Introduction
From the time one is born, the infant begins to constantly change throughout his or her’s life. Human development occurs at different stages, throughout the life span. A child will experience many milestones from birth to toddlerhood, throughout early and middle childhood, and several theories for these milestones. Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, and Erik Erikson classify their different theories of the stages of life in three unique domains: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial/emotional.
Infancy/Toddlerhood (0-3) and Domain Physical
The physical domain of lifespan development is continually changing the human body physically throughout one’s life time. During the infancy and toddlerhood, these physical changes happen very rapidly and permit human growth, developing teeth, and motor skills. While babysitting my two year old cousin that I have helped with since she was three months old, I have learned that this stage in life is the most rapid part of the physical domain. This is because at three months my cousin, Brileigh, was totally dependent. Several months down the road she was still mostly dependent but, Brileigh was starting to help hold her bottle. Before too long she was learning to talk and walk. Now, at the age of two she can walk, run, talk, climb, and is very independent. Every time I see Brileigh, I am amazed at how much she learns within a day to a week’s time. Sigmund Freud observed different stages of childhood development and gave each stage a name in accordance to the child’s body. This research became known as psychosexual development. The stages are given an age range then a title of a particular body part. Birth to one year is the oral stage, one to three is the anal stage, three to six...
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... and psychosocial flow so perfectly into one another. Although, we have this freedom, like anything else, it can go wrong if one is not taking on the responsibilities he or she is supposed to have; in this case one’s child. If humans could follow these theories and stages there would not be such a huge rate in abused, abandoned, and neglected children. Some of these children grow up to do the same thing to his or her children, as their parents done to them.
Works Cited
Garcia, J. L. (1995). Journal of Counseling and Development. Freud's Pyschosexual Stage Conception: A Developmental Metaphor For Counselors.
Ginsburg, H. J. (1992). Childhood Injuries and Erikson's Psychosocial Stages. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 95-100.
Papalia, D. E., & Feldman, R. D. (2012). Experience Human Development Twelfth Edition. New York: McGraw - Hill.
The two important psychoanalytic theories on human development are psychosexual development theory by Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson’s psychosocial development theory. Many researchers use these two major approaches to analyze the human development in different stages of life. Since Freud’s approach was the foundation of Erikson’s psychosocial theory, there are many similarities between them. Even though they are both focusing on phases of life, there are still some differences on the definitions and ideas of life stages. In this paper, I will concentrate on Freud and Erikson’s ideas of different stages of human development because these two approaches always come together and they are mostly overlapping. Yet, there are divergences and transformations between all the stages.
Crandell, Thomas. Crandell, Corinne Haines. Zanden, James W. Vander. (2009). Human Development. New York: McGraw-Hill.
The oral stage takes place from birth until age 1, which involves the infant’s mouth as the focus of gratification derived from the pleasure of oral exploration of his or her environment and receiving primary nourishment from one’s mother’s breast. In addition to this, the anal phase takes place from age 1 until age 3, which involves the infant’s more erotic zone changing from the mouth to the anus. Finally, the phallic stage takes place from age 3 until age 6, which involves the child’s genitalia becoming his or her primary aphrodisiacal zone. It is in this third infantile development stage that children become aware of their bodies and the bodies of others. They gratify physical curiosity by undressing and exploring each other and their genitals, and so learn the physical and sexual differences between genders. These stages reflect base levels of desire, but they also involve fear of loss and mistreatment. To keep all of this conflict buried in one’s unconscious, Freud argued that one develops defenses: selective perception, selective memory, denial, displacement, projection, regression, fear of intimacy, and fear of death, among
Numerous advances led to Sigmund Freud’s inspirational Stages of Psychosexual Development, and it was Freud that introduced a clear theory explaining the process by which infants develop into adults. The transition from the Oral, Anal and Phallic stages begins to help us understand some of the processes that might lead to understanding attachment issues. Freud argued that humans are born “polymorphously perverse,” the idea that any number of objects could be a source of pleasure. While relief from stress observed in a child might be interpreted as simply the absence of emotional pain, on a deeper level, re-attachment and physical closeness to a caregiver after prolonged separation should result in a pleasurable experience. Setting aside for the moment the sexual aspects of Freud’s theory, the basis of his premise remains one of the human connection that is gained through some form of physical contact, be it obtained from others or themselves. (Stevenson, 2001)
Theorists such as Jean Piaget, Lev Vygotsky, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, and Lawrence Kohlberg have studied and documented information about the stages of childhood development. The three main stages of childhood development are early childhood, middle childhood and adolescence. Each stage contains developmental behaviors and characteristics of different age groups. However, the childhood development stage that this paper is focus on is the middle childhood stage. During this phase in a child’s life, they go through a variety of changes. Such changes include; physical, cognitive, social and emotional changes. According to this course text, HDEV (2010), middle childhood comprises children between the ages of 6 to 12 years. In addition, in relation to the information that is presented in this text about the
Erikson’s theory, developed in 1963, supports the idea that early life experiences impact an individual across their lifespan. This theory considers that the growth of an individual is a result of interaction with the environment, biological maturation and societal influences, therefore, allowing for experiences from early life, to influence an individual throughout their lifespan (White, Hayes, and Livesey, 2009). Erikson’s theory focuses on eight different developmental stages within a lifespan and in order to progress from one stage to another, an individual must overcome a potential crisis of two opposing forces at each stage. There are two types of resolution of each stage, successful and unsuccessful. If an individual is
Erik Erikson, born June 15th, 1902 in Frankfurt, Germany was a developmental theorist who proposed a “comprehensive psychoanalytic theory that identifies a series of eight stages, in which a healthy developing individual should pass through from infancy to late adulthood”. After developing what is a crucial theory to revealing the developmental process of children, Erikson died on May 12th, 1994 at age 91 in Harwich, Massachusetts. His theory would later become an important contribution to the study of childhood education. Along with his theory, he wrote many books as well as won two awards including the Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Award in 1970.
Erikson believes a person’s personality changes throughout their lifespan and primarily focuses on ego. Furthermore, ego is a person’s sense of self-importance or self- acceptance. This is a major factor when discussing personality because how we perceive ourselves, reflects onto others. Erikson’s eight stages of psychological development consist of infancy, early childhood, preschool, middle school, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age and old age. He indicates that during each stage of life a person experiences a psychological crisis, which could aid in a negative or positive result. During the infancy stage, the psychological crisis is trust vs. mistrust, meaning total dependence on the mother or father. If either or both parents show love and attention, then the child will develop trust, or otherwise mistrust if neglected. Early childhood, around the ages two to three years old a child becomes more mobile and shows signs of independence. The caregivers will either assist the child in all their needs or wait patiently as they figure them out on their own. Erikson distinguishes the importance of allowing children to face their own challenges with the tolerance of failure. This will provide the willingness to push through hard times and overcome adversity. Stage 3, initiative vs. guilt describes the interaction between other children and their ability to make decisions. A child will initiate activity with others continuously when he or she feels secure. Nevertheless, when children are told ‘no’ they react with feelings of guilt. The fourth stage of Erikson’s theory begins to explain inferiority. In this stage, a student will be introduced to teachers who become a major part of a child’s psychological development. With encouragement, children will feel confident in themselves, whereas negative reinforcement may cause self-doubt. Identity vs.
Erik Erikson’s psychoanalytic theory of development is made up of eight stages that span the lifetime. The stages correspond to a specific age and provide a blueprint for what to expect universally from someone in that stage in terms of social development. Erikson believed
Erikson’s first stage of psychosocial development occurs between birth and one year of age and is the most fundamental stage in life. Piaget’s theory is similar his first stage (sensorimotor) happens between birth and two years of age. They both believe that infants start to get an understanding of life during their first two years of life. In these stages infants began to learn to trust and mistrust. Piaget and Erikson first stages can impact the infant's life for a lifetime. Both Theorists express their stages in a similar manner, Cognitive development also takes place with language being understood in the first few years of life. Psychosocial development is when security and safety at younger ages lead to a better view on the surroundings of a
Erik H. Erikson was a significant psychologist that greatly changed the field of child development. In the 1950’s, Erikson advanced a Freudian approach in development. He viewed that social development as a series of eight challenges that people have to overcome. Each challenge has an outcome that’s either favorable or unfavorable. The outcome drastically affects a person’s personality. For example, in a favorable outcome, the result can leave a positive feeling. With a positive outlook, it’s easier for a person to cope with challenges in life. An unfavorable outcome can leave a person at a disadvantaged for the future. During the first couple challenges, Erikson believed that the caregiver has a great impact on a child’s development (Romero).
This paper explores Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual developmental theory. The articles, however, vary in their personal views of Freud’s model as it can be found as controversial. Freud’s ideas are highly influenced by personality, behavior, and developmental stages. This paper also examines the unconscious and conscious mind. Freud concluded that the mind is heavily influenced by the unconscious mind rather than consciousness. Stages from infancy to adulthood will also be examined.
Sigmund Freud proposed a theory of psychoanalytic development; he stated that early childhood experiences and practices affect later development in adulthood. Freud’s stages of psychosexual development comprised of five stages: the oral stage (0 – 1 year), the anal stage (1 – 3 years), the phallic stage (3 – 6 years), the latency period (6 – puberty) and the genital stage (puberty –
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.
Freud believed that humans develop through stages based on particular erogenous zones. Freud theorized that to gain a healthy personality as an adult, a person would have to successfully complete a certain sequence of five stages. Within the five stages of Freud’s psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed there would be major consequences if any stage was not completed successfully. The stages, in order, were the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, the latency stage, and the genital stage. In general, Freud believed that an unsuccessful completion of any stage would make a person become fixated on that particular stage. The outcome would lead the person to either over indulge or under indulge the failed stage during adulthood. Freud truly believed that the outcomes of the psychosexual stages played a major part in the development of the human personality. Eventually, these outcomes would become different driving forces in every human being’s personality. The driving forces would determine how a person would interact with the world around them. The results from Freud’s theory about the stages of psychosexual development led Freud to create the concept of the human psyche; Freud’s biggest contribution to