Four-year-old Marcie would like to hide her little brother’s toys in the basement. However, she realizes this will make her brother cry, and she wonders if she will feel bad about this. According to Erikson, Marcie is experiencing the conflict of -

Initiative versus guilt.

Explanation:

Erik Erikson explained the complex nature of human psychological development in his eight stages of psychological development. Initiative versus guilt is the third stage among them and it started around the age of 3 to 5 and children at this stage try to understand the world around them through active participation and therefore working independently. Encouragement at this stage leads to initiate a behavior however an embarrassing situation can lead to feeling of guilt.