Compare and Contrast

The development of children and adolescents has always been a topic of debate, not till much later in the psychology world was this subject looked at as its own. With the help of psychologist such as Freud and Erickson developmental theories were able to help understand this type of development. Children are ever changing and growing with the combination of these three theories; psychoanalytical, learning, and cognitive theories, they are able to develop. These theories help children become part of society and someday become functioning adults. The psychoanalytic perspective is the “View of human development as being shaped by unconscious forces”, (Page 27, Papalia, 2010). Sigmund Freud was a big contributor to the psychoanalytic perspective. One of the major contributions would be the three parts of the personality. Freud came up with the id, the ego, and the super ego. The id is the instant gratification. The ego is “The ego’s aim is to find reasonably realistic ways to gratify the id that are also acceptable to the superego” (Page 27, Papalia, 2010). And the super ego, “The superego, which develops at about age 5 or 6, contains the conscience; it incorporates socially approved “shoulds” and “should nots” into the child’s value system”, (Page 27, Papalia, 2010). One of the important theories that Freud came up with is the psychosexual theory. The psychosexual theory is, “In Freudian theory, an unvarying sequence of stages of personality development during infancy, childhood, and adolescence, in which gratification shifts from the mouth to the anus and then to the genitals” (Page 28, Papalia, 2010). Freud thought that if some of these needs weren’t meant as a child it would carry on to adulthood. For example, “Babies whose needs are not met during the oral stage, when feeding is the main source of pleasure, may become nail biters or develop “bitingly” critical personalities.

A person who, as a toddler, had too-strict toilet training may be fixated at the

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