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PSYCHOANALYSIS VERSUS BEHAVIORISM
A Critical Comparison and Contrast of the Psychoanalytical and Behavioral Theory
Layal Ghaith
American University in Dubai
11/4/2014
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Abstract
This critique paper shows the similarities and differences between two theories of child
development: the Psychoanalytical Theory specifically the Psychosocial Theory and the Behavioral Theory specifically the Operational Conditioning theory. It shows how they were
criticized and their influences on children. They can be used by all educators as a way to
enhance education and improve the teaching-learning process.
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The Psychoanalytic Theory and the Behavioral Theory:
Comparison and Contrast
A theory is a set of interrelated statements and assumptions that attempts to provide a rational explanation of cause-and-effect for a class of events. Theories help us organize our
thoughts, connect our observations coherently, stimulate inquiry, accept or refuse information and search for evidence that helps in understanding human thoughts, emotions,
and behavior. My intention in this essay is to compare and contrast between the Psychoanalytic Theory and the Behavioral Theory focusing more on the effect of these theories on
child development.
The Psychoanalytic Theory explains the development of human personality as the individual passes through various psychosexual or psychosocial stages. This theory focuses on the
mental and emotional processes of an individual. It was found and established by Sigmund
Freud (1856-1939) who stressed the importance of childhood events and experiences.
Freud represented the child development through a set of psychosexual stages. After
Freud’s psychosexual ideas of development, some theorists and researchers developed
their own theories. One of them was Erik Erikson (1902-1994), a neo-Freudian psychoanalyst, who established the psychosocial theory of development. His ideas became wellknown and were considered the best theories of personality in psychology.
Erikson proposed a stage theory of development where his theory included human growth
throughout the entire lifespan focusing more on social interaction and conflicts that occur
during different stages of development. Erikson found that “the development of the ego
identity can happen through social interaction which is shaped by the surrounding environment and all the new experiences that we encounter in our daily life. Erikson introduced nine major stages of development in which people develop their personality from
strengths or weaknesses they encounter in each stage. The first psychosocial stage “Trust
vs. Mistrust” occurs between birth and one year age, where babies would develop trust depending on the quality of care, security, and supportive feelings provided by their caregivers. To support this stage caregivers need to “hold babies during feedings, respond to signals of distress, and support their attachment through primary care giving”. Erikson believed in a balance between the two opposing sides to ensure successful development. The
second stage “Autonomy vs. Shame and Doubt” occurs during early childhood where children learn to control body functions, food choices, toy preferences, and clothing selection.
This stage is supported by “giving children simple choices, not giving false choices, setting
clear, consistent, reasonable limits and accepting children’s swings between independence
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and dependence, and reassuring them that both are okay”. Completing this stage successfully increases confidence and secure feelings. The third stage “Initiative vs. Guilt” occurs
during preschool years where children start to show their control and ability in leading
others. Third stage is supported when teachers “encourage children to be as independent
as possible, focus on gains as children practice new skills, and not mistakes they make, and
focus curriculum on real things and on doing”.“Industry vs. Inferiority” is the fourth stage
(6-puberty), where children develop a sense of curiosity and pride in applying their skills
successfully. Children in this stage need encouragement and support to increase their belief
in self-abilities. The fifth psychosocial stage “Identity vs. Confusion” occurs during adolescence where children explore their self and ego-identity, developing a sense of independence and control to get the ability to live by society standards and expectations. The early
adulthood was described by the sixth stage “Intimacy vs. Isolation” where people explore
personal relationships in society. The other three stages describe middle adulthood until
very old age. A sense of competence motivates children behavior and actions. If a person
was able to handle each stage in a proper way, then he or she will be able to master all difficulties in life. Failure in completing stages successfully can reduce the children’s ability to
complete next stages and enhance the development of an unhealthy personality. Though “it
is true that people can choose to work toward a better resolution of any of these developmental tasks at any time throughout their lives”.
Erikson’s psychosocial theory is widely and highly regarded. It shows the child development through an entire lifespan and points the importance of social relationship on the
child development. His theory is seen to be useful for teaching, parenting, self-awareness,
managing, coaching, and dealing with conflict and generally for understanding self and others. Erikson was criticized that his theory was almost “entirely focused on male development, where more attention is paid to infancy rather than adult life” and that it “discriminates within children with disabilities and some cultures”. He was criticized that “the
mechanism for resolving conflicts and moving from one stage to another were not well described or developed”. Theory also failed to give enough examples on the type of necessary
experiences needed to resolve the conflict and pass on to the next stage, “What kind of experiences must people have in order to successfully resolve various psychological conflicts?
How does the outcome of one psychosocial stage influence personality at a later stage?”
.Some criticized the context of his theory as being “a descriptive overview of human social
and emotional development that does not adequately explain how or why this development
takes place”. Others criticized it for “lack of discrete stages of personality development”
(Costa and McCrae, 1997).
The Behavioral Theory is a learning theory primarily concerned with the observable behavior of people over internal events like thinking and emotions, since it is a result of stimulus
determined by interaction with the environment. Behaviorism was found by John Watson
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(1878-1958) and its main interest was how people learn to behave. Behaviorism is divided
into two main areas of conditioning- Classical or Respondent and Operant or Instrumental
Conditioning.
Operant Conditioning is a learning process in which the child behavior is modified by its
consequences. B.F.Skinner (1904-1990) investigated Operant Conditioning through observing a rat behavior (The Skinner Box). Skinner observed how the rat learned through
positive reinforcement that pushing the lever meant food is available, so then they would
learn to push the lever to get more food. Skinner determined that “the brain was not part of
conditioning and internal thoughts and motivations could not be used to explain behavior”,
instead learning can occur through environmental factors. Skinner found that a child mind
is blank and could be shaped by the environment through reinforcement. Reinforcement
can be positive in the form of a reward to encourage the repetition of a desired behavior
and reinforce it, or it could be negative as a punishment to weaken an undesired behavior.
“Stopping the occurrence of the undesired behavior through reinforcement is called Extinction”. Skinner also introduced Spontaneous Recovery which is “spontaneously remembering an old behavior if it is positively reinforced again”. Skinner added Shaping to his theory
that uses reinforced behavior to enhance teaching.
One of the most important strengths of Behavioral theory is considering it scientific, based
on evidence and carried by a controlled experiment (The Skinner Box). It was effective for
children in teaching them the consequences of their actions. However, this theory was criticized for contradicting Darwin’s ideas of natural selection. Darwin believed that humans
are constantly improving themselves to gain better self control by free will, whereas Skinner refused that by being deterministic. “Behaviorists assumed that individuals can be understood by observing their behavior only, which underestimated the cognitive processes
and biological constraints.” They ignored genetic influences, and their ideas failed to show
generalization in human behavior. Their experiments were based on animal’s behavior.
They were also criticized for their inability to explain the development of human language
and memory. The overuse of reward as an action to positively reinforce children was criticized for “diminishing intrinsic learning”, where “if they become adjusted to get rewards,
then they would struggle to act in the same way without being rewarded”.
Behavioral Theory was criticized by cognitive ideas that suggested “humans being capable
of learning forms superior to stimulus response learning”. But in spite of all of these criticisms, it was found useful in medical and educational issues. In the medical field, it can be
used to treat phobias, anxiety, neurosis, and addiction. Teachers use it in their classes to
enhance a positive class environment. Educators use it as a reward to encourage learning
and help their students overcome fear.
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Behavioral and Psychoanalytical theories have similarities and differences in viewing child
development. Both stressed on personality development and child’s motivation to learn.
They showed similarity in preferring modular method of development, where each aspect
of development-Biological, Social, and Cognitive is considered separately. They explained
the child’s behavior, and agreed on the environmental affect on it. Skinner believed in positive and negative reinforcement, and Erikson focused on the supportive and loving relation
a caregiver can offer to help a child pass successfully without conflicts from one stage to
another. Both theories rejected the idea of free will and agreed that people have little free
will to make choices in life. “Our behavior is determined by the unconscious mind and
childhood experiences”.
Psychoanalytical and Behavioral theories have different methods applied in interpreting
child development. Behaviorists believed that “only observable, measurable, outward behavior is worthy of scientific inquiry” (Bush, 2006, p.14) and “behavior is due to stimulusresponse method”. Their methods were scientific (controlled experiments), based on physical science, no guesses or hunches, no words of feelings or thoughts, no internal talking, no
model of development, just a series of generalizations about how new behavior can be
learnt. They believed that behavior is explained by a person motivation and it can only occur for a reason. Infant’s fears and other emotional reactions are acquired rather than inborn. In contrast, psycho analytics focused on the subconscious desires, thoughts, feelings,
and dream interpretation. They believed that childhood events have significant impact on
our behavior. Erikson focused on stages where an individual confronts a major challenge or
crisis and a person must resolve each stage to ensure proper development.
Both theories differ also in their view of development. Psychoanalytical theories viewed
development as a discontinuous process that proceeds through a series of qualitatively distinct stages, where development is driven by biological processes and affected by environmental experiences - Active development - the child influences his own development. They
represented both nature and nurture aspects, where all genetics, biology, and experiences
represent the primary determinants of development. They believed that people are born
with instincts. Behaviorists viewed development as a continuous process, where it is primarily a matter of growth and reinforcement. They found that changes occur quantitatively
and development is driven by the environment- Passive Development- development is
primarily a function of environmental influences. They believed that people are born with
blank slate. They represent the nurture aspect of child development only experience is the
primary determinant of development. This was clearly represented by the quote that Watson wrote in 1930, “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified
world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select- doctor, lawyer, artist-regardless of his talents,
penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors”. For Skinner, steps and
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stages were less important because learning can be achieved externally through stimuli.
Erikson’s theory was centered on social development of humans where each stage is important to guarantee proceeding to the next stage.
After studying both Behavioral and Psychoanalytical schools of thought and their respective theorists, I found that they interfered with different aspects of child development,
where each theory stressed on some particular issues and targeted a particular age group.
Reading these theories gave me a lot of ideas on how to deal with students in my class and
applying them would add a lot to my profession as an educator. Psychosocial theories focus
on stimulating the child’s imagination through stories, songs, and various simple materials
to initiate creativity in them. It tends to involve students in the teaching-learning process,
create a scheduled list of classroom and homework duties to be completed, discuss and
post classroom rules with students, include them in decision making process, teach them to
learn from mistakes, encourage them helping their peers in solving any social or academic
problem, build confidence in them, and use physical activities to build social development,
relieve stress and teach fairness. Behavioral theories focus more on setting up reinforcement schedule with students to reinforce positive behavior by using stickers, smiley faces,
tickets, or tokens and depriving students of negative behavior from enjoyable educational
tasks. Both theories target was to praise students for good choices, offer immediate continuous feedback on completed work or desired behavior, and avoid punishing students or
criticizing them. Instead, give rewards to others to induce positive reinforcement or have a
private talk with the child.
Both theories helped me understand important aspects of child development. I believe that
all children are different and there is no specific theory that can work for every child, but
combining a little of each would contribute to a healthy development. As a conclusion, all
educators must study all the theories of development, combine their aspects, identify ideas
that seem beneficial, and then apply them in classroom. This strategy can help any educator
generate a positive class environment.
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References
Boree, G. (2006). B.F.Skinner 1904-1990, retrieved July 26, 2010.
Beckeh C. and Taylor H.(2010). Human Growth and Development: Making ideas from
Behaviorism, 76-89.
Carol Garhart Mooney (2000). Theories of Childhood: An Introduction to Dewey, Montessori,
Erikson, Piaget, and Vygotsky, 3, 53-76.
David Reed Shaffer, Katherine Kipp. Developmental Psychology: Childhood & Adolescence.
Erikerikson.wikispaces.com/classroom +examples
FHS 2006 Introduction to Early Childhood Education, 2011, Pearson Learning Solutions,
Boles, Danner, Briggs, and Johnson.
Harder A. (2009). The Developmental Stages of Erik Erikson
John W.Santrock (2009). Educational Psychology: Social Contexts and Socioemotional Development, 75-76.
Thomas L.Crandell (2008). Human Development: 9th edition: Theories of Development, 3560.
www.ksspaulding.wordpress.com/article/human-development-theory-3smazt4fj02nv-8
www.sagepub.com/upm-data/36273-chapter2.pdf
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