In 1905 Sigmund Freud theorized that childhood development happens in stages, which are called “Psychosexual Development Stages.” In 1950 Erik Erikson developed “Psychosocial Stages,” which are greatly influenced by Freud’s theories. Freud’s theory centers on psychosexual energy or the libido. Erickson’s theory centers on issues and tasks being met at specific ages. Even though we are sexual beings, our developmental stages do not focus entirely on sexual pleasures. Both theories do show that personality develops in stages. Although, Erickson’s theory is the better theory.
A few differences, is Freud’s theory focuses on sexual pleasure, and when failure occurs the individual becomes fixated on that failure, which could lead to personality disorders. Erickson’s theory centers on tasks, and issues needing to be completed at specific ages. He believed that if one fails to complete a stage successfully, they move on to the next stage with remnants of the previous stage. Those unfinished remnants, could follow an individual into adulthood and lead to problems in relationships, both with partners and with children that they conceive.
The first stage is age’s birth through one. Freud calls this stage the Oral Stage. The main source of pleasure is derived through the mouth such as eating, sucking, and tasting. The child can develop trust with the caregiver since they are the source of feeding the child. McLeod said, “Freud said oral stimulation could lead to an oral fixation in later life. We see oral personalities all around us such as smokers, nail-biters, finger-chewers, and thumb suckers” (McLeod 11). Erickson calls this stage trust vs. mistrust. This is one of the most important stages in a child’s life. The chil...
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...pped it will not necessarily scar us for life. If a part is skipped in Erikson’s theory, it could lead to mental issues, like depression or psychosis. The whole person concept as both base and mental is a necessary part of development. That is what makes Erikson’s theory better.
Works Cited
McLeod, Saul. "Erik Erikson." Psychosocial Stages - Simply Psychology. N.p., 2008. Web. 5 Oct 2013. .
McLeod, Saul. “Psychosexual Stages.” Psychosexual Stages-Simply Psychology. N.p., 2008 Web 25 Oct 2013. .
Boeree, Dr. C. George “Erik Erikson.” Psychology Department at Suny Stony Brook University N.p., 2007. Web. 29 Oct 2013.
Erikson, Erik H. Childhood and Society. New York: Norton, 1950 Print.
“ By the late 1930s, he had outlined four developmental stages-infancy (oral, anal, genital), latency, puberty, and adult heterosexual adjustment.”(Capps, 2004) Erikson wanted to build on Freud's early psychosexual stages by adding psychosocial stages that covered the full life cycle. In Erikson's opinion Shakespeare had risen above Freud in developmental matters because Shakespeare had covered development from infancy till death and he also believed that Shakespeare's stages were represented in social-ethical terms rather than sexual. Erikson wanted to go beyond Freud and Shakespeare in the developmental process. Although without Freuds model of psychosexual stages Erik Erikson believed that he would never have been able to create his own life cycle schema. With the addition of the eighth stage Erik Eriksons original life cycle work was taking on creative new dimensions. Erikson himself thought that he was only beginning to get a sense of the vast complexity of human life and it upset him when people attempted to describe human life in general limited terms. In Eriksons opinion human life was complex and had no limits. In Eriksons life cycle schema he insisted that all stages of development are present from birth and remain thoughout an individuals life time. It was not very clear
Through case study, the psychodynamic approach was developed by Sigmund Freud. Freud visited Charcot’s, a laboratory in Paris investigating people suffering from hysteria. There, Freud began patient case studies (Crain, p. 254). Freud developed 5 stages of human development known as the Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency and Genital stages. The Oral stage is from the ages of birth to 18 months. This stage engages in oral activities such as sucking. Next the Anal stage begins around age 18 months to 3 years of age. Freud suggests that during the Anal stage a child focuses on the pleasure of purging from the rectal area. The Phallic stages, none as the masturbation stage, when a child get’s pleasure from focusing on his genital areas usually happens during ages 3 years to 6 years of age. After the Phallic stage come the Latency stages. Latency is when children at the ages of 6 to 12 years old work to develop cognitive and interpersonal skills suppressing sexual interests but those 12 years and older fall into the Genital stages. During the Genital stage those suppressed sexual interests re-occur and the need to find gratification dependent on finding a partner (Craig & Dunn, p 12)
82). As human beings, we are constantly encountering and resolving conflict events, which Erikson called developmental crisis. The approach we take to resolve these crises depends on the influences that are around us and the actions that we take. After examining each stage and my experiences with each one, I feel as if I have a better understanding of how I became the person I am today. My parents, family members, teachers, and coaches, along with all of the other people in my life, have helped me to create an identity for myself as I have moved through the stages of psychosocial development. Analyzing Erikson’s theory in this manner has granted me a better understanding of psychosocial development, which will be invaluable for my future career as an
Gall, S. B., Beins, B., & Feldman, A. (2001). The gale encyclopedia of psychology. (2nd ed., pp. 271-273). Detroit, MI: Gale Group.
Erikson’s stages of psychosocial development were complex, but simple. It is something everyone will go through and experiences will always be different. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his stages can lead to quite a disaster. Surprisingly, previous stages are highly influential to the proceeding stage. The lack of reinforcement to the positive aspects of his psychosocial stages can have a very devastating effect on a person. This is because the effects built up rather than taking the place of one another. The effects are quite horrifying, but with the right environment, experiences and beliefs, everything can go well.
The first stage is infancy and it covers the first year of life. The issue in this stage is trust versus mistrust. This is a stage where an infant is completely dependent on their caregiver. Trust is built by the actions of the caregiver taking care of the child by feeding, bathing, changing diapers, showing affection, etc. If a child is not well taken care of then that child will not learn to trust others. New parents struggle with this stage a lot because of the loss of freedom and the diversion of some attention from spouse to newborn child. It is known as the oral-sensory stage because infants use their mouth to explore their new world. Parents must meet the
Both Freud and Erikson theories are based on the psychoanalytic theory which according to Kathleen Berger is “a grand theory of human development that holds that irrational, unconsicious drives and motives, often originating in childhood, underlie human behavior.
His belief was that each human developed their own personality through a series of stages and these stages developed due to the social experiences that one experienced through life. According to Erikson, there are eight stages and each stage centers around a conflict that has to be resolved. Under Erikson’s theory, if conflict or crisis is not resolved, then the outcome will be more crisis and struggles with that issue later on in life (Domino & Affonso, 2011).
The first stage occurs in the first year of birth from infancy to a year and a half and is the trust versus mistrust stage. During this stage the world is an uncertain place and the infant looks to the primary caregiver for stability,
In short, both approaches showed different stages and their own missions in the life cycle of human development. Freud’s approach is more on sexual behavior and the characteristics that we born with, while Erikson’s theory is based on what we are nurtured and taught to be. They both help us to understand the basic idea of identity formation. However, there is weakness of the theory, there is no standardized conditions that can prove whether people has succeeded in a particular stage, it is really depending on personal levels of self-understanding.
Freud emphasizes on the life history of individuals. As a result, he created 3 parts of human personalities. The first one being Id which is the largest portion of the mind. This portion is unconscious which results in being present at birth. The next one is ego; this portion is conscious and begins to emerge in early infancy. Lastly is superego which is the conscience. This part begins to develop from ages three to six. Freud also explains the five psychosexual stages which are oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. “Psychoanalytic theory suggested that personality is mostly established by the age of five.” (Cherry, n.d.). All five psychosexual stages help establish a personality at a young age.
The psychodynamic theory encompasses both Freud and Erikson. Freud believed the three components of personality were the id, the ego, and the superego. The id is responsible for all needs and urges, while the superego for ideals and moral. The ego moderates between the demands of the id, the superego, and reality. However, Erikson believed that personality progressed through a series of stages, with certain conflicts arising at each stage. Success in any stage depended upon successfully overcoming these conflicts. The advantage to psychodynamic is that it encompasses the individual, meaning that the theory looks at personality from childhood all the way into adulthood. The disadvantages of this theory are that it cannot be tested validly. Therefore,
Developmental psychology is an area of research dedicated to the understanding of child-development. Throughout history many theories have been used to attempt to explain the complex process. Two of those theorists, Freud and Erikson, were instrumental in creating a foundation for child-psychology to build on. From a Freudian perspective, human development is centered on psychosexual theory. Psychosexual theory indicates that maturation of the sex drives underlies stages of personality development. Alternatively, Erikson is considered a neo-freudian scholar who developed psychosocial theory. In Erikson models there are eight major conflicts that occur during the course of an individual’s life.
Erik Erikson was influenced by Freud and his concept of the ego. Erikson observed the impact of external factors on personality from not just childhood, but throughout the entire lifetime. He developed eight stages, which are split into different age brackets. As an individual passes through these stages, they must successfully complete the crisis to move forward onto the next one.
Erikson’s developmental theory was very detailed as compared to Freud. His theory describes the influence of social experiences in one’s life; however Freud described development based on sexuality. Another major difference between Freud and Erikson’s developmental theory is the end result of the stages. Freud believed that when fixation occurs in one stage, the problems occur associated with that stage would be permanent. However Erikson claims that the outcome of a particular stage is temporary and can be altered by experiences in later years.