Compare And Contrast Freud And Erikson Theories

A theory is a set of statements that describes, explains and predicts human behavior. Development of behavior starts during the prenatal stage up to late adulthood. Three theories that help describe behavior are the perspective of Freud, Erikson and Paget’s. All three theories have several similarities as well as differences. By comparing I hope to gain a better understanding of all three theories. 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. Unlike Freud which only focused on early development Erikson crated eight

“According to Erikson’s theory, every person must pass through a series of eight interrelated stages over the entire life cycle.” (“Erikson’s stages of development,” 2016). An example would be basic trust and mistrust. This stage is from birth up to a year old. A baby develops trust when being held, fed, or simply being touched. If the baby does not develop trust it will result in the baby having insecurity and mistrust. Another example would be identity vs role confusion, this stage is during adolescence. During this age adolescents begin to discover their identity, those who do not begin to try to be like others which is also known as “fitting