For centuries mankind has sought to find an explanation for human behaviour. What makes one person behave in one way, and another person behave differently? Born in 1856, Sigmund Freud was a man who brought us out of the dark and presented us with an abundance of information about how our childhood and other stages of life influence our behaviour, and how different events in our growth affect our life in adulthood. So how can we compare the theories developed by this amazing man, who is considered to be the father of modern psychology to anyone else, especially to someone whose work is just a modified version of Freud's theories? Although Erik Erikson may have done some research about human behaviour, and although he may have presented some good concepts, there is no doubt that his work is inferior compared to Sigmund Freud's theories. Therefore, be it resolved that Sigmund Freud's theory offers a better explanation of human behaviour than Erik Erikson's theory.
English: Sigmund Freud's signature.
Sigmund Freud
Jacques Lacan criticized ego psychology and object...Freud's psychosexual theory gives more specific detail about human behaviour than the psychosocial theory developed by Erikson, because Freud explains the concepts of the Oedipus and Electra complexes. By doing this Freud explains the different stages females and males go through as they grow up. The Oedipus complex explains that at a certain stage (the phallic stage, age 3-6 years) boys often have close relations with their mother, and feel hate towards their father. In contrast, girls tend to be more strongly connected to their father, and experience hate towards their mother. Erikson's psychosocial theory fails to recognize the significant differences that males and females go through as they grow up, and that these differences begin to appear at very early ages. Instead Erikson's psychosocial theory assumes that everyone goes through the same eight...