Theories in Childhood Development

Theories in Childhood Development

Freud and Erikson both believed in the psychoanalytic approach. According to Peterson (2004 pg 54), “Sigmund Freud Conceptualised development as a series of age-related conflicts between the child’s primitive, hedonistic desires and the limitations imposed on them by society for the sake of cooperative living”. Within Freud's theory he explains there are five different stages of development, the oral stage, the anal stage, the phallic stage, and the genital stage.

The oral stage applied to the firsts year of a childs life. At this stage pleasure is focused around the mouth. At this stage id is the dominant personality. Children at this stage a child is unable to tell the difference between itself or the outside world. The focus on the mouth could be explained by over feeding or weening off the breast. It is at this stage the ego personality begins to develop.

During the anal stage, one to three years, Freud believed a child moves its focus of pleasure from the mouth and focuses on the anal region. This can be explained by the time spent on toilet training. Freud believed a child’s fascination with the anus could be a result of frustration or over gratification toward the child while toilet training.

At four to six years, Freud believed the genital region becomes the main focus for pleasure especially at four years of age. Within the next year or two Freud explains the child is in the phallic stage which may be a result of love and lust for the parent of the opposite sex and often results in jealousy over the same sex parent. Eventually the jealousy disappears and the child looks to the same sex parent as a role model.

From puberty onwards, a child enters the genital stage. If the copying mechanisms which should have been developed during the previous stages were successful, and the conflict during the genital stage was resolved, then the child should evolve into mature sexual styles of love.

Although Erik Erikson was a student of Freud and his daughter, Anna, he moved away from Freud's theory and developed his own. Unlike Freud, Erikson saw childhood developments as conflicts rather than focusing on libido.

Erikson constitutes eight conflicts in his theory, although only five of them refer directly to children.

From birth to one year, the conflict basic trust vs. mistrust is applied. Erikson believed how much trust a child has depends on how much parental care the child receives. If the child receives adequate care from the parent, the child develops their first psychosocial strength, which Erikson describes as hope.

During the years of four to five, the chid knows normal social behaviour and functions individually without parental assistance (Peterson 2004). This stage Erikson explains is the initiative vs. guilt conflict.

Industry vs. inferiority conflict occurs during the years between six and 11. during these years when a child starts school a feeling of inferiority begins to occur which could be due to special achievements. The conflict occurs when a child is torn between the love of work and the power of inferiority. If the right decisions are made then the child should be able to exercise their own unique competencies in contribution to a larger productive effort (Peterson 2004).

The last conflict before entering adulthood is identity vs. role confusion. This conflict, Erikson explains is between 12 to