and in business…” as Stephen Covey (2006) puts it. Lack of trust creates “…hidden agendas and guarded communication, which slow down the decision-making process” (Covey, 2006). When there is no trust in a situation, it hinders productivity and innovation (Covey, 2006). The second step is self-reliance against shame and doubt. This happens between approximately 18 months and 3 years of age. The fundamental virtue of this stage is will; can they do things on their own or do they need help from others? Erikson believed that children of this age wanted to develop a greater sense of the past with little or no regrets and would be satisfied overall. If a person fails in this phase, he will feel like he has wasted his life and will only think of regrets. They will feel despair (Cherry, 2011). Erikson's stages of psychosocial development were complex, but simple. This is something that everyone will experience and the experiences will always be different. Failure to reinforce the positive aspects of your internships can lead to real disaster. Surprisingly, the previous steps have a great influence on the next step. Failure to reinforce the positive aspects of one's psychosocial stages can have a very devastating effect on a person. This is because the effects have accumulated instead of substituting for each other. The effects are pretty horrible, but with the right environment, experiences, and beliefs, everything can be okay..