| Freud | Piaget | Sullivan | Erikson |
|---|
| Emphasis on: |
| Pathology (intrapsychic) | Normal children | Pathology (interpersonal) | Both health and illness |
| Anxiety | No emphasis on ego, anxiety, identity, libido | Anxiety | |
| Unconscious, uncontrollable drives | Cognitive development | Unconscious, uncontrollable drives | Problems are manageable and can be solved |
| Ego needing defense | Tasks can be accomplished through learning process | Self-system needing defense | Need to integrate individual and society |
| Pathological Development Influenced by: |
| Early feelings; repressed experiences in unconscious mind | Individual differences and social influences on the mind | Unconscious mind and interpersonal relationships (IPRs) | Ego, anxiety, identity, libido concepts combined with social forces |
| Change Possible With: |
| Understanding content and meaning of unconscious | Socialization process to facilitate cognitive development | Improved IPRs and understanding basic good-bad transformations | Integration of attitudes, libido, and social roles for strong ego identity |
| Age Group: |
| First 5 yr of life | Middle childhood years | Adolescence | Middle age, old age |
| Focus on: |
| Emotional development | Cognitive skills | Emotional and interpersonal development; relationships with opposite sex | Emotional, interpersonal, spiritual |
| Psychosexual aspects | Cognitive, interactive aspects | Psychosocial aspects; developing sense of identity | Psychosocial aspects |
| Cause of Conflicts and Problems: |
| Oral, anal, genital stage problems (especially unresolved oedipal/castration conflicts) | Faulty adaptation between individual and environment for intellectual development | Threats to self-system; disturbed communication process; 7 stages not complete | Unresolved conflicts, crises in 8 successive life cycle stages |
| Prognosis: |
| Few changes possible after age 5 | Little change in adult cognitive structure after middle adolescence | Change usually possible with improved IPRs | Change not only possible but expected throughout life |
| Sexual problems part of disturbed behavior | Sex as a variable in learning (age, IQ) | Sexual problems are only one type of faulty IPRs affecting behavior | Sexual identity as one of many problems solved by interaction of desire and social process |