Freud, Erickson, and Piaget’s theories of human development
Freud, Erickson, and Piaget’s theories of human development have various similarities as well as differences. The similarities include; all the theorists agree on the importance of the childhood phase of development which is crucial to affecting the life of a person. In this sense, childhood is vital in the formation of one’s personality. They state that the influence of parents on the lives of children plays an important role in the personality and development of a person. In addition to the influence of parents, peers also play a major role in the course of development of children hence affect their development. To add to that, the three theorists also separate the various stages of human development into distinct stages of development in the life of a person and consequently use various age divisions with respect to the different stages of development. On the other hand, the differences between these three theorists include the following; the theory of Freud centers on conflict of sex, the theory of Erikson on its part follows the psychosocial approach that entails the shaping of the desire and society of people is to be part of a given group. In this sense, the theory advanced by Erikson points is to the effect that the resolution of the conflict is achieved in the event that a given person learns to care and love for other people while the theory advanced by Freud entails resolving conflicts in the event that a given person gets enough gratification during the early stages of development. On the other hand, the theory of Piaget does not center around conflict. Additionally, Freud’s development theory focuses on the psychosexual development with reference to biological forces and basic needs while Erikson’s development theory focuses on psychosocial development relating to social and environmental factors and the Piaget’s theory focuses on cognitive development relating to thinking in the course of a child’s development (Piaget, 2003).
The theory developed by Freud about the psychosexual theory of human development and made an emphasis on the sexual drive as being the main factor that influences behavior and this unfolds in distinct stages since birth (Zerucha, 2009). Erikson, being a student of Freud, developed the psychosocial development theory that lay emphasis on environmental and social factors in the development of human beings as he examined the various early experiences of people on their later behavior in life (Zerucha, 2009). Piaget on his part focused his theory on cognitive development of human beings with respect to children and how they reason in relation to their environment as stated by Kail & Cavanaugh (2018).
References
Piaget, J. (2003). Part I: Cognitive Development in Children–Piaget Development and Learning. Journal of research in science teaching, 40.
Kail, R. V., & Cavanaugh, J. C. (2018). Human development: A life-span view. Cengage Learning.
Zerucha, T. (2009). Human Development. Infobase Publishing.