Compare and Contrast: Piaget's Cognitive Theory and Freud's

Psychoanalytic Theory

Introduction
In this paper I will discuss human development theories as propounded by Jean Piaget and
Sigmund Freud, two of the most influential psychologists of the twentieth century. Freud was the
founding father of psychoanalysis, a multi-aspect study covering the analysis of human mind and
the organization and dynamics of personality development, methods for treating mental illness,
and a theory that explains human behavior. He believed that personality development was
primarily motivated by biological drives and primordial instincts along with environmental
influences. He argued that people's psychological problems were rooted in unresolved issues of
childhood, in the sense that childhood experiences in the past largely determine human
personality in its later stages. Piaget was one of the pioneering figures of developmental
psychology, whose work on genetic epistemology sought to trace the nature and origin of
knowledge from sensory-motor actions in infancy to formal cognition and logical operations in
adulthood. In fact; genetic and developmental were synonyms in his parlance. He established the
cognitive theory of human development, a theory that has become the cornerstone in
understanding the evolution of childhood mental processes. He believed that the learning process
is influenced by both intrinsic and extrinsic factors, In other words, children's intellect primarily
developed through interaction with their environment.

Sigmund Freud

Psychoanalysis is the study of human mind and personality, a method for treating mental
illness, and a theory that explains human behavior. It is apt to discuss psychoanalysis in relation
to Freud, the original proponent of the theory, although it underwent many changes later as a
result of more research and deliberations by generations of psychologists after the death of
Freud.
Freud believed that personality development is primarily motivated by biological drives
and instincts along with environmental influences. He stated that people's psychological
problems are rooted in unresolved issues of childhood, meaning that childhood experiences in
the past determine human personality in the later stages.
Human instinct
Freud claimed that a human being was moved by two main instincts: Eros and death drives.
Eros is the individual tendency to live; it directs life-sustaining activities such as respiration,
eating, and sex (Freud, 1925). On the other hand, Thanatos (the death drive) is the individual
tendency towards death and destruction; a set of destructive drives in all human beings (Freud,
1920). These drives are manifested in aggressive and violent patterns of behavior. Freud believed
that Eros being the dominant drive in individuals, it allows people to prefer survival to
destruction in normal circumstances. In his seminal book Beyond the Pleasure Principle, he
explained the fundamental conflict between the ego or death instincts and the sexual or life
instincts. Interestingly, he used often the death drives in plural rather than in singular,
expounding this drive as a multi-pronged force within human nature. Sexual or life instincts
which block or neutralize the death drives, on the other hand, are represented by survival tactics,
erotic desires and other creative or life-producing and sustaining drives.
The Unconscious

Although the concept of conscious versus unconscious mind is not Freud's original
contribution, this binary has become much popular primarily due to his frequent use. Freud
believed that the mind contains much more than what a person can possibly remember or is
presently aware of; it contains painful reminiscences, unsatisfied desires, repressed instincts, and
traumatic events, all that we would like to push out of our conscious minds. These unwelcome
memories lie hidden in the depths of our unconscious mind. The process and effect of relegating
unpleasant memories and unfulfilled desires into the depth of the unconscious are called
repression. Freud was the first to develop treating methods and techniques such as free
association, Freudian slips-mistakes, and interpretation of dreams. These methods enabled him to
access his patient's unconscious and release repressed emotions and experiences, thereby making
the unconscious conscious.
Personality Structure
Freud's most popular and enduring work was in structuring the human personality (psyche)
into three parts; the id, ego, and superego. The id is the instinctive part of the personality, which
represents the basic human needs and biological urges. Id is not driven by reason or logic, and it
operates on the pleasure principle (Freud, 1920). The id is impulsive to satisfy every wish,
regardless of the consequences.
The ego is the part of the id which has been modified by the direct influence of the external
world (Freud, 1923). It works rationally to balance between the irrational demands of human
instinct (id) and the social rules and norms. Nevertheless, the ego seeks pleasure but unlike id it
is tied up by societal regulations. It operates on the reality principle.
The superego is the part of personality that is influenced by the values and morals of
society that are imparted by parents. It controls the impulses of the id, especially with regard to

sexual permissiveness and aggressive behaviors. It also persuades the ego to turn to moralistic
goals rather than realistic ones and to strive for perfection.

Psychosexual stages
Freud believed that tracing the sexual history of his patients will lead him to know more
about the nature and the reason of their mental illness, noting that the word "sexual" has a broad
meaning and encompasses the emotional experience of the patient, such as feelings of love, hate,
loss, longing, fear, and guilt and how they deal with them. This is what led to his theory of
psychosexual development.
Freud claimed that children are born with a libido, a sexual urge that changes its forms and
modes of expression in fixed stages in life, which he called psychosexual stages where each
stage represented the fixation of libido on a different area of the body.
Stage

Age

Focus of libido

Oral

1st yr.

Mouth (suck, bite)

Anal

2-3 yrs.

Anus (withhold/ expel faeces)

Phallic

4-6 yrs.

Genitals (penis/ clitoris)

Latency period

7 to puberty

None (no sexual interests)

Genital

Puberty onwards

Genitals (sexual intercourse)

The way a child is raised and treated in his early life has a great influence in shaping his
personality. The way the parents deal with weaning, toilet training, and mother-son / fatherdaughter relationships is very crucial and determines essential characteristics of the personality.

Therefore, in the period between oral stage and phallic stage a person can be fixated if the stage
was not successfully completed; leading to psychological problems.
Stage

fixation

Adult personality

oral

Forceful feeding/ early weaning

thumb sucking, smoking, nail biting

anal

Toilet training: harsh/lenient

controlling, generous, stinginess,

tidiness

phallic

Oedipus/ Electra conflict

vanity, inferiority, anxiety, inadequacy

Jean Piaget
Piaget believed that mental functioning is the key component in human development. His
major contribution to psychology was a methodical study on children's intellect. He built it from
a series of detailed observations and ingenious tests. Piaget's work focused a great deal of
attention on how people think and understand, mainly the thought processes and cognitive
specificities in children. He believed that children have extremely different way of thinking than
adults and they are not, in any way, less competent than adults as thinkers!
Schemas
Piaget (1952) defined a schema as 'a cohesive, repeatable action sequence possessing
component actions that are tightly interconnected and governed by a core meaning'.
In other words Piaget called the schema the basic building block of intelligent behavior a way
of organizing knowledge. Indeed, it is useful to think of schemas as units of knowledge or
cognition, each relating to one aspect of the world, including objects, actions and abstract (i.e.
theoretical) concepts.

Piaget emphasized the importance of schemas in cognitive development. During mental

development process, which happens through experience, new information collected lead to
modify, add to or change an existing schema.
Piaget believed that newborn babies have a small number of innate schemas - even before
they have had much opportunity to experience the world. For example babies have a sucking
reflex, which is triggered by something touching the baby's lips. A baby will suck a nipple, a
comforter (dummy) or a person's finger. Piaget therefore assumed that the baby has a 'sucking
schema'.

Assimilation, Accommodation, and Equilibration

These are the adaptation processes that enable the cognitive development and the transition
from one stage to another.
The process of using existing information (schema) in dealing with a new object or situation
is called assimilation. While the process of replacing existing schema which doesn't work in
analyzing an object or situation by another is called accommodation. New schemas may be
developed during this process.
Piaget believed that cognitive development did not progress at a steady rate, but rather in
leaps and bounds. Equilibrium occurs when a child's schemas can deal with most new
information through assimilation. However, an unpleasant state of disequilibrium occurs when
new information cannot be fitted into existing schemas (assimilation). Equilibration is a balance
between assimilation and accommodation. Disequilibrium is the imbalance between assimilation
and accommodation.
Equilibration is the force which drives the learning process and helps to maintain balance
by mastering the new challenge.

Stages of Development

Piaget studied children from infancy to adolescence; he was interested in how they think,
learn, and understand. Through a number of detailed observations of his own children, children
of his friends, and clinical interviews, he believed that children think differently than adults and
they go through four universal stages. Thus, cognitive development is biologically based and
grows as the child matures.
Piaget claimed that every child should go through these stages although some individuals
may never reach the later stages. Moreover, there are differences in the rate at which an
individual may reach or finish a stage. Piaget didn't claim that a certain stage should be attained
at a particular age, although the description of stages always includes indication of age at which
the average child may accomplish it.
Sensorimotor stage: it lasts from birth till age 2, during this period infants rely on their
senses to discover their environment and learn things about themselves.
Preoperational stage: It begins when the child starts to talk to about the age of seven.
During this period language skills starts to develop. They use their imagination widely and
engage in symbolic plays, such as using a banana as a phone. They believe that inanimate objects
like dolls or teddy bears feel and think like they do; which is a key feature in this stage that
Piaget called animism. They are egocentric, assuming that others see, hear, and feel exactly as
they do. They are unable to see a situation from other's perspective.
Concrete Operational stage: it begins from about age 7 and lasts until 12. In this stage an
important development occurs in children's cognition. They start to think rationally and
reasonably about physical objects. Children become less egocentric and better at conservation
tasks. They understand that something stays the same in quantity even if its appearance changes.

For example, the volume of water in a short wide glass doesn't change when you pour it in a
thinner longer glass.
Formal Operational Stage: it begins around age 12. Piaget claimed that in this stage
adolescents start to think in an abstract, reasoning manner. They can do mathematical
calculation, think creatively, and imagine the outcome of a particular action.

Similarities and Dissimilarities

Although Freud and Piaget shared an interest in human development, each had his own
perspective of how this development occurs and the major factors that influences it. While Freud
put a great deal of emphasis on libido and sexual development in the evolution of human
personality, Piaget stressed on aspects of cognitive development, eventually leading him to
approach education as a primary factor of development. Freud claimed that parents are the
powerful human agents in an individual's life, while Piaget said that peers are as or even more
important than parents. Another fundamental difference between the two masters of human mind
was that the application of Freud's studies and therapies was on adults as he hardly subjected
children to his psychoanalytic methods. On the basis of his understanding and relying on the
insights gleaned from his methods of free association and Freudian slips, he thought it was
impossible to psychoanalyze children. In the case of Piaget, the very starting point of his long
career in mind research was children, including his own. He gathered and compiled his data
mostly from his interviews with and observations of children, although his methodologies and
allegedly insufficient statistical data that led to his theories were subjected to criticism by many
scholars. Whatever those issues may be, his epistemological studies and insightful observations
have become extremely significant in analyzing the various stages of the human personality,

particularly with regard to the mental development of children. In fact; despite the differences
between the two great psychologists of the 20th century, their works actually complemented each
other if we approach them from a thorough perspective.
They both believed that understanding children is the key to understanding the adult. They
recognized the similarities between children and adults. Freud argued that the sexual instinct was
not specific to adults, even children are sexual beings. Piaget demonstrated effectively that
children had innate capacities for reasoning and rationalization, which impacted on cognitive
development in significant ways. In spite of the differences between the two scholars, it is
important to note that both believed in the stage theory of development, defining the process of
human development in terms of clearly identifiable stages with unique characteristics of their
own. Freud identified the developmental stages in terms of zones of pleasure, while Piaget
sought to pinpoint them in terms of mental functioning and cognitive evolution. Though the
stage theory of development that both adhered to is now largely out of fashion, it is interesting to
note that the stages they both identified were more or less the same, albeit differences in their
attributed characteristics.

Conclusion
As a conclusion, one can't but value both schools of theory for they provided a deep insight
on human development, each with different perspective. Studying them has improved my ability
to interact with children, to know what is typical at certain ages, and to spot easily signs of
emotional or mental troubles.
The most important and valuable points which I've learned from studying Piaget are:

Children have their own way of thinking and that their understanding is bound by

their biological maturity. They should be viewed as autonomous beings with innate
capacity to grasp and process information, rather than as mere passive repositories of
information.

The process of teaching should be more interactive than instructive. Provoke

students to think by asking questions that will help them reach the answer by themselves
rather than spoon-feeding it.

Student's ability to grasp the information varies from one to another. Therefore,

avoid accelerating the teaching process even if the concept being taught is easy, and
encourage peers teaching.
As for Freud, studying his theories helped me learn to look at the childrens emotional and
psychological aspects more seriously. I also learnt that we needed to pay closer attention to their
sexual development and its impact on their behavior in the class.

References
Mooney, C.G. (2013) Theories of Childhood, St. Paul, Redleaf Press.
Becket, C. and Taylor, H. (2013) Human Growth and Development, City Road, SAGE
publications.
McLeod, S. (2009) Jean Piaget, http://www.simplypsychology.org/piaget.html
McLeod, S. (2013) Sigmund Freud, http://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
Psychoanalysis - Techniques and Practice, http://www.freudfile.org/psychoanalysis/index.html
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Piaget
Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigmund_Freud