Theories of Human Development Essay

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Piagetian, Ericksonian, And Freudian Stages of Development

Human beings progress gradually from childhood to adulthood, going through stages that are distinct, continuous, and improving. Developmental psychologists like Freud, Piaget, and Erickson came up with different theories concerning the stages that people often undergo as they grow from childhood. This study discusses the similarities and the differences between the three theories with examples of the stages mentioned by each given. The contrast and comparison will make people appreciate the importance of the three theories of human development

Similarities

Erickson's theory had the highest number of stages of development compared to the other two. His theory covered eight main stages from birth to death of an individual. According to Erickson, the successful completion of a stage marked a good beginning of the next stage. Failure to fully exhibit and live a stage exhaustively will recur in the future through habits that will be undesirable at that time. He suggested that parents should allow their children to exhaust their growth stages fully. For example, he suggested that between the ages of two and four years, the children go through a stage he referred to as Autonomy vs. shame and Doubt stage and included toilet training and clothing of self.

In contrast, Freud suggested the same idea similar to that of Erickson. He suggested that human beings go through stages in life that are gradual. He postulated that if humans do not get a chance to live their stages well at childhood, then they are going to experience trouble in the future.

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He suggested experiences that he referred to as fixations that adults normally go through and would spoil their flow of life if skipped. Freud showed that human beings go through five stages of development in their lifetime. These stages, as he suggested, are all related to the sexuality of the human beings. Ideally, children develop sexual attraction for their parents but of the opposite gender. He suggested two psychological theories to explain the occurrence that he referred to as Electra complex and Oedipus complex to explain the girls' attraction to their fathers and boys' to their mothers respectively. An example given by Freud is the oral stage where the child learns to trust the mother's breast as comfort and food source.

Piaget fronted a theory that explained the stages of cognitive development. According to him, children go through four stages of cognitive development in life. These included the sensory motor stage, the pre-operational stage, the concrete operational stage, and the formal operations stage. All these stages are gradually linked to one another and come with age. Piaget's stages all centered on the child's thought process and how they conceived their surrounding world as well as how they tackled the challenges that come their way. Accordingly, he spelt out that the surrounding environment, just like in Freud and Erickson's theories influenced the children's mental growth. An example given by Piaget is that; if the baby is subjected to have a look at….....

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