A Comparative Study of Freud and Bandura on Lifespan Development

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Sigmund Freud's psychosexual development theory and Albert Bandura's social learning theory, highlighting their perspectives on child development and the role of parents. Freud's theory emphasizes the importance of psychosexual stages in shaping personality, while Bandura's theory focuses on learning through observation and social interaction. The essay explores the common ground between the theories, particularly the significance of parental influence on a child's learning process and its lasting impact on adult behavior. Ultimately, the essay connects these theories to the broader concept of lifespan development, arguing that systematic learning throughout life contributes to the growth and personality of an individual from childhood to adulthood. Desklib provides access to this and many other solved assignments for students.

Running head: FREUD AND BANDURA
Freud and Bandura
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1FREUD AND BANDURA
The aim of the paper is to compare the developmental theorist with one of the
classical theorists of psychology. It is essential to note that Sigmund Freud, father of
psychology presented the theory of psychosexual development of individual.
This theory explains the development of the child through the stages of development.
Freud has argued that the growth and development of the child and the shaping of the
personality takes place through the five phases (Ferenczi, 2018). It is known as oral, anal,
phallic, latent and genitals. It is the through the process of the proper learning of each stage
of life, the development of the personality occurs (Hogan et al., 2016). Freud argued that the
development of personality is the step-by-step process where the role of the parents is
important. These stages are the building blocks of the personality that the child develops. It
is argued that the learning process takes place through the phases with the help of one of the
organs of the body. This is further argued that if one of the stages of development is not
properly developed, it might lead to difference of behaviour at the adult stage. It is important
to consider this theory with the theory of Albert Bandura. According to the theory of
Bandura, the process of learning takes place through the process of learning from observing
the behaviour. It has been highlighted that the children at the tender age tend to learn from the
surroundings by observing the people (Hogan et al., 2016). The source of their influence is
largely the family and the parents. One of the striking features of this social learning is that
the learning process takes place without the gender appropriateness. In most of the situations
what the child learn is taken form the people around them irrespective of their gender. This
learning process happen through the encoding of behaviour from the people. It is further
argued that the role of the parents in this learning can be positive or negative, for example, if
the behaviour of the child is rewarded, he or she is likely to continue the behaviour or they
tend to leave them (Ferenczi, 2018). This acceptance of behaviour is complicated with the
process of approval from the parents. Hence it can be argued what is common between both

2FREUD AND BANDURA
of the theories is that the role of the parents is essential in the learning process of the children
and it is reflected in the behaviour of the adult in the later phase of their life.
It is important to consider the impact of the same in the lifespan development of the
child. The idea of life span development is that child grow and develop through the complex
process of learning in their life and the growth of their happy and healthy life is due to the
stages of their development (Kail et al., 2018). The theory of psychosexual development or
the theory of Bandura, it is can be argued that there are different set of learning in every
phase of life and it is this process that explains the growth of the personality of the adult.
Hence it can be concluded that the from the childhood to the adulthood, it is the process of
systematic learning that completes the process of development (Nabi et al., 2017).

3FREUD AND BANDURA
References
Ferenczi, S. (2018). Further contributions to the theory and technique of psycho-analysis.
Routledge.
Hogan, R., & Foster, J. (2016). Rethinking personality. International Journal of Personality
Psychology, 2(1), 37-43.
Kail, R. V., & Cavanaugh, J. C. (2018). Human development: A life-span view. Cengage
Learning.
Nabi, R. L., & Prestin, A. (2017). Social learning theory and social cognitive theory. The
International Encyclopedia of Media Effects, 1-13.