Comparison and Contrast between Bowlby Attachment Theory and Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development

This article explains the comparison and contrast between two grand theories of development, Bowlby Attachment Theory and Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development. It also positions them within the context of the nature-nurture debate. The article discusses the impact of parents on child development and the different stages of development according to both theories. The subject is child development, and the course code, course name, and college/university are not mentioned.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
1. Explaining the comparison and contrast between two grand theories of development and
positioning them within context of the nature-nurture debate....................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

MAIN BODY
1. Explaining the comparison and contrast between two grand theories of development and
positioning them within context of the nature-nurture debate
There are various theories developed by psychoanalysts to explain how a child changes and
grows socially and emotionally over time. The two major theories of child development are as
follows:
Bowlby Attachment Theory: John Bowlby stated that attachment is “lasting
psychological connectedness between human beings” (Levy and Johnson, 2019). Bowlby wanted
to study the anxiety that children experiences when they are separated from their parents or
caregivers. He had an opinion that bonds created by children with their parents at early stage of
development have a long lasting impact on children. Bowlby suggested that attachment was not a
learned behaviour and children are born with the feeling of attachment because of genetics. The
attachments at the early stage helps children to have comfort and protection and they usually
survive to adulthood. For that Bowlby devised 4 stages of attachment: Pre-attachment: This stage develops from birth to three months and babies identify their
parents smell and voice and feel comfortable. The attachments are formed when parents
take child in hands, however, there is no full attachment because child is at comfort when
left with a stranger. Attachment-in-making: The stage lasts to seven months where attachment builds stronger
and deeper and children respond differently to parents and strangers (Petters, 2019). The
child is at ease with caregivers than with a complete stranger and learns the difference
between stranger and family. Clear-cut attachment: This is the third stage which starts from 7th month and ends at 11th
month. By this time, infant becomes upset with parent’s absence and wants full attention
from them. Caregiver tries to give full attention, fulfil basic needs and play with their
child to strengthen the bond.
 Formation of reciprocal attachment: Children learns new language at this stage and
understands parent's timing of arrival and departure. Parents try to build a more secure
and emotional attachment by fulfilling their basic needs.

Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development: Sigmund Frued gave the Psychosexual
Theory of Development after working with emotionally disturbed adults. He suggested that
parents play an important role in controlling children's aggressive and sexual drives during the
early stage of development (Gumiandari and Nafi’a, 2019). Freud said that first five years are
important for the development of adult personality. The id needs to be in control so that social
needs are managed. The ego and superego also arises to have control over demands and needs.
His theory was based on five stages of developments which are as follows: Oral: Child at this stage is of less than one year and mouth is the centre for development.
The child enjoys oral stimulation from activities of tasting and sucking. If the child's oral
need is not fulfilled like breast-feeding, then baby may develop the bad habits of thumb
sucking or biting nails to meet his basic need. Anal: This stage begins when the child is of one to three years old and tests with urine &
faces. The child is given training for controlling his bodily needs. Parents teach their
child the control and toilet training. It should not be taught at very early stage, otherwise,
children become orderly and rigid. Phallic: The age group of three to six years comes under this stage and their schooling
starts. Child starts to identify the difference between male and female. At this stage, they
struggle with sexual feelings toward their parents, that is, a girl toward his father and a
boy to his mother. Latency: During this stage, the child falls under the age category of six to twelve years
and behaves in the acceptable manner. They develop social abilities and relations with
other people part from their parents. Genital: This stage develops after the age of twelve years which is the onset of adolescent
age. Individual's sexual desire towards opposite sex grows and further gives way to
marriage and childbirth.
Comparison between 2 theories:
Nature means the genes that are passed down from parents to children whereas Nurture means
the way the parents nurture or raises their children. The comparison between two grand theories
of development is as follows:

Bowlby Attachment Theory Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development
Bowlby's theory was not based on in depth
evaluation and was just the normal observation
studying children.
Freud developed this theory with past data and
study of emotionally mental adults.
This theory relates to attachment level of
children with their parents up to the age of
three to four years.
Here, the theory focuses on the development of
children throughout their life (Żechowski,
2017).
Only 2 factors are considered for attachment,
that is, absence and present time of parents.
Three factors of id, ego and superego are
considered which changes as a person grows
over time.
Bowlby takes nurture and nature concept into
account which means that parents or caregiver
are held responsible for raising their children.
It takes both nature and nurture concept into
consideration, that is, children have
attachments with other people also and learns
from them as well.
The attachment theory takes no notice of what
happens between infancy and adolescent age
once the child is attached to its parents.
The overall development of child from infancy
to young age is considered and evaluated.
This theory examines both male and female
child attachment towards their parents.
Theory focuses much on the development of
male and dose not study development of
female.
Bowlby's focal point was on both heterosexual
and homosexual preferences.
Freud theory focuses only on heterosexual
preferences and not on homosexual one.
(Evaluating Freud's Theory of Development,
2021).
Only parents or caregivers have attachment or
influences the behaviour of child.
Any person, irrespective of class, gender or
culture, in touch with the child can affect its
behaviour.
It fulfils two function of safeguarding the It serves the purpose of controlling the

children from any harm and to control the
negative emotions of children.
aggressive nature and sexual desires of
children.
There is no biasness in Bowlby's theory. Freud theory shows some biasness in his
interpretation and gave attention to supportive
theories only.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gumiandari, S. and Nafi’a, I., 2019. Gender Bias Constructed In Freud’s Concept On Human
Psycho-Sexual Development (An Analyctical Study based on Islamic Psychological
Analysis). PALASTREN Jurnal Studi Gender. 12(1). pp.211-256.
Levy, K. N. and Johnson, B. N., 2019. Attachment and psychotherapy: Implications from
empirical research. Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne. 60(3). p.178.
Petters, D. D., 2019. The attachment control system and computational modeling: Origins and
prospects. Developmental psychology. 55(2). p.227.
Żechowski, C., 2017. Theory of drives and emotions-from Sigmund Freud to Jaak
Panksepp. Psychiatr Pol. 51(6). pp.1181-1189.
Online
Evaluating Freud's Theory of Development. 2021 [Online]. Available through:
<https://getrevising.co.uk/grids/evaluating-freuds-theory-of-development>