Comparing Theories of Development (Essay Sample)

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Psychoanalytic Theories. These theories explain development as fundamentally unconscious and at large extent colored by emotions. Psychosexual Theory expounds that the behavior is purely a watchable characteristic and to recognize development requires analyzing the emblematic meaning of behavior and even understanding inner working of the mind. Sigmund Freud expounded that the behavior of today comes due to experiences we go through in early lives. He believes that children go through stages as they grow. At early stages, the child focuses on pleasure and sexual impulses shifts from oral to anus and finally to genitals. Freud formulated five stages of psychosexual development that was oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Freud argued that the extent at which we solve conflicts at each phase can highly determine the personality of the individual. Psychosocial theory According to this theory, social is the primary motives of behavior. The theory indicates that both early and later experiences shape the personality of a person. Erikson emphasizes eight stages that a person goes through and at each phase there are a unique developmental undertaking that face individual with a crisis that need solutions. According to Erikson, these crises are not a cataclysm, but the turning point marked by both increased susceptibility and enhanced potentials. Erikson emphasized that the more successfully an individual deals with the crises, the healthier development will be (Feldman, R. 2011).
Similarity between Freud and Erikson Theory The two theories emphasize that personality develops in a series of predetermined stages. Freud and Erikson believed that individuals shape behavior according to how they solve the crisis in a particular phase. Both theorists acquainted the importance of the unconscious on development. They also both separate development into stages of a person's life and utilize similar age divisions for these developmental stages. The difference between Freud and Erikson theory Freud's psychosexual theory puts more weight on basi...