Six-year-old Melanie is an enthusiastic child looking forward to first grade. According to Erikson's socioemotional developmental theory, she is in the versus stage of development.

Industry vs. Inferiority stage.

Explanation:

Erik Erikson was a psychologist who developed a theory of psychosocial development. According to this theory, people go through a series of different stages, in form of crisis, along their whole lifespan.

The fourth stage in this theory is called Industry vs. Inferiority and it happens between ages five and twelve.

During this stage, kids are starting to go to elementary school and other peers opinions have a lot of importance and influence the child's self-esteem. He will get approval from them and gain a sense of pride in what he accomplish.

In this example, Melanie is six years old and she looks forward to first grade. We can observe that, because of her age, she must be in the Industry vs. Inferiority stage.