Who Provides the Better Approach to Human Behaviour, Freud or Skinner

In the world of psychology, Sigmund Freud versus B.F. Skinner has been a long-standing debate. The question, “If one had depression, which would be the better therapist and why?” raises a great variety of controversies. This debate of Freud versus Skinner stems from their position and philosophy in psychology, psychoanalysis and behaviorism—Freud being the founder of psychoanalysis and Skinner maintaining a strong behaviorist stand. There are typically three viewpoints to this controversy: those solely in support of Freud, those solely in support of Skinner, and those not in total support nor total

Another stage in human growth and development is called the phallic stage. Sigmund Freud believed this stage took place from the age of three to six years old. This is the stage that children become more aware of the sexual regions of their bodies. Not only do they become more self aware but also start to notice their parents and kids around them. This helps them learn the difference in “boy” or “girl” male or female. During this stage it is not uncommon for a child to hook them self onto the parent of opposite sex and start a rivalry with the parent of the same sex (Garcia, 1995). “Individuals who show higher levels in phallic stage of psychosexual development fixation are more likely to develop sexually” (“ Sexual Compulsivity, Promiscuity and Phallic Stage of Psychosexual Development Fixation. ,” 2012, para. 3).

Apart from the features mentioned above, the core assumption of the psychoanalytic perspective is that a person’s personality depends on childhood experiences. In this psychosexual development theory, Freud assumed that all children go through five stages. These are the oral stage, anal stage, phallic stage, latency stage and genital stage. He believed that a fixation would occur if a child experienced extreme problems or pleasure. (Eysenck, 1994)

Freud describes child development as a series of psychosexual stages whereby the pleasure seeking ID becomes focused on certain erogenous zones and this psychosexual energy or libido is the sole force behind human behaviour. He examines how if at any

It is at puberty that the sexual nature of girls becomes feminine, that is, passive or receptive. Puberty for girls is marked by a fresh wave of repression in which it is precisely clitoral sexuality that is affected, thus overtaking the heretofore-active nature of a little girl's sexuality, and replacing it with a passive non-clitoral leading sexual zone focused on the vaginal orifice. The clitoris retains a role in sexual excitement but its task is in transmitting the excitation to the adjacent female sexual parts and is not the primary sexual zone as experienced in boys.

While volunteering at the learning center, I was in the 3-4 year old age group; this specific age group should be in the phallic stage according to Sigmund Freud. The phallic stage is a personality theory that says children become very curious in genital areas. They discover what they have, compared to what other children have. At this point the opposite sex parent becomes the child’s favorite because they don’t know

Three major events in the early twentieth century greatly influenced Skinner’s work: Darwin’s theory of evolution, Freud’s psychoanalysis, and Pavlov’s approach to conditioning. Darwin asserted that all life forms evolved from simple forms and that the selection of characteristics contribute to the survival of each individual. Skinner believed that Darwin’s ideas could be applied to behaviorism and coined the idea of “selection by consequences” to explain why people act how they act. Psychoanalysis began in the early 1900s and Freud focused on the idea that people are driven by their unconscious and that adult behaviors are formed in childhood. Skinner agreed with a few of Freud’s ideas; both psychologists believed that behavior has predictable effects and is not a result of free will. However, Skinner rejected Freud’s idea that the id, ego, and superego cause behavior. Pavlov’s

The second stage, the anal stage, occurs from the first year to year and a half until age 3. The child is learning the technique of controlling both their bladder and their bowels, as well as learning toilet training. When fixation occurs in the anal stage, it is manifested in the individuals’ personality. These anal-fixated individuals are the “anal-retentive” and “anal expulsive” population. They are always either late or messy, or they suffer from obsessive

According to Freud, the prevailing view of “human sexual life consists essentially in an endeavor to bring one’s own genitals into contact with those of the opposite sex” (Freud 22). Freud then goes on to mention that not everyone can fit this framework, particularly children, perverts, and homosexuals. When it comes to children, Freud argues that sexuality manifests after birth, continues until adolescence through three phases, stops, and then starts again during puberty as the fifth and final phase. Freud describes the first phase of a child’s sexual function as the “generalization of pleasures associated with mucus membrane simulation” (Choler 5). By Freud’s definition, sucking on a mother’s breast is considered a sexual act; the child receives mucus membrane simulation in his mouth and gets pleasure from it.

Psychology is not just philosophical speculation and reasoning over the years it has evolved and it is now also recognised as a science, to understand what psychology is all about it is necessary to know it’s origins and the theorist who brought it out of obscurity, Sigmund Freud. He developed the Psychodynamic or Psychoanalytical perspective to enable better understanding of human behaviour these concepts will be discussed further later in this study. After Freud opened the gateway other perspectives and approaches have been developed, now with five main areas of psychology - Cognitive, Behaviourist, Biopsychology and Humanist approaches. For a comparison with the Psychodynamic theory, Behaviourist Theory will be discussed.

Each stage represents a child’s focus on its pleasure center at that time of life. The Oral stage, describes the pleasure center as the mouth, a period where children constantly are putting things in their mouth, be it a teething ring or their very own thumb. Next is the Anal stage, where the child is now learning to be potty trained and is fixated on their ability to control their bowel movements. Then there is the Phallic stage, from the ages 3 to 6 years every child is fascinated by their genitals. For example, my psychology teacher, a dotting grandmother, for the first time is experiencing the trials of raising a boy. One day she told us this story in which she was giving her grandson a bath and he was constantly talking about his penis, pressing it against everything, and putting it into any areas or holes that it might fit. The second to last stage is about Latency, where the child represses their sexual interest and develops social and intellectual skills, this occurs from the ages 6 to when puberty hits. Finally we have the Genital stage, which is a time of sexual reawakening where the source of pleasure becomes someone outside the individual’s family which takes place after puberty.

There are five stages to this development. These stages were established by Sigmund Freud. The five stages are: oral phase, anal phase, phallic stage, latency stage, and the genital stage. The first stage, oral, deals with gratification through oral activities, the second stage, anal, is the gratification through elimination of waste, the third stage, phallic, is gratification through the genital areas (attachment to parent of opposite sex), the fourth stage, latency, is when sexual feelings remain unconscious (cooties), and the fifth stage, genital, is the nature of sexual development. If someone has too much or not enough gratification in one of the stages, they could develop characteristics of that stage which is called

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), was an influential Austrian psychologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. Freud went on to produce several theories, such as his theory on psychosexual development, which will be the focus of this assignment. Using the case study of a six-year-old patient, I will discuss the key principles of Freud’s theory on psychosexual development. Including, comprehensive definitions of the concepts used, and the stages of Freud’s psychosexual development. Lastly using Freud’s theory, I will explain how the patient’s current behaviour, could impact her behaviour in adulthood.

During this stage pleasure arises from genital stimulation. This is also the stage where children experience the Oedipus or Electra complex (Barlow, Durand, Stewart, 2009; Shaffer et al., 2010). Freud alleged that young boys would have sexual fantasies that included their mothers with accompanying feelings of anger toward their fathers. This was coupled with fears that their fathers would castrate them led to the Oedipus complex (Barlow, Durand, Stewart, 2009). Alternatively, girls may suffer from what is known as the Electra complex. Freud supposed that girls wanted to replace their mother’s place and assume a relationship with their father. This was coupled with penis envy of a brother or father as girl’s wished they could be more like the male figures in their life (Barlow, Durand, Stewart, 2009). If this stage was not resolved in childhood, Freud believed that anxiety from unresolved conflicts with same-sex parent lead to neuroses (Shaffer et al, 2010).

More specifically, Freud traces the roots of all adult behaviors back to childhood impulses and showed how conflicts related to the development of sexuality in childhood subsequently results in psychopathology or neuroses. (Good & Beitman)