Human Growth and Development / Unit 1 HGD 0026 review, 2 to 3 minutes
What Survives of Freud
The idea
Freud's theory dominated psychiatry until behaviourism grew in the nineteen fifties, and it remains the most disputed classic in developmental psychology. Critics make three charges. It is very difficult to test, because it rests on unconscious processes that cannot be observed directly. Freud's case studies were never validated, so they cannot serve as evidence for the theory. And some of its central claims have failed when tested: the idea that children express strong sexual feelings from a very early age, which the psychosexual stages require, has not held up. Behaviourism and humanism both arose partly as challenges to Freud. Yet research has also supported parts of the psychodynamic perspective. Unconscious processes do influence behaviour: people perceive and process far more information than they realize, and the evidence is strong enough that unconscious influence is now central to cognitive and social psychology. People do use ego defenses, and they differ in how much they rely on each one. And Erik Erikson, a psychodynamic theorist trained with Anna Freud, built the first theory of the whole lifespan on these foundations.
In practice
A two-column ledger: untestable claims, unvalidated cases and unsupported infant sexuality on one side; unconscious processing, defense styles and a lifespan theory built on the same foundations on the other.
Where people slip
Two misreadings sit on either side of this question. One dismisses the whole perspective as disproven, which ignores the evidence for unconscious processes and ego defenses. The other treats the psychosexual stages as established fact, which ignores the failed tests of their central claim. Hold both halves. Research also finds some defenses healthier than others: rationalisation and sublimation are more adaptive than repression and reaction formation, and denial can harm health, because people who use it tend to ignore symptoms of illness. On the exam, psychodynamic names Freud's perspective, and Erikson's psychosocial theory is its lifespan descendant.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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