FREUD’S & PIAGET’S
THEORIES
Comparison Essay
2 DE DICIEMBRE DE 2013
ROSA MARÍA CARVAJAL PÉREZ
Instituto Cultural Mexicano Norteamericano de Michoacán A. C.
Teachers Training Course Program
Teacher: Bárbara Zamudio
FREUD VS. PIAGET
When we talk about the mental, physical and emotional development of people,
there are many theories. On this essay will be explained two of them, the one that
Jean Piaget did and the one by Sigmund Freud. Both were psychologist that tried to
understand how we develop ourselves until we are adults, and how all the things
around us affect in the development. Not only the environment affect, also the
experiences that we experiment; for Freud the first five years of life are essential to
determine your personality, instead for Piaget we have to pass for a whole cycle, life,
to determine how we will behave, and for him all the experiences during all life affect
a person, no matter the age. Anyway they have different points of view of how we
develop personality, both separate development on stages. Freud focusing on
psychosexual development and Piaget on cognitive development.
About their theories
Freud’s theory says that each person is predestine for the circumstances that mark
the childhood, and that takes the person to behave in certain way. He was interested
on psychosexual development so he divided it in 5 stages. You have to complete
these stages successfully or the result will be an unhealthy personality, each stage
focus on an erogenous zone (that refers to an action or part of the body that makes
you feel pleasure) and an unsuccessfully completion of it will fixate that erogenous
zone.
For Piaget was more important cognitive processes (is the mental capacity to build
knowledge), so for his theory he referred to the general cycle of life dividing it on 4
stages. If the kid does not complete each one successfully, he retard in the cognitive
development, psychomotor development and the major functions, like attention and
perception, and the learning it is not possible; so it is necessary to help the kid to
consolidate all the characteristics to continue with a normal development. He
considered that the emotional development influxes in cognitive development
(changes by with mental process become more complex) in that way was easier to
divide the classification of the personality of people. He taught that we learn using
schemas, building block of knowledge, and creating a new schema is getting learn
a new thing. In adaptation, first we have to assimilate (with the schemas we already
have), then accommodate (with the help of the schemas); the result of it can be
Equilibrium (accept something into a schema) or disequilibrium (creating a new
schema).
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The research
Besides they studied the development form different sides, they also differ in their
way to study the cases. Piaget based his ideas on the direct observation of the kids,
always obtaining the same answer, so his postulate can be demonstrated
scientifically. He made some experiments with different kids, for babies he hide a
ball down a shelter; for kids he gave one cookie to them and he kept two, then he
broke in two the kid’s cookie; he serve the same amount of water in different glasses
of the same high and then serve the liquid of one in another more larger and thinner.
On the other hand Freud developed his ideas by his own experiences, observing his
fears and hypothetic theories; because of that his postulates cannot be
demonstrated in a scientific way, so his follower guide by the convincement of his
own theory. As a consequence of basing on his own fears he thought that the
evolution and the human thinking are distinguished by the confrontation of fear; for
Piaget the difference is the knowledge.
Differences in stages
Piaget and Freud believed that the human develops by stages, and each one
determine the next one, they almost coincided in the age of the individual in each
stage, both start since the born until adulthood. As I mention before the
consequences of complete a stage affect in personality for Freud, and for Piaget in
the cognitive process.
FIRST STAGE.
For both start at the age of 0. In psychosexual theory, developed by Freud, ends
at age of 18 months. It is called Oral Stage, the baby focuses on the pleasure of
sucking (in this age is when they drink milk from their mothers breast and toes). In
this stage they develop, with a normal development, confidence and trust ;but if
there's too much or too little gratification the conduct will be affected in the future, he
will be more PROPENSO to become a smoker, an alcoholic, an over eating person,
dependent, gullible and a follower.
For Piaget, it ends at the age of 2 and it is called Sensorimotor Stage. The child
thinking involves seeing, hearing, moving, touching and tasting, the five senses. The
baby starts to make use of imitation, memory, thought, recognize that objects do no
stop existing when they are hidden, and moves from reflex actions to goal-directed
activity.
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Also I'm going to include the second stage of psychosexual theory here, it will be
easier to see the differences per ages. This stage starts at the age of 18 months and
ends at 3 years old, it is called Annal Stage. In this stage the kid's pleasure focus on
eliminating and retaining feces. The child develop independence; it is decided if he
or she will be competent productive and creative. If there is something wrong, there
are more possibilities that the child become obsession with cleanly, perfection,
control of the opposite, messy and disorganized.
SECOND STAGE.
In the cognitive development theory starts when the kid it's 2 and finishes at 7
years old, it is called Preoperational Stage. The child is moving toward mastery, but
has not yet mattered mental operations. He develops use of language and ability to
think in symbolic form, is able to think operations through logically in one direction
and has difficulties seeing another person's point of view.
Meanwhile for Freud this stage goes from the ages of 3 to 6, he called it as
the Phallic Stage, and the pleasure zone is on genitals. Little girls feel an
unconscious sexual attraction to their fathers and boys for their mothers. Kids start
taking conscious about the physical differences between girls and boys, they
become aware of sexuality.
THIRD STAGE
For the Freudians the Latency Stage is from the age of 6 to puberty. During this
stages the sexual urges disappear and they disagree with the idea of playing with
the opposite genre. They take conscious about who they are, they recognize
themselves, Freud called it ego, and they also start thinking about what they want
and about who they want to become, this is called super ego.
By the other side, for the followers of Piaget comes the Concrete Operational
Stage, starting at 7 and finishing at 11 years. Piaget describe it as "hands-on"
thinking stage because kids now are able to solve concrete problems I'm logical
fashion, understand laws of conservation (elements can change or transform but
they keep some characteristics), they are able to think reversibility.
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FOURTH STAGE
In the theory of Freud the Genital Stage is the fifth and the last one, covers since
the puberty until death. The pleasure zone return to the genitals, they direct their
sexual urges to the opposite sex, and the young adult start looking for the ideal
couple. According to this theory, unconsciously guys look for someone like their
mother and girls someone like their fathers.
Finally for Piaget’s theory it is the fourth an also the last stage, from 11 years to
death, he called it Formal Operational. Here the adolescent will be able to solve
abstract problems in logical fashion, their way of thinking becomes more scientific
and he develops concerns about social issues and identity. The focus of thinking can
go from what is to what it might be. The adolescent egocentrism is developed, they
are concern that people have different ideas and beliefs, but at this stage they focus
a lot in their own ideas.
Conclusion
Even though this theories focus in different points, both are divided in stages. For
me the complement each other very well because the one that Freud did talks about
what we want, that determines our personality, and the one that Piaget developed
that talks about how we learn. In my respect, we cannot advance in the stages of
Cognitive Development Theory before the stages of Psychosexual Theory nor the
opposite, it’s about maturation. And no matter if the ideas of Freud can be or not
prove, in my short experience, what I have seen and the little I have study; the
majority of the times they tend to be true.
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