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Freud Vs Erikson Research Paper

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Developmental psychology aims to understand how people develop at various times of their lives. Throughout history there have been many theories which attempt to explain human development. Two of those theorists are Sigmund Freud and Erik Erikson. Early twentieth century psychoanalysis founder Sigmund Freud is known for his historical theories and techniques in treating psychopathology. Known as a neo-Freudian, Erik Erikson created psychosocial theory which is based of Freud’s theory. Freud left a legacy in psychology which is not only foundational, but insightful. Since then, several of Freud’s ideas have been rejected by developmentalist, mostly because his theories are based on a few case studies which do not hold up to scientific scrutiny. But it would be dubious to dismiss Freud’s theories completely just because they are extraordinary. Many of his ideas still have a critical influence on how we think about the present. Freud’s psychoanalytic viewpoint is comprised of: unconscious motives, repression, instincts, id, ego, superego, and fixation. His psychosexual development theory is broken into stages: oral, anal, phallic, latency, and genital. Each of these stages has various implications but Freud also listed the age …show more content…

Erikson’s psychosocial theory is described in multiple stages: basic trust vs mistrust, autonomy vs shame, initiative vs guilt, industry vs inferiority, identity vs role confusion, intimacy vs isolation, generativity vs stagnation, ego integrity vs despair, and the implications of each. Like Freud, Erikson lists the ages when each one occurs: basic trust vs mistrust (0-1), autonomy vs shame (1-3), initiative vs guilt (3-6), industry vs inferiority (6-12), identity vs role confusion (12-20), intimacy vs isolation (20-40), generativity vs stagnation (40-65), and ego integrity vs despair (old

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