Theories of HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

Sigmund Freud human nature is driven by motives and conflicts of which we are largely unaware and that our personalities are shaped by our early life experiences

Three Components of Personality Freud’s psychosexual theory proposes that three components of personality— the id, ego, and superego—develop and gradually become integrated in a series of fi ve developmental psychosexual stages. Only the id is present at birth. Its sole function is to satisfy inborn biological instincts, and it will try to do so immediately.

The ego is the conscious, rational component of the personality that reflects the child’s emerging abilities to perceive, learn, remember, and reason. Its function is to find socially approved means of gratifying instincts, such as when a hungry toddler, remembering how she gets food, seeks out her parent and says “cookie.”

The final component of personality, or superego, is the seat of the conscience. It develops between the ages of 3 and 6 as children internalize (take on as their own) the moral values of their parents (Freud, 1933).

Stages of Psychosexual Development Freud thought that sex was the most important instinct because he discovered that his patients’ mental disturbances often revolved around childhood sexual conflicts they had repressed.

Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development Erik Erikson (1902–1994) Erikson’s Theory of Psychosocial Development

Comparing Erikson with Freud Although Erikson (1963, 1982) accepted many of Freud’s ideas, he differed from Freud in two important respects. First, Erikson (1963) stressed that children are active, curious explorers who seek to adapt to their environments, rather than passive reactors to biological urges who are molded by their parents. A second critical difference between Erikson and Freud is that Erikson places much less emphasis on sexual urges and far more emphasis on social and cultural influences than Freud did. For this reason, we label Freud’s theory psychosexual and Erikson’s theory psychosocial.

Eight Life Crises (or Psychosocial Stages) Erikson believed that people face eight major crises, which he labeled psychosocial stages, during the course of their lives. Each crisis emerges at a distinct time dictated by biological maturation and the social demands that developing people experience at particular points in life. Each crisis must be resolved successfully to prepare for a satisfactory resolution of the next life crisis