Introduction In this essay I am going to show my understanding of a child's early emotional development based on the psychoanalytical view of child development. I will show how emotional skills gained in the early years can be of a significant relevance to later life. I will show my understanding by illustrating it with the clinical material. Although I am focusing on the psychoanalytical approach to child development I believe that it is beneficial to present also some general background knowledge of child development. The Child as an Individual The child has not been perceived like an individual until the work of eighteen century philosophers Locke and Rousseau, who expressed their thoughts on paper about the child's ability to …show more content…
Other psychoanalytical theorist – Erikson – contradicted Freud's idea based on biological stages by introducing child development in the context of social and cultural influences (Cunningham, 1993). Therefore we would talk about the psychosocial development as staged - the changes occur rapidly and each stage would be different from the previous one. Years on, many researches and observations have been undertaken and new psychoanalytical theories started to reject Freud's and Erikson's staged view on child development and replaced it by introducing child emotional development in the context of development of self and attachment with significant others. Infant Observation Observation of an infant in the family setting 'provides the observer with an opportunity to encounter primitive emotional states in the infant and his family...' (Rustin in Miller, 1989, 7). According to Rustin infant observation allows to 'explore the emotional events between infant and mother' and 'the aim is to describe the development of the relationship between infant and others (...) and try to understand the unconscious aspects of behaviour and patterns of communication' (Rustin in Miller, 1989, 7). Early infant observation plays a vital role in the psychodynamic training and it gives a thesis of how early emotional development is being influenced by subconscious family dynamics. Unmet Needs
The parents, in this case, are critical social agents to help the toddler learn how to develop. The third stage according to Erikson is the initiative stage where the child uses their imagination to fulfill ideas expressing themselves freely. They also imitate their parents, wanting to take responsibilities and to act as an adult. Being unable to fulfill the ideas creates a feeling of guilt, thus finding a balance is important for the successful advance of this stage. Erikson’s t 4th stage explains the confidence and difficulties of learning to read or write, things children wish to achieve but are insecure to do because they compare themselves with others. The process seems overwhelming but it is a natural process of learning that takes the time to master. Freud in this stages mentioned before explains the pleasure derived from urination in the anal stage, from stimulating genitals and from the attraction to others in the phallic stage. The latency stage described by Freud agrees more with the 4th stage since the child turns his attention to school work and
Chapter 4 discussed the emotional development developed in the first two years of infants and how it deals with the social world. Infants show different emotions according to their ages. Newborn infants are happy and relaxed when fed and they cry when they are hungry or hurt. About 6 weeks they start to express happiness through the social smile. The different emotions developed through different stages. I remember some of my childhood memories. When I was 6 years old, I started to learn riding motorcycle but one day I felt down and was badly injured. After that, I was scared to ride a motorcycle. This shows that fear is developed inside me. In addition, in the same age, whenever I was alone, I always act as doctor and used to make my Barbie
Emotional Intelligence assessments have been used to predict a person’s success or failure in regard to school, business and life. There are many studies that provide evidence of the benefits of emotional intelligence to children, adults, parents and employees. A child’s emotions are often treated as petty, irrational and immature, when it is during childhood that children need to be taught how to deal with emotions. The objective of this paper is to give significant evidence that there is a benefit to beginning the introduction of emotional intelligence in the early childhood development.
Environment, health and personal bonds are detrimental to a child’s development an overall peace of mind. In their childhood many issues can arise as they become older and descend into adolescence—eating disorders, broken family life amongst many. These “issues” can unconsciously be retained and stay within the child throughout, not only adolescence, but also adulthood hence why it must be fixed at fast pace as children. Through three articles, I will summarize and analyzing child Psychology articles that relate to parents and siblings and how these bonds affect the child as they progress in life.
This paper seeks to critically evaluate my role as a child observer. First, I begin with a brief description of the child, the setting in which my observation took place and the people the child is with. And second, I attempt to discuss and compare Jean Piaget’s and Erik Erickson’s theories regarding the child’s psychosocial, physical, and cognitive development. Throughout the essay, I will discuss the main theoretical concept and evaluate in relation to my observation.
The development of a child can be weakened if this crucial period of affection and attachment is compromised. This can cause effects on the child, making them more likely to develop and grow as dsyfuncational adult. They may be prone to criminal offences in the future and have trouble with the forming close relationships, making them incaple of functioning as well familiarized members of society. (Stainton Rogers, 2009) Based amoung the readings, the second theory is covered by Sigmund Freud. This theory conisits of psychodynamic development containing 5 different stages in which each individual goes through (Stainton Rogers, 2009). Freud believed childhood consisted of preprogrammed unfolding stages. Stages which had to be completed and resolved
This study is about experimental testing to determine the possibility of being able to condition an emotional response. To conduct this experiment the authors, ( J.B. Watson and R. Rayner), used an infant as their test subject. This infant met ideal criteria and emotional stability, which was one of the main reasons this particular infant, Albert B., was used in the experimental testing. Following ethical standards, the authors felt that they could do him little harm by performing the experimental tests. The authors support the idea that in infancy, emotional reaction patterns are small in number. These emotional reaction patterns include fear, rage and love (also referred to as sex). These patterns are tested on the infant in this experiment.
However, there is difference between the theories whereby the stage names are different and developmental issues which are experienced in each phase. For example, in Freud approach, the first phase is the id which the development occurs outside entirely outside the conscious thought. On the other hand, for Erikson the first stage is infancy which occurs between 0-23 months the
In 1968, psychoanalyst Erik Erikson proposed his theory of psychosocial developments and its conflicts that are associated with each stages of life. The first life stage is infacy that begins from birth to 18 months. Trust and mistrust is associated with the life stage. The positive resolution is to provide consistent and warm care so that the child can rely and trust the caregiver. Negligence will lead to fear, anxiety and mistrust. Stage two is toddlerhood which last from 18 months to 3 years of age. Autonomy and or doubt is associated with toddlerhood. Encouraging the child to be independent and self-sufficient
Alfred Adler was originally a physician who later specialized in neurology and psychiatry, especially in treating childhood disorders (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013, p. 171). Adler helped found the child guidance movement in the early 1900s (p. 171). When invited by Freud, Adler joined the Vienna Psychoanalytic society, publishing psychoanalytically oriented articles (p. 171). However, Adler began to emphasize the importance of social factors as opposed to Freud’s drive theory, diverging from the psychoanalytical theory (p. 171). In 1914, he formed the Society for Individual Psychology. Individual psychology is more concerned with the whole person who has social, purposeful, and developmental determinants (p. 171). In this paper, I will introduce the theorical orientation of individual or Adlerian psychology. This paper will discuss how individual psychology understands human development, the role of cultural factors, the etiology of pathological symptoms/problem areas, and the role of treatment.
Knowing about our early years helps us to understand children and also widen and deepen our knowledge about ourselves (Robinson, 2008) When talking about psychological development in children and how various forms of abuse affect them, we must first discuss the two major developmental theories by Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget. The nature of development itself is dynamic, changing, exciting and challenging. “Before we can think about the world and our experiences we must first get to know it. We need to be able to have certain basic concepts in place, have ways of communicating effectively and understand differences between all types of life experiences we encounter” (Robinson, 2008, 13).
After being removed from this comforting dyad, the child now has remain removed in order to strengthen and assert their subjectivity. If there remains no tension that comes from the separation, the child is unable to distinguish between self and other and the subject and object. At this stage, the child is having intense difficulty with organizing their experiences and various different parts of the body. For psychoanalysis, separating form the mother is an incredibly difficult but a fundamentally necessary process.
It wasn’t until the time of Sigmund Freud that people looked at the psyches of an individual and what kind of impact that could have on that individual’s life. Before that time, children were seen as extra farm hands and generally as cheap labor. Families did not look at how the children were treated and the possible impact on their development. Later, Erikson and Piaget furthered the study of development and expanded the road that Freud had pioneered. While all consider Freud the father of psychoanalytic thinking, few turn to many of his first theories in reference to development. Freud forged a path by which all future developmental researchers walked through to further advance the study of development. While, experts have clearly not
Erikson (1950, 1963), does not speak about psychosexual Stages as Freud, though influenced Freudian ideas. Erikson broadens on Freudian thoughts by focusing on acclimatize and creative characteristic of the ego, and escalating the stages of personality development to progress throughout the entire life. Erik taught the ego develops as it successfully resolves predicaments that are distinctly social. Erikson suggested that the human development process functions by a series of stages, which defined as the epigenetic principle of development.
In this Individual Theory Paper, I decided to write about Erikson’s Psychosocial Theory of Development. Erik Erikson is greatly influenced by Freud but instead of concentrating on psychosexual stages, Erikson choose to focus more on the individual’s psychosocial stages as well as their personality development. Psychosocial theory can be defined as a study about human development as an outcome of the interaction in which involves the psychological or the needs of an individual, and the expectations from their society (Merriam-Webster, 2016). Freud’s stage theory was too specifically focused on an individual’s body zones, and he also vaguely discussed about the interaction between children and their significant others wherein Erikson was trying to elaborate by introducing some comprehensible concepts stage by stage in his theory (Crain, 2011). In Erikson’s theory, he tend to highlight the role of society as well as the conflict that can occur, and this made Erikson an ‘ego’ psychologist. An assumption was made that every stage is faced with different conflicts and if the individual fail to resolve it at that time, it will be dragged into their next stages of life. Thus, Erikson suggested a lifespan model of development for his theory that is set well in eight stages.