Erik Erikson is a well known psychoanalyst, and studied for many years under the famous Sigmund Freud. Erikson modeled his ideas from Freud's, but was like many other followers, and believed that his theory on the developmental process of humans was more inclusive and extensive then Freud's (Sharkey, 2003 p.1).
             Erikson studied and agreed on most of Freud's beliefs and theories, but eventually saw that his own beliefs differed in certain ways. Both theorists believed that the human personality develops within stages. Both believed that there are certain time periods in which certain things happen in order to determine the person one will become. Freud used his psychoanalytic theory of development in order to explain this process; and says that one's personality has been shaped by the age of five. (Sharkey, p.5) Erikson disagrees, and instead says that humans develop and change constantly through out their entire life span. He believes that humans enter different stages through out their life, each of which ultimately affects later stages, and collectively shapes one's personality. He felt by Freud neglecting human adult development, it made his theories not completely accurate (Langley, 2000 p. 2).
             Sigmund Freud spent many early years of his career studying neurology, biology, and other aspects within the medical sciences. It is probably for those reasons that Freud believed that the primary drive or motive to human behavior is biological instincts (Mikula, 2003-2004 p.1). As a follower of Freud, Erikson broke away partly because their differences on this idea. Erikson believed that the most important issues driving human behavior were social interaction combined with biological maturation. Erikson developed his theory of psychosocial development, which contains eight stages that a human goes through in order to develop their personality. It is within these stages that Erikson believes that we are faced with a crisis to battle. The...