Aspects of the theory of child psychosexual development

Angelica Adilene Montemayor Trejo 266848

Professor Johnson

Academic Writing

OCTOBER, 17, 2013

Activity 4.2

Theories of child development

The field of child development focuses on the scientific study of the processes of change and stability in children ( Papalia , developmental psychology , 6 ) . By the end of the 19th century the formal scientific study of human development was a fact, and were beginning to be multiple advances in the study of child development. The philosopher John Locke said that the boy was like a blank slate on which the society could write on him the things he should do, the society was who was helping the child to develop, so contrary, Jean - Jacques Rousseau said children were already born with certain skills to develop, but at some point of his life, the society will transform the children ( Papalia , developmental psychology , 27) , because these two views were very different, there was the need to create two models, the mechanistic model and the organismic model . The mechanistic model is a model that considers people are like machines that react to people's contributions, on the other hand, the organismic model is a model that considers that people are active organisms growing that activate their own development (Pepper, 1942/ 1961 ) .

Because scientists begin to ask questions about how the infant was developing throughout childhood, several theories were created. There are several theoretical perspectives which go along with theories about child development, for now we will focus only on the theory of psychosexual development which is Sigmund Freud's theory, and the theory of Erik Erikson about psychosocial. The Freud's psychosexual theory says that behavior is controlled by powerful unconscious impulses, moreover Erikson's theory says that personality is influenced by society and that it develops from a series of crises ( Papalia , Psychology development ) . Freud's psychosexual theory , says that the individual is passive , which means that it is possible to predict what a person will do , on the contrary Erikson's psychosocial theory says that the individual is active , which means that the person activates their own development , that he is the one who will initiate an event , and not just react to a stimulation . Erikson emphasized in his theory that society was who influenced on the development of personality, however Sigmund Freud maintained that early childhood experiences were those that shaped the personality permanently. Freud established five developmental stages where each stage focuses on an important event for infant development, Erickson performed the same, but in his theory he divided into 8 stages. Erikson Proposed to lifespan model of development, taking in five stages up to the age of 18 years (Saul McLeod, 2008 ) , while Freud Suggested That personality is mostly established by the age of five.

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