HCS104 - Human Development: Comparing Erikson and Bandura

This essay provides a comparative analysis of Erikson's psychosocial developmental theory and Bandura's social learning theory, both of which aim to explain human development. Erikson's theory posits that personality develops through eight fixed stages, each presenting a psychosocial crisis with potential positive or negative outcomes, while Bandura's theory suggests that individuals learn social behavior by observing and imitating others, emphasizing the role of environmental and cognitive factors. The essay highlights the similarities between the theories, such as their shared belief that learning plays a crucial role in development, as well as their differences, including Erikson's focus on unconscious mind and distinct life stages versus Bandura's emphasis on observational learning and environmental influences. This document is available on Desklib, where students can access a wealth of study resources including past papers and solved assignments.

Human Development &
Mental Health

Human Development & Mental Health
Erikson's Psychosocial Developmental Theory
According to Erikson's psychosocial development theory personality of a person grow in
fixed manner which is through the stages offered by him. There are 8 stages of development
according to Erikson that is from infant child to adult person (Samsanovich, (2021)). In every
stage, a person faces some experiences based on psychosocial crisis that have either positive or
negative result on the personality of the person. These stages are based on a person stages of life
such as (Maree, (2021))-
 Trust VS Mistrust is based on infancy
 Autonomy VS Shame is based on early childhood
 Initiative VS Guilt is based on preschool
 Industry VS Inferiority is based on school age
 Identity VS Role Confusion is based on adolescence
 Intimacy VS Isolation is based on young adulthood
 Generativity VS Stagnation is based on middle adulthood
 Ego Integrity VS Despair is based on maturity
Bandura's Social Learning Theory
Bandura's Social Learning Theory propose that a person learn his social behaviour by
observing as well as imitating the actions of others (Rumjaun, & Narod, (2020)). The theory
takes into consideration the way environment as well as cognitive factors depend on each other
to effect the learning of a person as well as his behaviour. Further he adds the ideas to the theory
of behavioural learning theory which are important (Bandura, & Hall, (2018)). Those ideas are -
 Between stimuli and responses meditating process happens. The process of meditation
helps the person to imitate and observe the behaviour of the other person. There are 4
process which are suggested such as -
◦ Attention
◦ Retention
◦ Reproduction
◦ Motivation

 A person learns his behaviour with the help of observational learning process from
environment. In this there is no age factor as person of any age can observe the behaviour
of other person and learn from those behaviours.
Differences and similarities between the theories
Similarities
The similarities between the 2 theory is that they both agree a person develop with the
help of learning. As Erikson believe that a person learn from his unconscious mind and Bandura
believes that a person learns from the behaviour of others. Both the theory helps the person to
develop in their own method.
Differences
There are various differences in both of the theories which shows the belief of Erikson
and Albert Bandura. Erikson's belief is that a person learn from the unconscious mind and
experiences of his early life which develops the behaviour of a person. He proposed 8 stages of a
person life from his infancy to adulthood which is called as psychosocial stages. Whereas Albert
Bandura's belief is that a person develops his behaviour by imitating and observing the behaviour
of the society. This behaviour is impacted by influences of environment of the person lives.
According to Erikson a person learns from the age of infancy to adulthood while Bandura
believes that there is no time constraint on learning of a person. Bandura does not propose stages
as he proposes 2 processes while Erikson's proposed 8 stages which is based on every stage of a
persons' life.

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Samsanovich, A. (2021). Theory and diversity: A descriptive study of Erikson’s psychosocial
development stages.
Maree, J. G. (2021). The psychosocial development theory of Erik Erikson: critical overview.
Early Child Development and Care, 191(7-8), 1107-1121.
Rumjaun, A., & Narod, F. (2020). Social Learning Theory—Albert Bandura. In Science
Education in Theory and Practice(pp. 85-99). Springer, Cham.
Bandura, A., & Hall, P. (2018). Albert bandura and social learning theory. Learning theories for
early years practice, 63.
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