Understanding Human Behavior and the Social Environment - Essay Example

 Personality Assignment 3Answer any two (2) of the following questions. 1- Identify and describe Erikson's eight stages of development and compare them to Freud's. Erik identified eight psychosocial stages that are important in the personality development of a person. Naming them as crises, the stages include: basic trust versus mistrust, which happens during the first year of the child, and is characterized by the establishment of warm and affectionate care to the infant in order to build trust useful in later life; autonomy versus shame and doubt, occurs during the age of three, and is characterized by the child’s learning of new tasks, such as going to the toilet, which is also an inspiration from Freud; initiative versus guilt, which happens from 3 years to 6, and is characterized by the child’s exploration of the outside world, and restricting the child from learning things makes him or her develop guilt; industry versus inferiority, which happens between six to twelve years old, and is described as the stage when the child wants to be productive in learning activities, and the failure to excel leads him or her to feel inferior; identity versus role confusion happens during the adolescent stage, and suggests establishing sex-role orientation, and the failure to establish clear role to one’s sex makes the person confused; intimacy versus isolation, which happens during young adulthood, characterized by establishing relationships; generativity versus stagnation, which described mature adults as guiding the next generation by becoming productive; and lastly, ego identity versus despair, which suggests that old people reflect on the significance of their past lives (Zastrow and Kirst-Ashman 294).

Erikson drew inspiration from Freud’s stages of psychosexual development, but put less emphasis on sexual drives, unconscious, id, ego, and superego, as he believed more on the influence of the society to one’s development (Sigelman and Rider 40). In addition, Erikson also emphasized more on the development of a person in the latter stages than to Freud’s emphasis on childhood experiences.2- Analyze the differences in Freud's and Klein's view of the development and involvement of the superego.

Melanie Klein earlier argued against Freud’s idea that superego is developed in the early stage of the child’s relation to the mother (Stonebridge and Phillips 36). However, Klein also focused her study of the superego during the first year of the child. Based on her accounts and writings, Klein states that superego is developed in the early childhood stage (Holder 85). Freud also believes that the superego is developed from three to six years old (Shaffer and Kipp 43). Klein quantifies that ego and superego have no difference at all, and by superego, she refers to it as being responsible for making ethical decisions within the grounds of particularity or uniqueness in terms of moral standards (Stonebridge and Phillips 36).

Freud, on one hand, states that the superego’s development is tied to “moral imperatives” and is determined by the Oedipus Complex, while Klein ties it to “early mother relation” (Stonebridge and Phillips 36). In addition, Klein also emphasized more on “internal objects” as part of her theory of the superego, while Freud believes the role of authority in the development and involvement of the superego (Stonebridge and Phillips 36). While Klein believes that frustrations and “thwarted instinctual satisfaction” are among the sources of heightened guilt, Freud believes these as applicable only to “frustrations of the aggressive instincts” (Stonebridge and Phillips 36).

Works CitedHolder, Alex. Anna Freud, Melanie Klein, and the Psychoanalysis of Children andAdolescents. London: H. Karnac Books, 2005. Print.Shaffer, David R., and Katherine Kipp. Developmental Psychology: Childhood andAdolescence. 8th ed. California: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. Print. Sigelman, Carol K., and Elizabeth A. Rider. Life-span Human Development. 7th ed.California: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.Stonebridge, Lyndsey, and John Phillips, eds. Reading Melanie Klein. London:Routledge, 1998. Print. Zastrow, Charles, and Karen K.

Kirst-Ashman. Understanding Human Behavior and theSocial Environment. 8th ed. California: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning, 2010.Print.