Erik Erikson vs. Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud’s psychosexual theory of development and Erik Erikson’s psychosocial theory are two widely acknowledge in the field of personality psychology. Each of these two psychologists believed that personality develops in predetermined stages in everyone. Both theories focus on unconscious motivations and biological and instinctual drives within the mind. The structure of personality is based on three stages in the developing human. First, there is the “ID” or the demanding child, which functions in the irrational and the emotional part of the mind. The “ID” is a primitive mind and revolves around the needs of a baby initiated by the limbic system in the brain. Then there is the “EGO” which functions with the rational part of the mind. The Ego realizes the need to compromise between the Id and the Superego. Essentially the Ego’s responsibility is to satisfy the wants of the limbic system (Id) but to be reasonable and to reduce the risk of long term consequences. The Superego or the moral part of the mind is the last to develop. The Superego is the mental embodiment of the values put in place by parents and society. The Superego is the part of the mind responsible for creating anxiety in humans; this comes from its duty to enforce individual morality. The Superego has two subdivisions; the Ego Ideal and the Conscience. The Ego Ideal includes the ideal behavior that the Ego strives to achieve. The Conscience consists of the properties that would constitute bad behavior and is what the child feels his or her parents would normally disapprove of. The structure of the mind could be compared to a system of checks and balances put in place by a government, if one part of the mind is too strong or too weak it precipitates and unhealthy mind.
As I stated earlier, Freud and Erikson’s theories of development both involve similar stages of development, if any of these stages are not healthily conquered it may lead to negative ramifications later in life. The first stage...