Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson views on Childhood Development
Carla Joseph
Monroe College
Abstract
This paper incorporates the explanation of the different stages of childhood development. It first explores a brief history of childhood development and also the views between two psychologists Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson and how they break down their understanding for the stages in childhood development and the reasoning behind why children operate the way they do.
Freud and Erikson views on Childhood Development
As humans, we all have different personalities that affects our behavior on an everyday basis. Could childhood development be the way in which people are raised by their parents or the environment in which they operate in or even the different changes that occurs around them? Nevertheless, two psychologists by the name of Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson developed their theories on the stages of child development to clearly improve the understanding of how persons go through life and portray different personalities. Therefore, a brief historical description of Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson will be given as well as explaining what childhood development is and the individual stages that each psychologist explained as to why children develop their personality.
Childhood development is described as an assortment of stages that includes physical, social, and psychological growth that occurs from birth through young adulthood. Therefore childhood development is another way of explaining how children develop through different stages or how children grow and learn. It also refers to the psychological and biological changes that occur in human beings between start and the end of adolescence. The developmental areas are physical, emotional, social, educational and cognitive (Robert t. McCormick Tribune Foundation, n.d). The ideal development of children is considered vital to society and it is important to understand these areas because they are connected to each other. Thus, as child grows in one domain, it will then influence another domain of development, and these domains are important in development because they focus on the whole child. There are new theories and methods have been found due to research in this area, with specific regard to teaching that promotes development in the schools. Also there are some theories that aim to describe a sequence of different states that make child development (Robert t. McCormick Tribune Foundation, n.d).
Sigmund Freud the famous psychoanalyst who created the theory of psychosexual development was born in Freiberg, which is now known as the Czech Republic, on May 6th, 1856 (Cherry,n.d, p.1). Freud developed psychoanalysis, which is a method that entails an analyst taking out unconscious conflicts based on the free associations, dreams and fantasies of the patient. His theories on child sexuality, libido and the ego, among other topics, were some of the most influential academic concepts of the 20th century. Freud understood that personality developed through a series of childhood stages in which the pleasure-seeking energies of the id become focused on certain erogenous areas. This psychosexual energy, or libido, was described as the driving force behind behavior. In Freud's view, each stage focused on sexual activity and the pleasure received from a particular area of the body (Morris & Maisto, 2011, p.209). The first stage is the oral stage. This stage occurs during the first two years of life where the mouth is the principal erogenous zone, an erogenous zone according to Freud was a particular part of the body where we seek and gain pleasure from.
For example, an infant’s greatest source of gratification is sucking and it is often common to see an infant between the ages of one to two to be constantly putting objects in his or her mouth. A baby’s first nourishment is received through suckling, and the sucking instinct is usually strong,
