Saul Mcleod (2014) states that “psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight.” A person with anxiety from traumatic experiences in their childhood may cause problems during adulthood. For example, someone could have been involved in a vehicle accident as a child, and now as an adult, they are frightened to ride in a vehicle.
Freud believed that everyone’s personality is composed of three aspects: id, ego, and superego. The id is present from birth it is also the primary component of personality. It is related to hunger, sex, aggression, and irrational impulses. The ego is responsible for dealing with reality. The ego operates on the reality principle, in which energy is controlled to maintain the individual’s safety and to help accommodate that individual into society. Lastly, the superego is the aspect of personality, where moral standards originate from, such as our sense of right and wrong. Superego begins to develop around age five.
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Jean Piaget was a Swiss psychologist known for his theory of Cognitive Development. Piaget made a tremendous impact on the study of cognitive development. His theory studied how children intellectually develop. Kendra Cherry (2019) states, “Prior to Piaget's theory, children were often thought of simply as mini-adults. Instead, Piaget suggested that the way children think is fundamentally different from the way that adults think.” Kendra Cherry (2019) also states that “Piaget was ranked as the second most influential psychologist of the twentieth century in one 2002 survey.”
Piaget believes children pass through four stages: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. The first stage is sensorimotor, this stage lasts from birth until the child has reached two years of age. Object permanence also occurs in this time which is when the child realizes that something still exists even if you are not able to see it. This stage is broken down into six substages. The second stage is preoperational, which lasts from the ages of two to seven. This stage is pretend play, and the children learn to manipulate symbols. The third stage is, concrete operational, which lasts from age seven to the age of eleven. At this stage, they develop logical thinking. The final stage of Piaget’s cognitive development theory is formal operational. This stage lasts from the age of twelve into adulthood. At this point, they start to develop moral reasoning. As humans, we were all expected to pass through these four stages of development. Piaget believed that before passing to the next stage you had to reach a certain level of physical maturation.
Erik Erikson is a psychoanalyst who founded psychosocial development. According to Saul Mcleod (2018), “Erikson maintained that personality develops in a predetermined order through eight stages of psychosocial development, from infancy to adulthood. During each stage, the person experiences a psychosocial crisis which could have a positive or negative outcome for personality development.” If the person successfully completes each stage, they are said to have a healthy personality. If the person does not successfully complete these stages, they have an unhealthy personality. Erikson’s first stage of psychosocial development is Trust vs. Mistrust, which occurs from birth to twelve through eighteen months. The infant is uncertain of the world during this stage; they depend upon their parent for survival. The second stage is Autonomy vs.
The shame and Doubt, this stage occurs from eighteen months the three years of age. During this stage, children develop a sense of independence. The third stage is Initiative vs. Guilt, which occurs from age three to ages five and six. At this stage, children interact with other children. The fourth stage is Industry vs. Inferiority. The stage occurs from five to six years of age up until adolescence. At this stage, children are starting to do things on their own. The fifth stage is Identity vs. Role diffusion, which occurs during adolescence. At this stage, the person begins to look for a personal identity. The transition from childhood to adolescence is very important. Teens start to become independent and start looking toward the future. The sixth stage is Intimacy vs. Isolation, which takes place during adulthood. During this stage, people start to develop more intimate relationships. If people avoid intimacy it will lead to isolation. The seventh stage is generativity vs. stagnation, this stage occurs from ages forty-five to sixty-five. According to Saul McLeod (2018), “Generativity refers to 'making your mark' on the world through creating or nurturing things that will outlast an individual.” If we fail to contribute to our community we become stagnate, which leads to feeling uninvolved. The eighth and final stage of Erikson’s psychosocial development is ego-integrity vs. despair, this takes place during late adulthood. During this stage, we contemplate our accomplishments in life. Erikson believed that once you reach this stage and begin to feel like your life was unproductive and you were unsuccessful, you would begin to have despair, which could possibly lead to depression.
We have all been through at least some of these stages; if you haven’t already reached the final stage yet. As infants, we are uncertain of our surroundings and the world we live in, although we do not remember those moments in our life you have at least been around an infant at times. Infants must put trust in their caregivers because they are not yet dependent. We have all heard of the “terrible two’s” at this time children are always into something and exploring new things, and we were all the same way at that time. As a toddler, we begin to discover new things and begin to play more with others. When you reach adolescence your peer group makes a big impact on the person you will become, hanging around the wrong crowd, can lead you down a bad path that others struggle to come back from. Someone very close to me chose to go down the wrong path, and I have watched them ruin their life, even though he was smart and could have made a good life for himself, he chose that path and he is still struggling to come back from it. From adolescence into adulthood, you are trying to find yourself, something I am doing right now. I want to make sure the major I choose is something that I am 100% happy with, and a job I will be happy with. To me, this stage is a stressful stage, because you are preparing yourself for the real world, and from my personal experience right now I know it’s not going to be easy. In early adulthood, people are searching for the person they want to settle down with and can start a family with. By this stage, most people have already started their own life. In middle adulthood, most have already started a family and are well on their way to retirement. While some may still be struggling to reach that stage. If you have reached late adulthood, you probably have grandkids and you begin to contemplate your life and if it was successful.
According to Saul Mcleod (2018), “Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a motivational theory in psychology comprising a five-tier model of human needs, often depicted as hierarchical levels within a pyramid.” If you look at Maslow’s theory as a pyramid, starting with the two bottom tiers are your basic needs; physiological needs, such as food, water, and warmth. Then there are safety needs, which is a feeling of security and safety. The next two tiers of the pyramid are your psychological needs, such as the feeling of belonging, having intimate relationships, and having friends. There are also your esteem needs, which is having a feeling of accomplishment in your life. The top tier is your self-fulfillment needs, which is achieving your full potential. According to Maslow, you must first complete the lower stages before reaching a higher level on the pyramid.
Lawrence Kohlberg was a psychologist who developed more in moral development. According to Saul Mcleod (2019), “He used Piaget’s storytelling technique to tell people stories involving moral dilemmas. In each case, he presented a choice to be considered, for example, between the rights of some authority and the needs of some deserving individual who is being unfairly treated. One of the best-known of Kohlberg’s stories concerns a man called Heinz who lived somewhere in Europe.” Heinz had a sick wife and there was a chemist with a drug that could cure the wife’s sickness, but he could not afford it. After asking the chemist to lower the price the chemist refused, so Heinz contemplated breaking into the chemist’s lab and stealing the medicine. This is where Kohlberg’s theory of moral development comes in, he believed that moral development has three levels. The first level is pre-conventional morality, which is that people will not break the law for fear of being punished, no matter the circumstances. The second level is conventional morality, which is that others try to do things to get respect from others. The last level is post-conventional morality, in which some people will break the rules of society to do what they believe to be right. Only a few reach this level. This takes me back to Kohlberg’s story of Heinz, he was breaking the rules of society, because he was more worried about his sick wife, even though he knew if he got caught there would be consequences.
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