Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Sigmund Freud was the Viennese psychiatrist who created the discipline of psychoanalysis. Freud’s central thesis was that the sexual instinct plays a central role in our conscious and unconscious thoughts and actions. He argued that the sexual instinct is first appetitive (during the first year), then eliminative (during the second year), and then truly sexual (during the fourth and fifth years) Freud thus attributed great importance to the early years of life and to how parents handled the child’s developing sexual instincts. Overly restrictive, and overly permissive, approaches were to be avoided. Too much or too little attention to the child’s eating, elimination, or early sexual behavior could lead the child to be fixated, or stuck, at that level, with long term consequences for their personality.

Jean Piaget (1896-1980)

Jean Piaget was the famed Swiss psychologist best known for his developmental theory of intelligence (adaptive thought and action). Piaget argued that human intelligence is an extension of biological adaptation and that it developed in a series of stages that were related to age. At the sensory-motor stage (the first two years) the child adapts by means of the senses and simple actions. At the second – the symbolic function stage (usually two to five years) – the child adds symbols, including language, to their adaptive repertoire. When the child reaches the age of six or seven he or she attains the age of reason and can adapt using rational argument and by following rules. At adolescence (usually twelve to sixteen years), the young person acquires a second age of reason and is now able to deal with abstractions, contrary to fact conditions and possibilities. While there is considerable variation among children with respect to the age at which they reach these stages, the sequence is invariable.

Erik Erikson (1902-1994)

Erik Erikson was the esteemed psychoanalyst who extended Freud’s instinct theory to the social domain. Erikson contended that there were inborn social dispositions in which positive or negative realization depended upon input from the social environment. During infancy, the disposition is that of trust. An infant whose needs are met with love and support will attain a sense of trust that outweighs any sense of mistrust.

During the second year, the disposition is that of autonomy. A child who is not hurried into toilet training will attain a sense of autonomy. If parents are overly concerned about toilet training, the child may acquire a sense of shame or doubt that outweighs the sense of autonomy. The issue of initiative takes center stage at the age of four or five. If the child’s explorations and questions are dealt with respectfully, the child will achieve a strong sense of initiative. If the opposite is the case, the child will acquire a sense of guilt that undermines initiative.

In childhood, the child’s task is to acquire a sense of industry; the sense of accomplishment. Now teachers as well as parents play a role in determining whether the child's sense of industry is stronger than his or her sense of inferiority. With adolescence, the limelight disposition is that of ego identity. At this stage the young person himself or herself, depending upon want occurred at the earlier stages, is central to the determination of the outcome. A young person who feels free to explore a variety of identities will arrive at the sense of personal identity best suited to his or her talents and abilities. In contrast, the young person who, thanks to failures at the previous stages, is unable or unwilling to explore identities will experience a sense of role diffusion or confusion. In Erikson’s view, all of these dispositions are present from birth and extend across the whole life cycle. Nonetheless, each person has a critical age period during which the balance between the positive and negative outcomes is struck. Although it is possible to change these outcomes, it is much harder to do once the critical period is past.