Developmental Theories and Other Relevant Theories

Freud’s Psychoanalytic Theory

INTRODUCTION
Freud’s views about human development are more than a century old. He can
be considered the most well-known psychologist because of his very interesting theory
about the unconscious and also about social development. Although a lot of his views
were criticized and some considered them debunked, Freud’s theory remains to be one
of the most influential in psychology. His theory sparked the ideas in the brilliant minds
of other theorists and thus became the starting point of many other theories, notable of
which is Erikson’s Psychosocial theory.

As a person grows, the personality is also formed. Many psychologists present

different views about how personality develops. As mentioned, Freud represents a very
interesting theory about personality, its components and developments. Read on and
hopefully it will also somehow lead you to understand more your own personality.

Freud’s Stages of Psychosexual Development

Freud is the most popular psychologist that studied the development of
personality, also probably the most controversial. His theory of psychosexual
developments includes five distinct stages. According to Freud, a person goes through
a sequence of these five stages and along the way there are needs to be met. Whether
these needs are met or not, determines whether the person will develop a healthy
personality or not. The theory is quite interesting for many because Freud identified
specific erogenous zones for each stage of development. These are specific “pleasure
areas” that become focal points for the particular stage. If needs are not met along the
area, a fixation occurs. As an adult, the person will now manifest behaviors related to
this erogenous zones.
Oral Stage (birth to 18 months). The erogenous zone is the mouth. During the
oral stage, the child is focused on oral pleasure (sucking). Too much or little satisfaction
can lead to an Oral Fixation or Oral Personality which is known in an increased focus on
oral activities. This type of personality may be oral receptive, that is, have a stronger
tendency to smoke, drink alcohol, overeat or oral aggressive, that is, with a tendency
to bite his or her nails or use words or even gossip. As a result, these persons may
become too dependent on others, easily fooled, and lack leadership traits. On the other
hand, they may also fight these tendencies and become pessimistic and aggressive in
relating with people.
Anal Stage (18 months to 3 years). The child’s focus of pleasure in this stage is
the anus. The child finds satisfactions in eliminating and retaining feces. Through
society’s expectation, particularly the parents, the child to work on toilet training. Let’s
remember that between one year and a half to three years the child’s favorite word
might be “NO!”, Therefore a struggle might exist in the toilet training process when the
child retains feces when asked to eliminate, or may choose to defecate when asked to
hold feces for some reason. In terms of personality, fixation during this stage can result
in being anal retentive, an obsession with cleanliness, perfection, and control; or anal
epulsive where the person may become messy and disorganized.
Phallic Stage (ages 3 to 6). The pleasure or erogenous zones is the genitals.
During the preschool age, children become interested in what makes boys and girls
different. Preschoolers will sometimes be seen fondling their genitals. Freud’s studies
led him to believe that during this stage boys develop unconscious sexual desire for
their mother. Boy’s then see their father as a rival for her affection. Boys may fear that
their father will punish them for these feelings, thus, the castration anxiety. These
feeling comprise what Freud called Oedipus Complex. In Greek Mythology, Oedipus
unintentionally killed his father and married his mother Jocasta.
Psychoanalysts also believed that girls may also have a similar experience,
developing unconscious sexual attraction towards their father. This is what referred to
as the Electra Complex.
Latency Stage (age 6 to puberty). It’s during this stage that sexual urges remain
repressed. The children’s focus is the acquisition of physical and academic skills. Boys
usually relate more with boys and girls with girls during this stage.
Genital stage (puberty onwards). The fifth stage of psychosexual development
begins at the start of puberty when sexual urges are once again awakened. In the
earlier stages, adolescents focus their sexual urges towards the opposite sex peers,
with the pleasure centered on the genitals.

Freud’s Personality Components

Freud described the personality structures as having three components, the id,
the ego, and the superego. For each person, the first to emerge is the id, followed by
the ego, and last to develop is the superego.
The id. Freud says that, a child is born with the id. The id plays a vital role in
one’s personality because as a baby, it works so that the baby’s essential needs are
met. The id operates on the pleasure principle. It focuses on immediate gratification or
satisfaction of its needs. So whatever feels good now is what it will pursue with no
consideration to the reality, logicality or practicality of the situation. For example, a baby
is hungry. It’s id wants food or milk… so the baby will cry. When the child needs to be
changed, the id cries. When the child is uncomfortable, in pain, too hot, too cold or just
wants attention, the id speaks up until his or her needs are met.
Nothing matters to the id except the satisfaction of its own needs. It is not
oriented towards considering reality nor the needs of others. Just see how babies cry
any time of day and night! Absolutely no regard of whether mommy is tired or daddy is
sleeping. When the id wants something, it wants it now and it wants it fast.
The Ego. As the baby turns into a toddler and then into a preschooler, he/she
relates more with environment, the ego slowly begins to emerge. The ego operates
using the reality principle. It is aware that others also have needs to be met. It is
practical because it knows that being impulsive or selfish can result to negative
consequences later, so it reasons and considers the best to response to situations. As
such, it is the deciding agent of the personality. Although it functions to help the id meet
its needs, it always takes into account the reality of the situation.
The Superego. Near the end of preschool years, or the end of the phallic stage,
the superego develops. The superego embodies a person’s moral aspect. This
develops from what the parents, teachers and the other persons who exert influence
impart to be good or moral. The superego is likened to conscience because it exerts
influence on what one considers right or wrong.

The Three Components and Personality Adjustment

Freud said that a well-adjusted person is one who has strong ego, who can help
satisfy the needs of the id without going against the superego while maintaining the
person’s sense of what is logical, practical and real. Of course, it is not easy for the ego
to do all that and strike a balance. If the id too much power over the ego, the person
becomes too impulsive and pleasure-seeking behavior takes over one’s life. On the
opposite direction, one may find the superego so strong that the ego is overpowered.
The person becomes so harsh and judgmental to himself and others’ actions. The
person’s best effort to be good may still fall short of the superego’s expectations.
The ability of a learner to be well-adjusted is largely influenced by how the
learner was brought up. His experiences about how his parents met his needs, the
extent to which he was allowed to do things he wanted to do, and also how he was
taught about right and wrong, all figures to the type of personality and consequent
adjustment that a person will make. Freud believed that the personality of an individual
is formed early during the childhood years.

Topographic Model
The Unconscious. Freud said that most what we go through in our lives,
emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses deep within are not available to us at a
conscious level. He believed that most of what influence us is our unconscious. The
Oedipus and Electra complex mentioned earlier were both buried down into
unconscious, out of out awareness due to the extreme anxiety they caused. While these
complexes are in our unconscious, they still influence our thinking, feeling and doing in
perhaps dramatic ways.
The Conscious. Freud also said that all that we are aware of is stored in our
conscious mind. Our conscious mind only comprises a very small part of who we are so
that, in our everyday life, we are only aware of a very small part of what makes up our
personality; most of what we are is hidden and out of reach.
The Subconscious. The last part is the preconscious or subconscious. This is
the part of us that we can reach if prompted, but is not in our active conscious. It’s right
below the surface, but still “hidden” somewhat unless we search for it. Information such
as our telephone number, some childhood memories, or the name of your best
childhood friend is stored in the preconscious.
Because the unconscious is so huge, and because we are only aware of the very
small conscious at any given time, Freud used the analogy of the iceberg to illustrate it.
A big part of the iceberg is hidden beneath the water’s surface.
The water, may represent all that we are not aware of, have not experienced,
and that has not been made part of our personalities referred to as the nonconscious.

Concsious

Preconscious
Superego
Ego* Unconscious

Unconscious
ID
 Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

INTRODUCTION

Jean Piaget’s Cognitive Theory of Development is truly a classic in the field of

educational psychology. This theory fueled other researches and theories of
development and learning. Its focus is on how individuals construct knowledge.

For sixty years, Jean Piaget conducted research on cognitive development. His
research method involved observing a small number of individuals as they responded to
cognitive tasks that he designed. These tasks were later known as Piagetian tasks.

Piaget called his general theoretical framework “genetic epistemo-logy” because

he was interested in how knowledge developed in human organisms. Piaget was
initially into biology and he also had a background in philosophy. Knowledge from both
these disciplines influenced his theories and research of child development. Out of his
researches, Piaget came up with the stages of cognitive development.

Piaget examined the implications of his theory not only to aspects of cognition
but also to intelligence and moral development. His theory has been applied widely to
teaching and curriculum design specially in the preschool and elementary curricula.

Basic Cognitive Concepts

Schema. Piaget used the term “schema” to refer to the cognitive structures by
which individuals intellectually adapt to and organize their environment. It is an
individual’s way to understand or create meaning about a thing or experience. It is like
the mind has a filing cabinet and each drawer has folders that contain files of things he
has had an experience with. For instance, if a child sees a dog for the first time, he
creates his own schema of what a dog is. It has four legs and a tail. It barks. It’s furry.
The child the “puts this description of a dog ‘on file’ in his mind.” When he sees another
similar dog, he “pulls” out the file (his schema of a dog) in his mind, looks at the animal,
and says, “four legs, tail, barks, furry…. That’s a dog!”

Assimilation. This is the process of fitting a new experience into an existing or

previously created cognitive structure or schema. If the child sees another dog, this
time a little smaller one, he would make sense of what he is seeing by adding this new
information (a different-looking dog) into his schema of a dog.

Accommodation. This is the process of creating a new schema. If the same

child now sees another animal that looks a little bit like a dog, and say, “Look mommy,
what a funny looking dog. Its bark is funny too!” Then the mommy explains, “That’s not
a funny looking dog. That’s a goat!” With mommy’s further descriptions, the child will
now create a new schema, that of a goat. He now adds a new file in his filing cabinet.

Equilibration. Piaget believed that people have the natural need to understand
how the world works and to find order, structure, and predictability in their life.
Equilibration is achieving proper balance between assimilation and accommodation.
When our experiences do not match our schemata (plural of schema) or cognitive
structures, we experience cognitive disequilibrium. This means there is a
discrepancy between what is perceived and what is understood. We then exert effort
through assimilation and accommodation to establish equilibrium once more.

Cognitive development involves a continuous effort to adapt to the environment

in terms of assimilation and accommodation. In this sense, Piaget’s theory is similar in
nature to other constructivist perspectives of learning like Bruner and Vygotsky.
Piaget’s Stages of Cognitive Development

Stage 1. Sensori-motor Stage. The first stage corresponds from birth to infancy. This
is the stage when a child who is initially reflexive in grasping, sucking and
reaching becomes more organized in his movement and activity. The term
sensori-motor focuses on the prominence of the senses and muscle movement
through which infant comes to learn about himself and the world. In working with
children in the sensori-motor stage, teachers should aim to provide a rich and
stimulating environment with appropriate objects to play with.

Object permanence. This is the ability of the child to know that an object still
exists even when out of sight. This ability is attained in the sensory motor stage.
(Please refer to Unit 2, Module 13 for more notes.)

Stage 2. Pre-Operational Stage. The preoperational stage covers from about two to
seven years old, roughly corresponding to the preschool years. Intelligence at
this stage is intuitive in nature. At this stage, the child is now ever closer to the
use of symbols. This stage is highlighted by the following:

Symbolic Function. This is the ability to represent objects and events. A

symbol is a thing that represents something else. A drawing, a written word, or a
spoken word comes to be understood as representing a real object like a real
MRT train. Symbolic function gradually develops in the period between 2 to 7
years. Riel, a two-year old may pretend that she is drinking from a glass which is
really empty. Though she already pretends the presence of water, the glass
remains to be a glass. At around four years of age, however, Nico, may, after
pretending to drink from an empty glass, turn the glass into a rocket ship or a
telephone. By the age of 6 or 7 the child can pretend to play with objects that
exist only in his mind. Enzo, who is six, can do a whole ninja turtle routine
without any costume nor “props.” Tria, who is seven can pretend to host an
elaborate princess ball only in her mind.

Egocentrism. This is the tendency of the child to only see his point of view and
to assume that everyone also has his same point of view. The child cannot take
the perspective of others. You see this in a five year-old boy who buys a toy truck
for his mother’s birthday. Or a three year-old girl who cannot understand why her
cousins call her daddy “uncle” and not daddy.

Centration. This refers to the tendency of the child to only focus on one aspect
of a thing or event and exclude other aspects. For example, when a child is
presented with a two identical glasses with the same amount of water. However,
once water from one glass is transferred to an obviously taller but narrower
glass, the child might say that there is more water in the taller glass.

The child only focused or “centered” only one aspect of the new glass, that it is a
taller glass. The child was not able to perceive that the new glass is also
narrower. The child only centered on the height of the glass and excluded the
width in determining the amount of water in the glass.

Irreversibility. Pre-operational children still have the inability to reverse their

thinking. They can understand that 2+3 is 5, but cannot understand that 5-3 is 2.
 Animism. This is the tendency of the children to attribute human like traits or
characteristics to inanimate objects. When at night, the child asked, where the
sun is, she will reply, “Mr. Sun is asleep.”

Transductive reasoning. This refers to the pre-operational child’s type of

reasoning that is neither inductive not deductive. Reasoning appears to be form
particular to particular i,e., if A causes B, then B causes A. for example, since her
mommy comes home everyday around six o’ clock in the evening, when asked
why is it already night, the child will say, “because my mom is already home.”

Stage 3. Concrete-operational stage. This stage is characterized by the ability of the

child to think logically but only in terms of concrete objects. This covers
approximately the ages between 8-11 years or the elementary school years. The
concrete operational stage is marked by the following:

Decentering. This refers to the ability of the child to perceive the different
features of objects and situations. No longer is the child focused or limited to one
aspect or dimension. This allows the child to be more logical when dealing with
concrete objects and situations.

Reversibility. During the stage of concrete operations, the child can now follow
that certain operations can be done in reverse. For example, they can already
comprehend the commutative property of addition, and that subtraction is the
reverse of addition. They can also understand that a ball of clay shaped into a
dinosaur can again be rolled back into a ball of clay.

Conservation. This is the ability to know the certain properties of objects like
numbers, mass, volume, or area do not change even if there is a change in
appearance. Because of the development of the child’s ability of decentering and
also reversibility, the concrete operational child can now judge rightly that the
amount of water in a taller but narrower container is still the same as when the
water was in the shorter but wider glass. The children progress to attain
conservation abilities gradually being a pre-conserver, a transitional thinker and
then a conserver.

Stage 4. Formal Operational Stage. In the final stage of formal operations covering
ages between 12 and 15 years, thinking becomes more logical. They can now
solve abstract problems and can hypothesize. The stage is characterized by the
following:

Hypothetical Reasoning. This is the ability to come up with different hypothesis

about a problem and to gather and weigh data in order to make a final decision
or judgment. This can be done in the absence of concrete objects, the individuals
can now deal with the “What if” questions.

Analogical Reasoning. This is the ability to perceive the relationship in one

instance and then use that relationship to narrow down possible answers in
another similar situation or problem. The individual in the formal operations stage
can make an analogy. If United Kingdom is to Europe, then Philippines is to
_____. The individual will reason that since the UK is found in the continent of
Europe then the Philippines is found in what continent? Then Asia is his answer,
through reflective thought and even in the absence of concrete objects, the
individual can now understand relationships and do analogical reasoning.

Deductive Reasoning. This is the ability to think logically by applying a general

rule to a particular instance or situation. For example, all countries near the north
pole have cold temperatures. Greenland is near the north pole. Therefore,
Greenland has cold temperature.

From Piaget’s findings and comprehensive theory, we can derive the following
principles:
1. Children will provide different explanations of reality at different stages of
cognitive development.
2. Cognitive development is facilitated by providing activities or situations that
engage learners and require adaption (i,e., assimilation and accommodation).
3. Learning materials and activities should involve the appropriate level of motor or
mental operations for a child of given age; avoid asking students to perform tasks
that are beyond their current cognitive capabilities.
4. Use teaching methods that actively involve students and present challenges.