Final answer:
Erik Erikson's theory of personality development asserts that how we resolve crises at each of the eight psychosocial stages determines our personality development, with successful resolution leading to competence and a healthy personality.
Step-by-step explanation:
Psychologist Erik Erikson's theory of personality development includes eight stages, each characterized by a specific crisis that the individual must resolve. The correct statement about his description of a crisis is: How we resolve the crisis determines the direction our personality develops.
Erikson's stages begin in infancy and continue through late adulthood. Unlike Freud's theory, which emphasized psychosexual stages, Erikson's theory focuses on psychosocial aspects, asserting that personality evolves throughout one's life due to the interactions and conflicts between personal needs and societal expectations.
At each stage, there is a developmental task, and resolving it successfully leads to a sense of competence and aids in forming a healthy personality. Failure to master these tasks results in feelings of inadequacy.
Erikson's theory extends beyond childhood, proposing that personality development is influenced at all ages by the resolution of these psychosocial crises. These crises do not interrupt the natural development of personality but instead are essential moments that contribute to personality formation and growth.