DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FREUD AND ERIKSON



Firstly,Those two philosophers,Freud and Erikson deal with similar goals for stages of the development but with different viewpoints,whereas Freud and Erikson developed a method for the same target.Their processes are quite different from each other.There are four major differences between Freud and Erikson and also their theories.These are discussed below.
The fist difference is that Erikson’s theory is much broader than Freud’s theory.Because,according to the information in the course pack(Educational Psychology,Educ114),Erikson’s theory is preferred to be used for development of people.From this viewpoint,Freud’s theory is less useful than Erikson’s.The second difference is that Freud has only five stages.When we compare Freud with Erikson,Erikson has three extra stages apart from Freud’s five stages.(Educ114).First of all,Freud’s five stages are;oral stage,anal stage,phallic stage,latency stage and finally genital stage.Whereas,as I said Erikson has more stages.These are;trust-mistrust,autonomy.initiative,industry,identity,intimacy,generaravity and integrity.
The third difference is that Freud was more pessimistic.Unlike him,Erikson was positive and humanist(answers.yahoo.com).For example,Erikson endavoured to solve problems with the positive way.In contrast,Freud couldn’t approach using the positive way to solve problems.He hesitated in approaching the problems but Erikson didn’t.The fourth difference is that Erikson emphasized importance of the individual responsibility.In contrast,Freud emphasized earlier experinces,unconscious motivation (Educ114).It is stated that Erikson encouraged child to do something whatever they want without thinking.In contrast,Freud didn’t do like that.From this viewpoint,Erikson played an important role of development in child’s behaviour.
To sum up,As I said these philosophers aimed to help development of the child’s behaviour.But Erikson is much more successful than Freud and Erikson’s theory is more logical,more useful for the child.So,Nowadays Erikson’s theory is being used for children’s development.