Comparison between Erik Erikson's And Sigmund Freud’s Theories of Human Development

The Comparison between Erik Erikson's And Sigmund Freud’s Theories of Human Development
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The Comparison between Erik Erikson's And Sigmund Freud's Theories of Human Development
Development continues to happen in people until they depart the world. Therefore, it is significant to understand the development process and its influence on human life. Understanding human development enables human beings to know what changes and requirements are needed. Besides, psychosocial development is also essential for meeting individual and societal needs. Erik Erikson and Sigmund Freud represent some famous proponents of human development theories. Freud is known as the father of Psychology, and he is known for psychosexual theory; at the same time, Erikson is famous for psychosocial theory. Though these individuals believed that the personality of a human being develops in a series of predetermined stages, both have similar and different explanations. The paper presents a critical analysis of Erikson's and Freud's approaches to human development and compares their work by analyzing the similarities and differences.
Comparison of Erikson and Freud Theories
Freud presented the psychosexual theory in the 1900s and reasoned that the personality of human beings matures during the early period of childhood stage. According to Freud, childhood experiences can shape the personalities and behaviour of adults, such that where a child born in a violent environment witnessing violence in or outside the family can also become a violent person in the adulthood stage. Freud also understood human development as irregular. A human being must pass through thoughtful phases during childhood (Bartke, 2015). Human development can become stagnant if proper parenting is not provided; hence it must be nurtured comprehensively (Pittman et al., 2012). Freud developed five stages of psychosexual development.
Creatively, Freud centers his knowledge on the significance of feeding. He argued that the eating desire of a child focuses on different body areas known as an erogenous zone and five psychosexual stages such as Oral, Anal, Phallic, Latency, and Genital. The Oral stage (birth to 1 year) refers to the mouth area the child enjoys by sucking mammary glands, chewing, and swallowing (Bartke, 2015). Adults with oral fixation effects can engage in unhealthy lifestyles such as smoking and overeating to attain satisfaction, and these habits are often engaged in when the individual is under stressful conditions (Bartke, 2015). The Anal stage (1-3 years) is concerned with the anal cavity and sphincter muscles of the human bowel, where individuals can also attain pleasure. A child masters to control anal stimulation when relieving feces (Bartke, 2015). Individuals suffering from anal fixation effects can become excessively clean or disorganized (Bartke, 2015). The Phallic stage (3 to 6 years), where the child's libido is centred on the genital area, becomes a center of pleasure (Armagan et al., 2013). Such children are aware of their anatomical sex differences, leading to a conflict between resentment, erotic attraction, jealousy, rivalry, and fear (Bartke, 2015)....