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  • Essay / Evaluation of Psychoanalytic Theory: Importance of Childhood for Personality Development

    What are the common characteristics of human personality? What makes people different? By the end of the 19th century, the discussion of human personality had already become a common and stable study. Influenced by Sigmund Freud, Eric Erikson modified Freud's stage of psychosexual development and established Erikson's stage of psychosocial development in the 1950s. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay Both Freud and Erikson emphasize the importance of childhood for personality development. In Freud's psychosexual development, he proposed five stages of development (oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage, genital stage), each of which affects the mental development and health of the individual to varying degrees. If the enacted desire cannot be satisfied, it will disappear and cause fixation. Taking the oral stage as an example, he proposed that from birth to 18 months, the child is mainly content with sucking, chewing, swallowing and other activities in the oral cavity. At this stage, if oral activity is restricted, there may be behaviors like greed, alcoholism, smoking, nail biting, etc., and even pessimism, dependence and cleanliness of personality appear after growing up. Similarly, in Erikson's stage of psychosocial development, he divides human life into different stages (Childhood, Toddler, Early Childhood, Middle Childhood, Adolescence, Early Adulthood, Middle Adulthood, Late Adulthood, adulthood), each of them must carry out the corresponding development. tasks – including friendship, self-assessment, specific calculations, skill learning and teamwork. Otherwise, it will make the next step more difficult, if not impossible. Erikson suggested that people will face the task of trust and distrust between 0 and 1 year of age. If the baby does not receive enough care from his mother at this stage, it will cause anxiety when faced with a new environment in the future, affecting his chances of succeeding in the next stage of life. learning independence. At the same time, Erikson accepted Freud's idea that the development of human personality is a contradiction between a series of points of view at each stage. Freud believes that a conflict exists between the ego, superego, and id. How to deal with these contradictions becomes the key to future development. When children are in the anal stage, they must learn to control their physical needs and resolve the conflict between instinct and excretion control. If parents can provide appropriate support and encouragement, they can help children balance the contradiction between "id" and "superego" and develop generosity, diligence and creativity. On the contrary, it will lead to stubborn, embarrassing and violent personalities. Citing Freud's view, Erikson proposed that individuals must resolve the conflict between threats and opportunities at each stage to acquire identity strengths. At Erikson's stage of psychosocial development, children will face autonomy conflicts or shameful suspicions during early childhood. By providing appropriate restraint and support, they can resolve the contradictions of the crisis, promote autonomous actions, and gain self-control. It can be seen that both of them believe that conflict resolution at each stage plays an important role in the growth and development of the individual. Although Erikson recognizes the importance ofthe experience of childhood for the development of personality, he also did not ignore the experience of adulthood. which is just as important. Different from Freud's stage of psychological development, Erikson's stage of psychosocial development includes the development of individuals after the age of puberty. As the first stage of adult development, Erikson proposed that the dating, marriage, family, and friendship experienced by a young adult are important components of the individual's developmental stage of life. Through building relationships with others, individuals will experience love and intimacy. Conversely, it will lead to feelings of loneliness and affect the mental health and personality of individuals. However, Freud's psychosexual development is only a stepwise process that emphasizes the sexual maturity of children towards adults. This suggests that individuals will develop a strong personality at maturity and develop the ability to delay their desires. It focuses only on the importance of childhood experiences on personality development and ignores adult psychological development. What leads to the above differences? Freud believed that early experiences shaped or can even fix an adult's personality, and this view is applied to his theory of development. Freud states that human beings are primarily driven by unconscious motivations and conflicts. And most of the inner forces, memories and conflicts that are not perceived or controlled originate from the individual's childhood and continually influence human behavior. Freud believed “that the basis of adult personality lay in the child and his experiences,” especially sexual experience. And the so-called "sex life" mentioned here mainly refers to the transition period of the boy's Oedipus complex and the girl's romantic relationship with the father. When the child can support and learn the characteristics of the father or mother who is his competitor, he can stimulate the development of the superego and develop correct behaviors and relationships between men and women in the future. It can be seen that Freud believes that early experiences directly laid the foundation for personality development, not lifelong change. However, Erikson disagrees with Freud's view. Erikson's theory of psychosocial development views personality development as a continuous process throughout life. During the process of personality development, individuals learn to adapt to different difficulties at different stages, resolve different crises, and then gradually elevate themselves and finally complete their holistic personality. Erikson expects people to gain the benefits of hope, will, purpose, competence, loyalty, love, and care through the preceding stages of the end of their lives , thus resolving the contradiction between self-glory and pessimism, so that they can enjoy life. remaining years. All developmental tasks in life must be accomplished to increase the chances of achieving fulfillment. Only sustained and healthy development at every stage can avoid the outcome of regret. Furthermore, Erikson emphasized the role of consciousness, overcoming the situation of slavery by the Id. And the environment in which children grow up is crucial in providing them with adaptation, self-awareness and recognition. At the stage of psychosocial development, he proposed that the individual grows up in human society after birth. Behavior is influenced by others and society, rather than by natural development withoutrestriction, otherwise he will not be able to integrate. He suggested that adolescents aged 12 to 17 will be faced with several questions: Who am I? How can I adapt? What should I achieve in my life? If parents can let their children explore and encourage them, they will be able to integrate their roles. However, if parents continue to pressure or indulge them, they may face a problem of confusion. It can be seen that Erikson believes that external factors have a great impact on individuals. But Freud defends a different point of view. He believes that the energy of human spiritual activity comes from instinct. Instinct drives individual behavior and the unconscious dominates human actions. From his point of view, the sexual instinct is the internal motivation of all mental assets, which is why he created the theory of the psychosexual stage of development. He proposed that when a person is in the genital stage, the sexual organs of the individual begin to mature and the difference between the two sexes begins to be significant, sexual desires will shift from parents to heterosexuals of the same age. Driven by sexual needs, they began to have an ideal sex life, awareness of marriage and family, and eventually developed a mature mind. From the above, we can know that while Freud focuses on the development of psychosexuality, the other influences The angles added by Erikson helped to expand psychoanalysis. But does Erikson fundamentally change the theory of psychoanalysis? My answer will be yes. From the point of view of lifelong development, development should have the characteristics of a permanent co-construction of different factors, multidimensional, multidirectional, plastic, multidisciplinary, contextual and involving the growth, maintenance and regulation of the loss. And Erikson amply demonstrates that development is a complete ongoing life process and will continue to progress after adulthood in his theory. He disagrees with Freud's assertion that all mental illnesses can be traced back to early childhood experiences. He agrees that early childhood experience is important, but that personality can still develop through the social environment in adulthood. This is why Erikson's stage of psychosocial development is divided into eight stages, including the development of people from infancy through adulthood to death. We see that the development he proposes lasts a lifetime. Additionally, individuals face and overcome new challenges at each stage, meaning they have the ability to continually make changes. For example, by connecting with peers or imitating idols, adolescents can build an ideal image in their minds, thereby understanding who they are, what can they become, and helping them overcome embarrassment. This shows that consciousness can advance through practice and developing better strategies. Development is plastic. During this time, change in people manifests itself in many directions. For example, at Erikson's stage of psychosocial development, children aged 4 to 6 years during the preschool period focus on developing their own ability to work on their own, such as carrying children aged 7 to 11 years. self-confidence by comparing the differences between themselves and the strengths of other children, which is cognitive development. This shows that Erikson's theory is multidirectional. Furthermore, multidirectional development also indicates that the development may suffer gains or losses. Just like a person's life between..