In this essay I intend to discuss two psychological theories of development; The psychodynamic approach and the behavioural approach. In order to do this, I will outline each theory and explain how it accounts for psychological development, health and behaviour of the individual. In addition to this, I will explain how an understanding of these theories relates to care and would help a care professional to support an individual in a care setting. The psychodynamic approach lends itself to being a controversial yet highly influential theory in the history of psychology. The theory has become one of the most significant psychological approaches and its originator, Sigmund Freud, has become a major influence in modern psychology. The psychodynamic approach largely focuses on motivation and past experiences which develop and individual’s personality. Freud used the iceberg metaphor to outline the three states of consciousness and argued that only twenty percent of the mind represents the conscious. In addition he theorised that there was a pre-conscious mind which represents general memory. Finally, the unconscious mind which is essentially the reservoir of repressed or hidden experiences and desire. This approach has become the stimulus for a number of similar theories which share the same assumptions on psychological development, yet differ in detail. (Gross, R, 2007) Erik Erikson, a neo-freudian himself accepted Freud’s theory but whereas the psychodynamic approach focuses on five main stages of development until adulthood, Erikson theorised that development is lifelong and continues throughout life until death. (Psychology for A Level 2000) Erikson devised that psychosocial development was split into eight separate ag... ... middle of paper ... ... are determined by the stimuli in the environment we are in. Behaviourists believe that all behaviour is learned and in turn can be unlearned by pinpointing the stimulus which is provoking the behaviour and changing the individuals learned response towards it. Albert Ellis, like Freud was the founding father of cognitive-behavioural psychology and theorised that people’s beliefs strongly affected their emotional functioning. (PsychCentral.com) Ellis believed that beliefs were either positive or negative but having a negative belief was not necessarily a bad thing. When an individual believes in something that is false, however, the belief tends to become what Ellis called an “irrational belief” These beliefs are not healthy for happiness or contentment and Ellis believed he could eliminate these thoughts with his Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT)
However, behaviourists urge that our behaviour is determined by what we learn from our environment. In contrast, the psychodynamic perspective maintains
Psychodynamic theory is a contemporary psychological approach to personality that focuses on the unconscious mind and childhood memories. According to psychologist Sigmund Freud, psychodynamic theory has three main components: the ID, Ego, and Superego. The ID is the instinctive part of personality. It
Development in psychology is the study of changes that occur in human over the course of their life. Studying development of children has been expanding including through adolescent and the entire lifespan. Theorist Piaget and Vygotsky both studied what drives development. Erikson took a different route and studied the psychosocial development of how people feel. All three theorists explains how children learn and what they learn. When looking at the learning process it will also determines their outcome of adulthood. Broken into three topics cognitive, physical, and social development helps each theorist explain their theories.
Both Erik Erikson’s (1963) theory and Mary Ainsworth and John Bowlby (1973) theory support the idea that early life experiences impact the person across their lifespan. Both theories believe that personality begins to develop from a young age and therefore occurrences in early life can have lasting impacts on the developmental of an individual. An individual’s social and psychological development is significantly influenced by early life and childhood experiences. The experiences an individual has as a child impacts on the development of social skills, social behaviours, morals and values of an individual.
Psychosocial development throughout the Life Cycle theory (sometimes known as individual development theory) proposes that each individual has the ability to master their environment at all stages of life (Coady & Lehman, 2008; Hutchison, 2008). The theory had its beginnings in Freud’s psychosexual stages of child development; however Erikson is responsible for laying the groundwork for the theory as it is known today, by proposing an epigenetic model of human development (Hutchison, 2008).
In 2007 simplepsychology.com published the article Psychodynamic Approach, written by Saul McLeod. This article explains the psychodynamic approach to psychology and psychoanalysis created by Sigmund Freud, his collection of theories that formed this approach occurred between 1890 and the 1930’s. His theories were based on what his patients expressed to him during sessions of therapy; a psychodynamic therapist treats people with disorders related to depression or anxiety. Psychodynamic psychology focuses on getting inside the patients head to make sense of their relationships, experiences and how they see the world, rather than focusing on the scientific reasoning behind why or why not someone is doing something. Although the popularity of
Developmental theories are broken up into two perspectives; Life-course, and Latent Trait. These perspectives may answer questions on why juveniles have grown to lead a destructive life-style and why others grow out of their delinquency. Latent trait explains that some tendencies we are may be born with and how important it is to be there for our children. Our parenting skills do have a profound effect on how our children may lack self control or have an impulsive behavior.
Accordingly, many of the theorists have based their studies in respect to biological, behavioral, cognitive and spiritual growth of humans. These aspects have greatly revolutionized the study of human growth across the various cycles. Hence, theorists such Freud, Jung, Erickson Piaget and so forth have formed a base to the various individuals that use their studies for reference and knowledge (Westphal & Bartone 2008). Their theories further focus on the ontogenesis coupled with the dynamics of mastering the various skills and abilities. Furthermore, there is emphasis on the growth of an individual from inception to death. Further, they state that the various difficulties and hurdles that humans face in the cycle are based on their lack of keenness and care on resilience. This concept that was developed in recent years is focused on the various obstacles and the differentiating factors of the cycle of life. From the instance of conception to death these difficulties present themselves. Conclusively, they include inferiority complex, ego inferiority and so forth. These issues span across the various stages of
The psychodynamic theory focuses on the unconscious mind. Freud’s credence is that different mental forces operate in the mind. The unconscious mind can be described as being like an iceberg. The tip of the iceberg represents the part of the mind that is conscious, everyday thoughts. The iceberg just below the water’s surface represents the pre conscious, thoughts and information that can be retrieved easily. And finally the base of the iceberg is the unconscious part of the mind where fears, traumas and bad experiences are contained, almost impossible to retrieve.
Psychosocial development is development on a social realm. Psychosocial development is how one develops their mind, maturity level, and emotions over the course of one’s life. The rate of development depends on different factors such as biological processes as well as environmental factors. A man named Erik Erikson who was a psychoanalyst who believed that early childhood successes and failures were responsible for influencing later developmental stages developed this theory. Erikson’s theory of psychosocial development is based around the theory that social experience has an impact over an entire lifespan. There are eight stages developmental stages of development in the psychosocial theory and I will briefly examine all eight stages in this
The first theory Psychodynamic theory presented by Sigmund Freud, is based on how a person’s self-awareness and understanding of the past on present behavior. Psychody...
Out of the massive contributions made to developmental psychology, no psychologist had made a more significant contribution than Erik Erikson. As a young man, Erikson was highly influenced by the Freud family and their school of thought. However, Erikson disagreed with the Freudian concept of psychosexual stages, the idea that humans undergo stages of development and resolve basic conflicts by physical and pleasurable gratification (Santrock, 22). “According to Freud, the primary motivation for human behavior is sexual in nature according to Erikson, it is social and reflects a desire to affiliate with other people,” (Santrock, 23). Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory is a well rounded view of life- span development, it incorporates important conflicts during each stage of development that most people can relate to and apply to their own development.
In the article Erikson’s psychosocial theory of development it talks about how Erikson focuses and breaks down each developing stage off personality in a persons life. His ideas and thoughts about this were highly influenced by the great Sigmund Freud, however Freud was an id psychologist where as Erikson was an ego psychologist. This meant Erikson glorified the role of culture and society and problems that can take place within the ego, unlike Freud who focused on the conflict between the id and the superego of a person. Erikson came up with a lifespan model of development of taking five stages up to the age of 18 and the three more stages into adulthood. These stages are somewhat guidelines on how to successfully establish
Personality is an individual’s characteristic pattern of feeling, thinking and acting. Psychodynamic theories of personality view human behavior as a dynamic interaction between the conscious mind and unconscious mind, including associated motives and conflicts (Myers & Dewall, pg# 572, 2015). These theories focus on the unconscious and the importance of childhood experiences. Psychodynamic theories are descended from Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis, which is his ideology of personality and the associated treatment techniques. Psychoanalysis attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts. This theory also includes the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to expose and interpret unconscious tensions. He proposed that childhood sexuality and unconscious motivations influence personality. Freud’s historically significant psychoanalytic theory became part of the human cultural legacy.
In conclusion we can safely say that Erikson's psychosocial stages of human development made various contributions to the study of human development. The theory offers a useful framework for analyzing developmental histories. The theory helps create interest and research on human development through the lifespan. It also assists care givers to adopt the correct parenting styles that can yield positive results. Critics of Erikson's theory say that his theory is more applicable to boys than to girls, and that more attention is paid to infancy and childhood than to adult life, despite the claim to be a life-span theory. Critics also say that single words can be misleading and rarely convey much meaning whilst others say that the universality of his theory can and must be questioned.