Theories of Development Essay -- Psychology, Freud, Erickson

Question #1 : Compare and contrast the psychoanalytic theories of Freud and Erickson Freud’s Theory : Freud believed that most human behavior is motivated by the unconscious mind. â€Å"Freud proposed that personality has 3 structures : the id, the ego and the superego† (Santrock, 23). The id is the origin of personality driven by instinct. The id resides in unconscious rather than reality. The ego, another structure of reality, appears when children learn about the needs and constraints of reality. â€Å"The ego is called â€Å"executive branch† of reality because it uses reasoning to make decisions† (Santrock, 23). The id and the ego don’t make moral judgement or consider what is right or wrong. â€Å"The superego is the moral branch of personality† (Santrock, 23). Freud stated that the superego is a matter of â€Å"conscience†.† Freud believed that we all go through 5 stages of psychosexual development : oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital† (Santrock, 24). Freud claimed that the adult personality is determined by how we resolve conflicts between the sources of pleasure at each stage and the needs of the reality. Erickson’s Psychosocial Theory : Includes 8 stages of human development. â€Å"Each stage consists of a unique developmental task that confronts individuals with a crisis that must be resolved† (Santrock, 24). Trust versus mistrust is the first stage appears in the first year of life. Warmth that arises from a family makes children learn to trust and feel that the world is good to live in. Autonomy versus shame and doubt (1-3 years of age) is the stage that children will try to do something by themselves and explore the world around them. If a child is limited too much or punish... ...aragraph, describing what you learned from completing this assignment. From completing this assignment, I have learned about human development in many areas from many different theories. I realized that a child will grow into adults with good quality, or an adult with no quality relies on many factors. Therefore, raising or teaching children is not just giving them basic stuff, such as feeding, sleeping or potty training but caregivers and early childhood educators need to learn about the environment around them that affects their behavior and development. Moreover, I think that caregivers, teachers and early childhood educators should apply all the theories about child development to their work. They should not rely on one theory to be able to understand a child because there might be many factors behind a child’s behavior.