Comparing Freud's psychosexual theory and Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory

Erik Erikson mnemonic

Comparing Freud's psychosexual theory and Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory

Psychoanalytic theory originated from work of Sigmund Freud. Freud’s theory further inspired and expanded by others. Of these neo-Freudians, Erik Erikson’s ideas have become perhaps the best known.

Freud developed a theory that described development in terms of a series of five psychosexual stages. These stages are oral, anal, phallic, latency and genital phases. According to Freud, conflicts that occur during each of these stages can have a lifelong influence on personality and behaviour.

Erik Erikson, on the other hand, developed eight-stage theory of psychosocial development which described growth and change throughout the lifespan, focusing on social interaction and conflicts that arise during different stages of development. 

Erik Erikson’s stages are as followed:

Stage 1: Trust Versus Mistrust,

Stage 2: Autonomy Versus Shame,

Stage 3: Initiative Versus Guilt,

Stage 4: Industry Versus Inferiority,

Stage 5: Identity Versus Role Confusion,

Stage 6: Intimacy Versus Isolation,

Stage 7: Generativity Versus Stagnation And

Stage 8: Integrity Versus Despair.

Similarities between Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory and Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory:

• Both had their own theories on personality development.
• The theories are separated into stages of a person’s life.
• Personality developed over time as a result of interaction between child’s inborn drive and response with the key person in the child’s world.
• The child’s personality depends on a success in going through all stages.

                                                                                                                                                      

Differences between Sigmund Freud's psychosexual theory and Erik Erikson's psychosocial theory:

• Erik Erikson placed less importance on individual’s sexual drive as a factor in normal development.
• Erikson also placed more emphasis on cultural or environmental influences in his theory.
• Unlike Freud, Erikson proposed that a person’s sense of identity was not completely developed during adolescents but instead continue to develop and evolve throughout a person’s life.
• Erikson also downplayed the importance of maturation in cognitive development and instead focuses on the importance of cultural demands.

Erik Erikson mnemonic