Erikson's stages of development compared with Freud's and Klein's theories

¶ … Personality a Comparison

Erik Erikson has a very detailed and thorough picture of the developmental stages that we each go through throughout our lives. There are eight major stages within the context of Erikson's psychosocial development. Each individual goes through each predetermined stage and develops either positively or negatively based on his or her relationships with others and the external world. These stages last from an individual's first breath to their last, with several stages in adulthood. The first stage set out by Erikson is that of Trust vs. Mistrust, which occurs from birth to a year old. This stage is where infants gain a sense of basic trust for their caregivers and environment, or fail to trust, therefore leading to a general sense of mistrust. The infant learns to trust some aspects, while not trusting others which are a basic survival mechanism and the foundation of future psychosocial development. Then, from 1-3 years old the toddler goes through Autonomy vs. Doubt, where the child either gains greater independence and autonomy, or fails this and begins to doubt themselves in the process. This sense of autonomy comes from activities such as toilet training and learning language skills in order to express themselves better as individual thinkers. After this stage comes Initiative vs. Guilt, which lasts from 3 to 6 years of age. This occurs during the play age and according to the research "the conflict of initiative vs. guilt produces the strength of purpose. Children now play with a purpose, competing at games in order to win or be on top" (Feist & Feist 2008 p 244). Next is the school age, where children from 7 to 11 experience the Industry vs. Inferiority stage. During this stage children either find they industrious by mastering new skills or feel inferior by being unable to complete more difficult tasks. This is a "time of tremendous social growth," where "school-age children learn to work and play at activities directed both toward acquiring job skills and toward learning the rules of cooperation" (Feist & Feist 2008 p 245). During adolescence, there is the Identity vs. Role Confusion stage, where the individual generates a more unique personality and sense of self. Finally, in adulthood there are three stages. Intimacy vs. Isolation is similar to Freud's genital stage in that the individual begins to seek out sexual and romantic relationships. Then there is Generativity vs. Stagnation in middle age individuals where adults learn to contribute back to their society and Integrity vs. Despair in old age when adults reflect on their lives with either satisfaction or unhappiness.

However, Erikson's theory of psychosocial development differs greatly from another major popular theory, that of the psychosexual development presented by Sigmund Freud. These theories are similar in that they break up the development of cognitive and behavioral functioning into similar staged during childhood. Erikson used the initial age parameters first set out by Freud's earlier theory. Erikson was initially inspired by Freud's theory, and so they do share a number of similarities. Thus, for the development of the childhood years, the theories match up in terms of when stages start and finish. Moreover, Erikson believed the stages outlined in his theory were all predetermined, and thus experienced by everybody as they go through life. However, the actual development which occurs in those stages is profoundly different in comparing the two theories. There are several clear differences, yet the main one is that Erikson sees the main driver for development as the social relationships one has with the outside world, whereas Freud believes that it is physical and predominately sexual development which influences psychological development. Erikson focuses more on the social relationships and experiences as the main sources for development. Thus, there is a stronger emphasis on the relationships we all have and how those relationships help or hinder our psychosocial development continuously throughout our lives. This leads into the second major difference between the theories. Freud's development tends to cease at adulthood, whereas Erikson believed that we continued to develop all throughout our lives. Freud saw his genital stage as the only stage lasting into adulthood, where Erikson actually has three major stages in adulthood, Intimacy vs. Isolation, Generativity vs. Stagnation, and finally Integrity vs. Despair (Feist & Feist 2008).

Question 2

Freud's theory presents three sub-systems that work internally within the human brain to help determine behavior, actions, and actual psychosocial development. These three parts are the id, which is essentially the primitive unconscious desire working only towards pleasure and avoidance of pain, the ego which connects the individual to the reality of the external world. And the superego, which is essentially the opposite of the id in that it provides restrictions based on morals or values implanted within us by society. According to the research, "the superego is both preconscious and unconscious," meaning that our moral compass guides us both before thought and unknowingly in our subconscious (Feist & Feist 2008 p 27). The superego is very much like the id in that it works towards a singular goal, but it does not work within the pleasure principle, as the more primitive id does. Rather, it works to find perfection through sticking to our conscious and the moral values that guide it, thus forcing us to behave "appropriately" and not just succumb to the primordial demands of the id. In this, the ego is dependent on the superego, and their relationship often creates moral anxiety where individuals "may experience anxiety as an outgrowth of the conflict between our realistic needs and the dictates of the superego" (Feist & Feist 2008 p 34). Thus, the superego generates value to the individual thoughts and feelings a person may have as a result of their experience with the outside world. Freud believed that the superego grows out of the ego and is established around the ages of 5 or 6, although it has looses its contact with the outside world. In his theory, Freud relied much more on the concept of instinct as being one of the driving factors for psychosocial development; however later psychoanalytic theorists would begin to move towards object relations as the main driver of contemporary psychoanalytic theory.